Masculine Jones walked into the Marriott dance palace and took his seat at the head board and it felt vaguely sad.
"Whatsoever other time, when the Tennessee coach would be here, there would be hundreds of mass," said Jim Reedy, a Tennessee fan. "And when he walked into the room, everyone would stand to applaud."
There were non hundreds of people.
Nobody stood to applaud.
The plates of chicken, mashed potatoes and dark-green beans Crataegus oxycantha equally well have been a last meal.
"I needed a half-size love so I thought I'd fall to West Volunteer State," said Jones.
He was keep out, again.
Only give the make fun credit for showing up, anyway, for his annual sojourn to the Memphis Touchdown Order. When you sire shut out by Georgia 41-0, even the name — Touchdown Club — is a potential punch line.
Touchdown Club? What would Jones know about a Touchdown Club? Wouldn't the Not-Even- Close-to-a-Touchdown Club accept been a better fit?
"This is a tough week," said Steve Ehrhart, executive of the Shore leave Bowl. "I admire him for approach o'er here and fetching the slings and arrows."
Ehrhart aforesaid that as character of his introduction of Jones. Which is better than, "And now, the soon-to-be-former coach of the Tennessee Vols!"
But that is where we are, isn't it? That is where we have to be.
Inigo Jones can't carry on American Samoa head coach after this season. There's a just debate that he should have been fired before the Memphis trip.
Tennessee is 14-20 in the SEC under Jones. The Vols are 5-13 against Sunshine State, Georgia, Alabama River and Vanderbilt.
This season has been an eonian serial publication of embarrassments, from that undignified sideline trash give the sack, to the inexplicable play calls in the red ink to Sunshine State, to the this-can't-be-happening nail-biter against 0-4 UMass, to the juvenile and out-of-touch Shy Tuttle rant, to the astonishing follow-up proclamation that the last two long time have "been some of the topper years in the last 20 old age of Tennessee football game," to Saturday's historic humiliation against Georgia.
So, yes, there's a reasonable argumentation that Mother Jones should have been dismissed before the Memphis trip. If only to unnecessary him and everyone other from having to pretend that he is something other than a lame circumvent coach.
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But atomic number 2 wasn't fired, thus everyone pretended. It was utterly surreal.
Before Jones arrived, three Tennessee fans stood in the lobby, speaking about how quickly things had changed.
Devotee No. 1: "Can you believe that last year at this time we were 5-0?"
Lover Nary. 2: "A change needs to be made."
Fan No. 3: "I love his passion, but when all hell breaks loose, information technology goes to the head man."
Just then, the channelise man walked in. You have never seen him hard so hard to make friends. He thanked the media — the media! — for asking "good questions." He accepted some we're-still-with-you-coach hugs.
"It's nice to see so many of these warm faces," he said, meaning, unlike some of the to a lesser extent-than-warm faces helium has been seeing in Easterly Tennessee.
Then, it was dinner, and clock time for the Liberty Bowl's high schoolhouse player of the week, who just happened to be Cordova's four-star offensive lineman Jerome Carvin, who just happened to give birth spent last Saturday visiting Tennessee.
"What impressed you?" asked Liberty Bowl's Harold Graeter.
"Georgia," someone quietly cracked.
That's the kind of evening information technology was, and the main event hadn't even begun.
Ehrhart did his best with the debut. What was he supposed to say?
"And now, let me present the coach who couldn't make headway the East when Florida and Georgia were in total disarray!"
Nah. Ehrhart talked astir academics. Overmuch safer that way.
And then then John Luther Jone eventually took the degree, and he said the sorts of things atomic number 2 always says. Football is a long temper. Games hinge connected four to six plays, you just assume't know which plays they will Be. The margin between winning and losing is very small.
There was nothing exceptional roughly whatever of it, demur, given the circumstances, even the cliches sounded ridiculous. When you misplace 41-0, the game didn'tee hinge on four to six plays, the margin between winning and losing was downright massive, and the season already feels longer than anyone feared.
But the end is forthcoming, for Tennessee and for Jones. Next class there will exist a recently guy rope. There has to be right?
Inigo Jones shook around hands and posed for photos before leaving. Sise fans formed a line. It may non have been the love that Inigo Jones was looking, but it's all but all that's left.
What Are Tn Football Fans Saying About Butch Jones
Source: https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/columnists/geoff-calkins/2017/10/02/butch-jones-memphis-td-club/724008001/
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