Vols Football: Tennessee Must Change Their Mindset
By Zach Ragan
The Tennessee Vols fell short of their ultimate goals this season, but they can still reach ten wins. Is that enough for the season to be a success?
Tennessee should absolutely be playing Alabama next weekend for the SEC Championship.
The Vols simply didn’t get the job done.
But there will be time later to look at what went wrong. For now the Volunteers most focus on finishing the season strong.
Tennessee can still finish the season as a ten win team. There is still a possibility the Vols could receive a Sugar Bowl bid.
Is that acceptable though?
Achieving a ten win season for the first time since 2007 is definitely progress.
However, it’s a small consolation for a team that had national championship talent.
Sure, we all know about the injuries. But even with those injuries, Tennessee should be entering their final game of the season as a one loss team.
The Vols were clearly the better team when they took the field against Texas A&M. And the game against South Carolina was a complete disaster — the talent gap between the two teams wasn’t even close.
Because of those two losses, a lot of Vol fans are unhappy with Butch Jones.
I definitely understand the criticism and why fans feel that way.
But Jones isn’t going anywhere. His teams have improved each season he’s been at Tennessee.
If the Vols reach ten wins, the season will be celebrated internally as a success. Simply because it’s been nearly ten years since the Volunteers have won that many games in a season.
That’s a terrible way to view things, however.
Tennessee, and a certain group of fans, has to quit using the post-Phillip Fulmer era as the measuring stick for success.
The Vols’ football program shouldn’t be defined by out-peforming Derek Dooley’s teams. That’s basically putting Tennessee on Vanderbilt’s level.
Tennessee should be a national powerhouse. The team to beat in the SEC East year in and year out.
Right now the Vols are just happy to be in the conversation.
It’s time to change that mindset.
And that starts with the head coach. Butch Jones doesn’t have the mentality of a Nick Saban.
Jones loves comparing football to life. But that’s just silly.
Football is about winning. Plain and simple.
Life is about dealing with what’s thrown at you and looking for the good in otherwise bad situations.
Jones tries to find the positives in a season where the Vols blew the division. When he should be mad as hell after a loss to South Carolina and telling the media how unacceptable it is to lose to the Gamecocks.
When the Vols barely beat Appalachian State and Ohio, Jones should’ve been putting coordinators and coaches on notice.
Tennessee needs to quit being content with just improving the record from the year before. They have to change the mindset of the program.
Win and win big. Perform at the highest level in every game. Not winning is not an option.
Right now the Volunteers lack a killer instinct.
Until they find that, they’ll continue to be happy with winning 9 or 10 games a season and almost playing for the SEC Championship.
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Is winning ten games enough for the Vols? Or do you think the 2016 season was a failure?