Tennessee Vols: Bret Bielema Should Buy Butch Jones A Gift

Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Bret Bielema should probably buy Butch Jones a gift. Or at least get him a thank you card.

The 2017 college football season officially started last Saturday with a slate of games equivalent to an appetizer at your favorite chain restaurant.

But for most fans, the true start of the college football season is on Thursday. That means we should finally be able to let all the hot seat talk surrounding certain coaches come to a sudden and immediate halt.

Of course we know that won’t actually happen. All it will take is one bad loss and the hot seat talk will be in full force once again.

Much of the hot seat talk this off-season was centered around Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones, who is coming off back to back nine win seasons. It’s the best stretch of Tennessee football in a decade, but some fans just weren’t able to get past the terrible losses to South Carolina and Vanderbilt last season.

And look, I get it. Those losses were inexcusable, but they shouldn’t overshadow the fact that Tennessee beat Florida and Georgia in the same season for the first time since 2004. There were obviously some issues with the coaching staff, but I feel confident that Jones addressed those issues by making five coaching staff changes this off-season. He also brought in a renowned strength and conditioning coach.

But all of that still wasn’t enough to divert the attention away from Jones. Which is amazing considering over in the SEC West there’s a coach that actually should be on the hot seat — Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Bret Bielema.

Bielema was hired just three days before Jones in late 2012, and he took over a situation that wasn’t quite as dire as the one at Tennessee.

Sure, the Razorbacks were coming off a 4-8 season under John Smith, but in the three seasons prior to 2012, Arkansas had won 29 games. That includes an 11 win season in 2011.

The same stretch at Tennessee produced 17 wins. If you want to talk about taking over a bad situation, there’s no doubt that situation in Knoxville was worse.

But you know what? The bad situation excuse only lasts two years anyway. And both Jones and Bielema have been on the job for four seasons. I think we can judge them straight up at this point.

Bielama is 25-26 in his four years at Arkansas. He’s produced two seven win seasons and one eight win season. Jones, on the other hand, is 30-21 at Tennessee, with two nine win seasons and a seven win season to his credit.

You can say the expectations at Tennessee are higher, but even that excuse doesn’t fly. Arkansas has performed as well as the Volunteers over the last decade. The potential for success is there just like it is at Tennessee.

But how many articles have you seen about Bielema being on the hot seat the national level? And how many have you seen about Jones? It’s not even close.

Just check out these odds about which coach will be fired first.

And that’s exactly what I think Bielema should send Jones a gift, or least a great clips gift card.

Obviously there’s more attention on the Vols. Not to take away from Arkansas, but Tennessee is a storied program with rich traditions. It’s no surprise the national media focuses on them a bit more than they do on Arkansas.

But come on, Jones has done a way better job at Tennessee than Bielema has with the Razorbacks. I’m not saying fans shouldn’t be critical of Jones — I think all coaches should be open to criticism from fans (that is, after-all, who is paying to see their product).

In this instance, however, I think Bielema has enjoyed a relatively low key off-season, and apparently more job security (at least perception wise) simply because of the attention placed on Jones and the Tennessee football program.

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If anything, this just proves that Tennessee has one of the best fan bases in all of college football. ESPN, CBS, and other national media outlets aren’t going to spend time talking and writing about things that fans don’t care about.

But then again, this isn’t news to Vols fans.