Tennessee Football: Vols Have Great Fallback Option To Replace Butch Jones

The Vols will soon be looking for a new coach to lead the Tennessee football program.

When the Vols finally decide to fire Butch Jones, it will signal the official start of the search for the coach that will lead Tennessee football in 2018 and beyond.

The general consensus is that Tennessee wants to go big with their next hire.

Basically, they won’t be trying to save a few dollars by hiring Butch Jones 2.0.

But saying you’re going after a big name coach and actually landing one are two different things.

Just because Tennessee wants someone doesn’t mean they’ll be able to sway them to Rocky Top.

If the Vols strike out on some of their top targets (whoever those may be, perhaps Jon Gruden, Scott Frost, Justin Fuente, etc), then they’ll have to look at some coaches that either aren’t proven at the Power-5 level, or haven’t reached the Power-5 level.

Fortunately for the Vols, there’s a coach I think they can get, that will be successful at Tennessee, if they can’t get their white whale.

And that coach is Memphis’ Mike Norvell.

Would it be the most exciting hire?

Nope.

Am I advocating that Tennessee should be targeting Norvell from the jump?

Again, no.

But Vols athletic director John Currie has to have a backup plan if this whole search goes south.

Norvell has proved to be a pretty solid coach. The former Arizona State offensive coordinator took over the Memphis job from Justin Fuente in late 2015 after Fuente left for Virginia Tech.

The Tigers went 8-5 in 2016 and they’re off to an 8-1 start this season, while putting up some of the nation’s best offensive stats.

(By the way, Norvell was never on Fuente’s staff at Memphis, but his influence was all over Fuente’s offense. Fuente spent three days at Arizona State with Norvell in 2013 and then changed his offense.)

Norvell, who recently wowed those in attendance at the Memphis Touchdown Club, has a fairly small buyout. If Norvell leaves Memphis, he (or the school who hires him) will only owe the Tigers $500,000. That will make him a very attractive option for any school looking for a new head coach.

The hope is that Tennessee doesn’t get this far down their list. But if they do, there are at least better options than there were in 2012. Norvell is clearly a better coach than Butch Jones.

In fact, Norvel is basically everything Jones wants to be. He doesn’t just say he wants to run an uptempo offense, he actually does run one of the nation’s fastest offenses.

Norvell’s teams have a clear offensive identity, and he does a great job at putting players in a position to succeed. He doesn’t try to force them into his idea of what they’re good at doing, he finds out what they’re good at and puts them in a position relative to those talents.

Next: 5 Reasons Jon Gruden Would Take Tennessee Job

Vol fans should rest easy knowing that there’s a coach like Mike Norvell out there that Tennessee can bring to Knoxville if this whole coaching search ends up falling apart.