Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee Vols Coach Butch Jones Has to Learn Better Late-Game Clock Management

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones has to show better clock management late in games. He almost cost the Volunteers against the Georgia Bulldogs.

He nearly did it again. You would think that Butch Jones learned his lesson after last year’s game against the Florida Gators.

If there’s going to be over a minute left in the ball game, your objective should never be to give the other team the ball back if you have the lead.

But against the Georgia Bulldogs last week, Jones chose forcing Georgia to use their timeouts over burying them with one first down.

Late in the game, the Vols had the ball and a 28-24 lead. Georgia had three timeouts. Kirby Smart gave Jones a huge gift by not using his first timeout after one running play.

So then came second and third downs. And Jones, showing no faith in his offense, called for Tennessee to sit on the lead and for Georgia to use its timeouts. Two predictable running plays to Alvin Kamara followed by two timeouts brought up fourth down with 1:20 to go.

Here’s the problem. Jones says he’s all about playing percentages. Don’t the percentages work better in your favor if you try to get the first down right there?

A first down assures your team a victory. An incomplete pass may allow Georgia an extra timeout, but your defense still has a chance to stop them. By going for the first down, you give yourself two chances to win in the process.

Heck, you don’t even have to throw it. Just do one of those running plays with Joshua Dobbs instead of Alvin Kamara, and keep the Georgia defense off-balance.

However, Jones put it all on his defense. And he nearly cost the Vols the game after Jacob Eason threw a 47-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds to go.

Dobbs bailed him out with a Hail Mary. Otherwise, we’d be having a conversation about how Butch Jones’s late-game antics may have cost the Vols the SEC East two years in a row.

Remember last year? Tennessee had the ball and a 27-21 lead over the Florida Gators. Despite being on the field for a long drive just before, Jones opted for a quick three-and-out by making Florida use their timeouts.

And in The Swamp, Will Grier turned that into a touchdown drive for the Gators to give them a 28-27 victory. That win also secured them the SEC East.

So that’s twice where Jones’s refusal to slam the door nearly cost the Vols. His explanation of making them use their timeouts doesn’t cut it. When there’s over a minute to play, timeouts are not as crucial.

You always have a better chance of winning the game by getting a first down on offense. If it’s 30 seconds, then we’re talking about a different story.

But that wasn’t the case for either of these games.

Butch Jones is a great coach in many ways who deserves a ton of credit for turning around the Tennessee football program. But the Vols cannot continue to have him make these mistakes in late games.

It could cost them a championship.

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