Butch Jones says there’s no time for rest when it comes to rebuilding a perennial football power that’s fallen on hard times:

“I evaluate myself hour by hour, minute by minute.  Every night when I kind of slow down a little bit, I always replay the day over in my mind.  What would you have done differently?  How could you have done it better?

I think that’s all part of being a competitor, but I think the big thing is making Tennessee football better each and every day, whether it’s interacting with our fans, whether it’s recruiting, whether it’s developing our players.  That’s what we need to do to continue to grow and elevate our program back to its rightful place among the elite of college football.”

One of two dominant teams in the 1990s — along with Florida — Tennessee hasn’t won the SEC Championship Game since 1998 and hasn’t finished in the national top 10 since 2001.  Jones is fourth Volunteer coach in six seasons, following Phillip Fulmer (2008), Lane Kiffin (2009) and Derek Dooley (2010-12).

A few hours ago we told you that South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has an untamed tongue.  It didn’t take long for him to prove that point once more.

Today both Southern Cal and South Carolina — the two USCs from either side of the country — held their Pro Day activities.  Marcus Lattimore’s return to action was cheered at one.  ESPN’s cameras were present at the other to provide live coverage of quarterback Matt Barkley’s workout.  Apparently ESPN’s choice didn’t sit too well with Spurrier who reportedly said:

“I noticed both USCs had their pro timing day today.  One of them finished #7 in the country, the other was not in the top 25, yet ESPN decided to go out to the one in California which did not finish in the Top 25 and televise their day live.  It’s interesting that (ESPN) doesn’t come around here on signing day, they don’t come around here on pro timing day, and yet they us to play all these Thursday night games.  Maybe we need to consider playing on that new network, FoxSports 1.”

Wow.  There are a helluva lot of digs in that one quick comment.  First, Spurrier smacks around the Trojans — and old buddy Lane Kiffin — over their disappointing finish last season.  Then he goes into full attack mode against SEC television partner ESPN.  The same ESPN that is expected to unite with the league on its brand new network.

While Spurrier may feel that the folks in Bristol don’t pay enough attention to his program, they certainly pay enough cash.  ESPN pays Mike Slive’s league $150 million per year.  That’s $2.25 billion over the course of a 15-year deal for the right to ask Carolina to move some games to Thursday.

Biting the hand that feeds?  Hey, we told you Spurrier gets lippy when he’s winning.

For a guy in another conference, DeLoss Dodds spends a lot of time talking about schools in the Southeastern Conference.  The Texas AD referenced a current SEC coach and a former SEC coach in an attempt to fend off critics of Longhorn football coach Mack Brown:

“I love stability.  I love continuity.  If you have stability, you have continuity and you’ve got good people.  It’s a formula that works.  I think we’ve got that.  If somebody tells me we need to change, I say, “Ok, but who should we hire?  (Nick) Saban?  Well, Saban isn’t going to come here.’ …

Mack does t so much better than everyone I’ve ever seen.  Instant gratification.  We want it right now.  And if it’s not working, we want to blow it up and get instant gratification.  In this kind of world, that’s not necessarily the answer.”

According to the reporter from The Daily Texan — the university’s student newspaper — Dodds also used the turmoil at Tennessee to defend his coach:

“Dodds pointed out that after Tennessee let go of Phillip Fulmer following several mediocre seasons, the Volunteers didn’t recover.  They went 23-37 in the last four years under Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley, who was fired last November.  Dodds doesn’t want that to happen to Texas.”

With regards to Saban, Brown is right… he won’t leave Tuscaloosa for Austin.  It’s not easy for even the biggest schools to snag proven, big-name coaches from big-time programs.  Florida’s last three head coaching hires have been two assistants and a guy from Utah.  Oklahoma’s last hire was an assistant.  Ohio State hired a man out of retirement to follow a man it hired from the FCS level.

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Four-star outside linebacker Quinton Powell from Daytona Beach, Florida has decided to play football for Southern Cal and Lane Kiffin.  Considering the large number of last-minute flips away from the Trojans, fending off the likes of South Carolina, Arkansas, and Florida to grab Powell is a nice win for the folks in LA.

SEC Fan Truth #311:  If the coach of my favorite team says something brash and jerkish, anyone calling him on it is an ass (and probably a fan of some other team, too).  But if another school’s coach says something brash and jerkish, anyone not calling him on it is an ass (and probably a fan of that coach’s team, too).

We know then that Vanderbilt fans will rip into us for taking the Dores’ brash, mouthy coach to task… just as we have done in the past with Steve Spurrier, Dan Mullen, Lane Kiffin, Urban Meyer, etc, etc.  Doesn’t mean Franklin’s a bad guy.  Doesn’t mean we at MrSEC.com hate him.  Just means Franklin has a history of saying things that rub everyone — everyone but Vandy fans — the wrong way.  Kinda like Spurrier, Mullen, Kiffin, Meyer, etc, etc.

While speaking at a high school in Macon, Georgia — with television cameras in the room — Franklin said the following about Alabama’s coach:

“There’s this guy down at Alabama.  I think his name is Nicky Satan.  You guys have probably heard of him before.  I’m going to outwork him.  I’m gonna outwork him.  And that’s kind of our plan every single day.”

Franklin’s done a tremendous job in Nashville.  He’s taken the Commodores to back-to-back bowls, he’s won nine games in a season, and he’s recruiting better than Vandy’s ever recruited before.  But to steal a line from the movie, “Patton,” sometimes he doesn’t know when to shut up.

Is calling “Nicky Satan” the worst insult ever tossed?  No.  And VU fans will be quick to say that their coach was only japing.  (If you have to look up japery, you didn’t go to Vanderbilt.)

Perhaps he was just joshing, but like all those folks listed above who’ve flapped their gums in inappropriate ways at inappropriate times, we ask: “Why go there?”

And for the record, no, Alabama is not Vanderbilt’s schedule next season.  So unless Franklin meets up with Satan, er, Saban in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, this was about as safe a barb as Vandy’s coach could have tossed.

Who knows?  Maybe Franklin’s been following the button-pushing act of Ole Miss’ Marshall Henderson and wanted to get in on the act.  But to call a guy “Nicky Satan” at a high school banquet?  Grow up.

The new AP Poll is out and Alabama jumped to the top of the rankings.  The Tide’s 41-14 win over #8 Michigan — that’d now be #19 Michigan — was enough to push Bama past Southern Cal and old SEC pal Lane Kiffin.

The SEC landed five teams in the Top 10 overall and six in the Top 25.  But wait, there’s more.  An additional five league teams were among those receiving votes.  That means 11 of the SEC’s 14 teams received at least one vote in this week’s AP poll.  (Our condolences to Kentucky, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt fans.)

At any rate, here’s how the SEC fared in the AP voting after Week One:

1.  Alabama

3.  LSU

7.  Georgia

8.  Arkansas

9.  South Carolina (tied with West Virginia)

24.  Florida

Also receiving votes were Tennessee (which came in at #27), Missouri (#36), Texas A&M (#37), Mississippi State (#40), and Auburn (tied with MSU for what would be #40).

UPDATE — Nick Saban’s team has also claimed the #1 slot in this week’s USA Today Coaches Poll.

There’s an old saying that goes a little something like this: “It’s not about the Xs and Os, it’s about the Jimmys and Joes.”  Translation: Players are more important than coaches.

There are quite a few Arkansas fans today who buy into that line even though they’re last coach just proved you don’t have to have five-star guys to win double-digit games in a season.

This week, we’ve stated repeatedly that Razorback AD Jeff Long needs to take his time in replacing Bobby Petrino.  By all indications, that’s what it looks like he’s going to do — use an interim coach this season while conducting a long, thorough coaching search in the hopes of finding a long-term solution to the school’s current problem.

Each time we’ve touted the “take your time” approach, we’ve received a number of emails from Hog fans who believe that going the interim route will destroy/crush/annihilate/end Razorback recruiting.  “The school will lose out on the 2013 class and it won’t be making valuable connections to this year’s high school juniors and sophomores, either,” they claim.

And to their point we say… so?

Petrino provides two examples of why fans should be more worried about the man at the head of the program than the kids who may or may not ink with, arrive at, develop for, and stick with said program.

First, Petrino proved that Xs and Os can mean more than Jimmys and Joes.  Under their ex, the Hogs finished in the bottom half of the SEC just about every year in terms of signing day rankings.  Good coaches know how to win and they know how to recruit to fit their needs.

Second, Petrino also proved that making a hasty hire can eventually blow up in a school’s face.  Arkansas and Long — the same guy who’s getting praise for ousting Petrino now — are the same ones who snuck into Atlanta and absconded with the Falcons’ head coach in the middle of the NFL season.  Despite many warnings about his character, Long and his school and its fans went all-in with Petrino.  And then they found out the hard way why people were sending out warnings.

Arkansas fans need to pay attention to their recent history and understand that finding the right coach is much, much more important than landing a good recruiting class or two.

Question: Would UA be better served by grabbing Garrick McGee to come in right now, save the season, and recruit… or by waiting til year’s end and hiring Nick Saban?  Or Les Miles?  Or Bob Stoops?

No, we don’t believe Arkansas will land any of those guys, but the point should be clear — hire the right coach and the recruits will come.  Might the Hogs take a short step backwards by waiting and making a patient decision?  Possibly.  But the long-term gain of finding the right coach to recruit and win and do it the right way for the long haul should far exceed any short-term pain Hog fans would have to endure.

Long has already proven that when he sets his mind and his boosters’ money to landing the coach he wants, he gets him.  There’s no reason to believe that UA — at year’s end — can’t identify and land a man with a proven track record (a positive one, this time).  Do that, and the Hogs will recover and succeed long-term.

But rush things in order to save a recruiting class?  Well, good luck.

In January of 2010, Lane Kiffin hit the eject button and left Tennessee for Southern Cal less than three weeks before signing day.  Panic set-in in Knoxville.  Then-Vol AD Mike Hamilton announced he would have a new coach by the week’s end, placing a wholly unnecessary deadline on himself and the search process.

The Vols had planes criss-crossing the country in search of someone who could save their recruiting class.  The AD was interviewing a candidate in one place.  Another member of the UT brass was interviewing a different candidate in another spot.  All while a key booster was meeting with yet another candidate somewhere else.

Tennessee’s search looked like a jumbled, panicky mess.  No wonder coach after coach turned the Vols down.  Why would Will Muschamp, Kyle Whittingham, or Troy Calhoun have wanted to jump into a rushed, shotgun wedding?

As a result, the Vols wound up hiring a coach with an overall losing record who’d just finished a 4-8 campaign at Louisiana Tech.  And while the jury’s still out on Derek Dooley, the evidence so far seems to be piling up against him.

Oh, but Tennessee saved its recruiting class.

Arkansas fans should pay attention to their own recent history as well as that of their neighbor to the east.

Finding the right coach is more important than saving a recruiting class.  Much, much more important.

The Derek Dooley Era at Tennessee would last no longer than two years if many Vol fans had their say.  Saturday’s loss at Kentucky — the first UT loss to the Wildcats since 1984 — has set off a wave of rumors and bad will that threaten to undo the Vols’ latest rebuilding job before it truly gets started.

So what’s all the turmoil?  Try this:

* After the loss to Kentucky, more than one outgoing UT senior claimed that some members of the Vol squad care more about their stats than the team.  They suggested that not everyone wanted to play this past Saturday.

* Some Volunteers weren’t ready to volunteer for duty at a “lesser” bowl game according to one upperclassman.  “Why play hard in Lexington if the reward is simply a trip to Memphis or Nashville?”

* Rumors abound that the suspensions of four backups prior to last week’s game led to a near revolt among players as practices in Knoxville devolved into little more than walk-throughs.

* The team lacks adult supervision from within.  Only 14 seniors were on Dooley’s squad this year.  Of those, none were standouts.  (That’s a by-product of the 18 players lost during the Phillip Fulmer and Lane Kiffin transitions.)  So the younger players on the team — and the team was made up mostly of freshmen and sophomores — had no proven, elder leaders to follow.

* With no veteran leaders, players began to follow the best players on the team and unfortunately for UT fans, players like quarterback Tyler Bray and receiver Da’rick Rogers aren’t believed to have the best attitudes on the squads.

* To make matters worse, Dooley himself helped to create an air of negativity by spending a heckuva lot of time in the press ripping his players.  Reports from those close to the program say more than once players were ready to walk away from Dooley’s program as a result of being thrown under the coach’s bus.  (Like him or not, there’s not much about Derek Dooley’s demeanor that reminds one of his father, Vince.)

Suffice to say, Vol fans aren’t happy.  Even though they should have known this was coming.

The Tennessee media and many across the SEC — including this site — expected two straight years of so-so football as Dooley tried to dig out from the mess created by his predecessors.  But college football fans aren’t much for patience, even when they’ve been told they’ll need to have some.

Now, many people are calling for Dooley to be fired immediately.  “Why prolong the obvious,” they ask?

For one, because a long-term view suggests that UT’s best bet is to stick with Dooley for at least one more season and allow him to further stabilize the program from a roster standpoint.  Tennessee will have depth and experience for the first time in three years in 2012.  And the Vol coach is likely to bring in his third-straight Top 15 recruiting class next February.

To blow him up now would mean more turnover, further attrition.  In other words — a deeper hole for the next guy to dig out of.  Before hiring Dooley, Tennessee tried to throw money at Will Muschamp and even gave a call to Jon Gruden.  But Gruden had no interest and Muschamp told the Vols they would be looking at a three-year rebuilding project (he knew what he was talking about).

So what would potential hires say to new AD Dave Hart if he asked them to become the school’s fourth head coach since 2008?   Probably something similar to what Muschamp said.

There’s nothing on his resume — other than his last name and a connection to Nick Saban — to suggest that Dooley is the right guy for Tennessee.  But that doesn’t mean he won’t become the right person.  Certainly his first two seasons were negatively impacted by the work of his predecessors (though some troubles were exacerbated by his own poor moves).

But even if Dooley isn’t the right guy for Knoxville, Vol fans had better hope Hart doesn’t listen to their complaints and follow the lead of Kansas and Memphis and fire his coach after two seasons.  There’s a reasons those programs are Kansas and Memphis.

If Tennessee were to fire Dooley now, it would only set back the school’s rebuilding efforts.  Again.

Two years ago this weekend, Lane Kiffin recorded the biggest victory of his one-year Tennessee coaching career with a resounding 31-13 thumping of #22 South Carolina.

He did so with the help of some black jerseys that seemed to fire up his team.  (Nevermind that nothing matched in the ghastly white helmet / black jersey / orange pants combination.)

Now a pair of Vols have tweeted their desire for another “black out” game, once again with Carolina heading to Knoxville.

Da’Rick Rogers:  “just a little something to spark the team when we need it the most … black jerseys for halloween!!”

Tyler Bray:  “Volnation needs to blackout Neyland stadium.  That would really show your support in this must win game.”

Da’Rick Rogers:  “I know yal want a black out! All black everything.  Ha and the orange power T.”

Apparently someone in the UT athletic department got to Bray because moments after that exchange, he tweeted the following:

“Just to clear things up we want our fans to wear black.”

Uh, that’s not what Rogers said.  In fact, Rogers’ initial tweet could be taken as news that the team has already been told they’ll be outfitted in black.

As we said yesterday regarding Kentucky’s new black unis… if everyone wears special black duds, what’s really special about wearing that color?

For all the Tennessee fans who’d like to get their hands on Lane Kiffin, there’s one guy who’d love to be at the front of the line — Derek Dooley.  The alleged scofflaw tactics of Kiffin and his staff have once again left UT’s current coach answering questions about potential violations he himself had no hand in:


“You never want anything to come out on your program that somebody might perceive as negative.  But you know what, I can’t change what happened.  All we can deal with is make sure everybody understands taht this wasn’t under our watch, and it wasn’t involving a coach on our staff and it doesn’t involve a player that’s been in our program.”


Dooley also stated that he hopes the NCAA “is going to stay consistent with what they’ve done, which is, ‘Let’s target the people that make these mistakes, not the programs.’”