COLUMBIA, Mo. — In the Show Me State, Tennessee displayed just how far the program has fallen in Year 5 under Butch Jones.
The Vols were boat-raced 50-17 by a Missouri Tigers team clawing for bowl eligibility, and with Tennessee now 0-6 in the SEC, the only important question is when John Currie will show Jones the door.
Saturday was an utter humiliating loss — Tennessee’s third 30-plus point defeat in 2017 — yet somehow in a season full of nadirs, a 33-point loss to a Missouri team that couldn’t manage a touchdown against Purdue was officially rock bottom.
By the time the Tigers had dropped half a hundred on the Vols early in the fourth quarter, Tennessee’s band played Rocky Top when the Vols blocked the PAT.
It almost seemed like a cruel joke.
In a blowout loss, Tennessee had a fleeting fight, as Nigel Warrior, Will McBride and a few others made some key plays in the first half to knot the score at 17-all late in the second quarter. But as has been the case for the last two years, Tennessee had a bad breakdown defensively and ended up entering the half trailing by a touchdown.
After Missouri’s quick 50-yard touchdown out of halftime, the rest of the second half was merely perfunctory.
The Vols played uninspired. They played undisciplined. They played like they didn’t much care for their maligned head coach.
Afterward, they proclaimed otherwise, with senior tight end Ethan Wolf adamantly saying, “Nobody here wants to see him leave. We’re going to play for him.”
They certainly didn’t show it in the Show Me State, though.
At one point Saturday night, the Vols had three turnovers on three straight plays in the second half. Ish Witter had more yards rushing by the end of the third quarter (216) than Tennessee had in the game (192).
By the end of the game, Missouri had more offensive touchdowns (6) than Tennessee has in SEC games this season (5).
It was an ugly, embarrassing loss, and unsurprisingly, Jones entered his postgame press conference defeated and exasperated.
He wasn’t in the mood for questions about his future, and when pressed on if he felt like he still had the support from athletics director John Currie, Jones ducked the inquiry, offered a quick quip and then tried to spin things positively forward.
“The message is the same. We have two games left,” he said.
“It’s all about this football team and how we finish. We work exceptionally hard every single day. It’s very disappointing when you invest the way you invest each and every day to win on Saturdays.
"That’s what it’s all about. It’s about these seniors. It’s about these players. It ain’t about the coach. It ain’t about nothing but nothing else. It’s about our players and it’s about our seniors. Again, how do we finish? We have a great challenge Saturday night in Neyland against LSU. What a great opportunity.”
A great opportunity?
Jones later added that his message to the team was, "How do you want to be remembered? How do you want to finish this off?"
Perhaps he was actually just talking about himself.
Jones has done plenty of good for Tennessee football, but the lasting memory for most Vol fans will be how badly the ending has been butchered.
