ESPN recently released a list of 10 coaches on the hot seat heading into the 2017 season, as well as what those coaches need to do in order to keep their jobs for 2018.
While there are several big name coaches on the list — hi, Jim Mora and Brian Kelly — the three that probably stick out the most are the three SEC coaches that made the list: Auburn's Gus Malzahn, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, and Tennessee's Butch Jones.
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Of course, those names are interesting because all three won at least eight games last season, with Tennessee actually winning nine. However, it's about the games that those team's haven't won lately to why those coaches are on the hot seat; Texas A&M collapses in the second half of every year, Auburn has been getting spanked by Alabama and Georgia recently, and Tennessee can't win the SEC East no matter how many times they decide that this is "their year".
Of those three, Jones, might bee on the hottest seat of them all. There was a report that Jones probably would have been fired last year if Tennessee hadn't been looking for a new athletic director, and who knows if the new AD in Knoxville will even see Jones as "his guy" for the future.
Maybe this year finally needs to be the time for Tennessee to rise above, otherwise Jones' time as the Volunteers' head coach may be up.
