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Butch Jones and Kevin Sumlin will enter the offseason on the hot seat, according to Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples.
Tennessee just missed out on a golden opportunity to win a downtrodden SEC East with an 8-4 (4-4) regular season record, giving Jones a 29-21 mark in four years with an opportunity to end on a winning note in a not-so-pressuring postseason event such as the TaxSlayer Bowl.
For the third straight season, Texas A&M started 5-0 and reached as high as No. 6 in the AP Top 25 rankings but suffered a second-half collapse to enter bowl season unranked. The Aggies have lost four games or more in each of Sumlin’s last four years to give him a 44-20 record with the program, but a mediocre 21-19 line in the SEC.
With the demanding expectations that each fan base presents — it’s hard to win in the SEC, but it’s also a requirement for head coaches a few years into their tenure — it’s apparent that both coaches have to make serious strides next year to remain contracted through 2018.
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
