Former Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones was fired by UT in 2017 after one of the worst seasons in program history.
But despite his struggles at Tennessee, Jones is on one of the most exclusive lists in college football.
Thanks to Nick Saban’s recent retirement as Alabama’s head coach, there are now only six active college football head coaches who have a win against Georgia’s Kirby Smart on their resume.
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And Jones is one of those six coaches (thanks to Josh Dobbs’ Hail Mary pass to Jauan Jennings that took down Georgia in Athens in 2016).
Here’s the full list, including the year that each coach beat Smart (along with their current job in parenthesis).
Hugh Freeze — 2016 Ole Miss 45 Georgia 14 (now the HC at Auburn)
Butch Jones — 2016 Tennessee 34 Georgia 31 (now the HC at Arkansas State)
As you can see, it’s not exactly a who’s who of college football coaches (most of the wins, by the way, came during Smart’s first season at Georgia).
All of the coaches on that list were eventually fired and have resurfaced at lower-profile jobs (except for Freeze, who rebounded to become the head coach at Auburn…his off-field issues made his situation unique).
Current Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel will hope to add his name to that list in 2024 when the Vols travel to Athens to take on the Bulldogs.
