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Butch Jones has been putting in work to rebuild the Tennessee Volunteers since becoming the head coach and making excellent progress. In two seasons, Jones has stocked the roster with young talent and gotten the Volunteers back to the postseason. But the time seems to be coming for Jones to deliver more and make Tennessee an SEC contender once again in 2015 as the Vols enter the season as the No. 25 ranked team in the nation. Is it too soon to raise expectations that high?
Before Jones took over the team, Tennessee was mired in mediocrity. They finished with a losing record for three straight seasons and failed to get bowl eligible in back-to-back years. In two years, Jones has recruited extremely well to bring in plenty of talent but has not seen that talent turn into wins right away. Tennessee is 12-13 overall and just 5-11 record in SEC play in two seasons under Jones, including a 7-6 (3-5) record in 2014. That’s not exactly the resume of a top-25 team, despite the return of so much talent on both sides of the ball.
If Jones and the Vols are going to live up to the hype of being a preseason top-25 team this season, they will have to close out some of their big games. Jones is a dismal 1-11 against teams ranked in the top 25, including 0-5 last season. Of those 11 losses against ranked opponents, Tennessee has only finished with a single score three times (two 3-point losses to the Georgia Bulldogs and an 8-point loss to the Missouri Tigers). To be counted as one of the top 25 programs in the nation, they have to be able to match the level of play when they go up against the best teams on their schedule.
There is no doubt that Butch Jones has the Tennessee program heading in the right direction but is it too soon to expect the Vols to contend as a top 25 team?
You can follow Tyler Brett on Twitter @ATylerBrett, on Facebook and on Google.
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