Not utilizing Alvin Kamara more.
Just wait until this kid gets to the NFL. He will be the biggest black mark on Butch Jones resume regarding his time at Tennessee. Its mind-boggling to me that we had a player of his caliber standing on the sideline for 1.5 out of his 2 years here. The guy is projected to be our highest drafted offensive player in 4 years and Butch Jones kept him standing on the sideline watching more than playing for most his time here. This to me is INEXCUSABLE. This alone should warrant Butch Jones being fired.
Now this is not say Jalen Hurd should have been benched. I know we're all supposed to hate him now that he quit the team but the kid was phenomenal for us as a freshmen and sophomore. Butch Jones mistake was not that he didn't bench Hurd in favor of Kamara. Rather his mistake was in not playing Kamara and Hurd together on the field more. Former Vol defensive end Will Overstreet made this point on the Sports Source earlier this year. He was flabbergasted as to why we didn't play Kamara and Hurd together on the field more. Why didn't we run more 2 RB sets instead of 3 WR sets? Hurd and Kamara are 2 of your 3 best players on offense (along with Dobbs) and yet Butch Jones thought it smart to have Kamara sitting on the sideline for more than half the game. Its inexcusable IMO to have either Hurd or Kamara standing on the sideline during a competitive game unless they are tired and need a breather.
Instead of running all those 3 WR sets where we don't even have a proper slot receiver, we should have been running 2 RB sets where we motion Alvin to slot receiver when he's not running the ball. Just think about this. We moved a kid (Tyler Byrd) who could've been a freshmen all-american CB to slot receiver because the position was a weakness for us. All the while Butch Jones has Alvin Kamara (who is probably our most talented receiver especially when we put him in the slot) standing on the sideline watching an inferior player in Josh Smith or a true freshmen playing out of position in Tyler Byrd get more snaps at slot receiver.
How different would this season have gone if we kept Tyler Byrd at CB? We would have had an Army All-American CB taking over for Sutton after he went down rather than a 3 star true freshmen who was clearly not ready. What if we played Kamara and Hurd together on the field at all-times motioning Kamara to slot WR or Hurd to TE when the other was designated run the ball. And it's not like we didn't have these plays in the playbook. We did run formations with 2 RBs on the field at the same time. We did motion Kamara to the slot. We did motion Hurd to TE. The issue was we rarely did it. And this simply made no sense to me. Why would you not use your most potent offensive weapon at all times? And as we've seen now Alvin Kamara is our most potent offensive weapon. The fact he spent most his time here at Tennessee on the sideline is COACHING MALPRACTICE on Butch Jones part.
He should be fired just for this.
