FAYETTEVILLE -- Butch Jones said he can take the criticism. If it's coming, he wants it on him.
That's good, because the Tennessee coach is getting plenty of criticism after the Volunteers' latest fourth-quarter meltdown resulted in a 28-27 loss at Florida last Saturday.
It was Tennessee's 11th consecutive loss to the SEC East rival Gators.
Adding to the frustration for Vols' fans is that Tennessee seemingly was in control of the game, leading 27-14 in the fourth quarter, before some questionable decisions by Jones -- some might say downright dumb --helped the Gators rally to win.
Tennessee (2-2, 0-1 SEC), which plays Arkansas (1-3, 0-1) at 6 p.m. Saturday in Neyland Stadium, lost to Oklahoma 31-24 in overtime in its second game this season after taking a 17-3 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel ran a poll after the Florida game asking if coaching was to blame for the loss.
As of Monday afternoon with more than 6,000 votes tallied, 88 percent of the respondents said yes, it was the coach's fault.
"I am the head football coach, and I am responsible for anything and everything," Jones said Monday at his weekly news conference when asked how he reacts to criticism. "I would say put it all on my shoulders.
"I want it all on my shoulders. I want to free up our coaching staff to coach. I want to free up our players to play.
"That is part of the responsibility here."
Jones caught some heat after the Oklahoma game for being too conservative when on the Vols' second series of the game he opted to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal from the Sooners' 1.
That was nothing compared to what's been written and said about Jones since the Florida game.
His first confounding decision came with Tennessee leading 20-7 in the third quarter and apparently forcing a field-goal attempt by Florida on fourth and 6 from the Vols' 25.
Jones called a timeout, saying after the game he was worried the Gators might try a fake.
Florida Coach Jim McElwain put his offense back on the field after the timeout, and quarterback Will Grier completed a pass to Brandon Powell for a 21-yard gain. Kelvin Taylor ran 4 yards for a touchdown to pull the Gators within 20-14.
Tennessee responded by going ahead 26-14 on Jalen Hurd's touchdown run with 10:19 left, but instead of going for a two-point conversion and a 14-point lead, Jones opted to kick the extra point.
Questioned about that decision after the game, Jones said the coaches had discussed before the drive whether to go for two points and decided to go by a chart that maps out such calls.
A lot of media and fans have called for that chart to be burned or thrown away.
Florida took a 28-27 lead with 1:26 left on a Grier's 63-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Callaway, and the Vols had a shot a game-winning field goal, but Aaron Medley missed a 55-yard attempt with three seconds left.
Tennessee might have been able to gain more yards for a closer attempt, but the Vols used 1:21 on four plays on their final drive, drawing more criticism.
"I think there was a little confusion at times whether the clock was stopped or not, so that all goes into awareness," Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs said Monday. "Obviously, it didn't turn out like we wanted it to, but we gave ourselves a chance to win."
Jones has a 64-42 record in nine seasons at Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Tennessee, but is 14-15 in his third season with the Vols. He was asked Monday if he thought the coaching staff did its job well enough to win at Florida.
"I do," he said. "We are two plays, or 10 seconds, away from being 4-0, but we are 2-2. We can't let two plays or 10 seconds define who we are.
"We have to continue to work and grind. I thought our coaching staff had a great plan going in. If you look how we limited them offensively, if you look at what we did offensively, it just comes down to one or two plays."
Jones said while fans and media have all week to discuss and dissect the Florida game, the Vols can't dwell on it.
"As coaches and players, we have 24 hours and have to move on, because we have a very talented and hungry team coming in here in Arkansas," he said. "We have to put all of our effort into preparation."
The Vols have vowed to bounce back from the Florida game.
"We all have each other's back," sophomore tailback Alvin Kamara told the News-Sentinel after the Florida game. "There's no finger-pointing, nothing like that. We just know we gotta keep working."
Dobbs said Monday that blowing big leads twice in the fourth quarter this season hasn't affect the team's confidence.
"Obviously, we want to finish out games," Dobbs said. "We take pride in that and we haven't executed.
"We have to do a better job of that moving forward."
Jones said the coaches were back at work at 7 a.m. Sunday after going home about midnight.
"Every play is dissected, evaluated, gone through," he said. "I looked at everything. Is it a fundamental mistake? Is it a technique mistake? Is it an effort standpoint? Is it a bad play call?
"We put our players in positions to succeed. Everything that we do is looked at. Everything we do is under a microscope."
Jones probably is feeling that scrutiny now more than ever after the Florida loss.
Sports on 09/29/2015