Written by Tom Forneli at CBS Sports.com
It’s never a good sign when sportsbooks are taking bets on which coach is going to replace you when you still have your job, but that’s the position Tennessee’s Butch Jones finds himself in.
After a 41-0 loss to Georgia on Saturday, the common feeling is that it’s only a matter of time before Butch Jones is fired in Knoxville, so Bet Online is taking bets on which coach will be replacing Jones in the future.
Here are the odds on potential replacements:
Who will be Tennessee’s head coach at the beginning of the 2018 season?
Chip Kelly +325 (risk $100 to win $325)
Jeff Brohm +450 (risk $100 to win $450)
Bobby Petrino +450
Mike Norvell +750
PJ Fleck +800
Bob Stoops +900
Tee Martin +900
Les Miles +1000
Jim Bob Cooter +1800
Dan Mullen +1800
Jon Gruden +2000
Brian Kelly +2500
Peyton Manning +10000
Lane Kiffin +10000
All right, so what’s the smart play here? First of all, remove Jon Gruden, Peyton Manning and Lane Kiffin from your list. Sure, it’d be funny to bet on them, but it’s not going to happen. Nor do I believe Bob Stoops would give up his retirement for Tennessee.
You don’t leave what he had at Oklahoma for the chance to rebuild Tennessee.
While Chip Kelly is the favorite, I don’t think that happens, either. Kelly strikes me as the kind of coach that would rather be somewhere he can win, but not where football is the focus of life in general. So that removes the SEC from consideration here. If Kelly’s coaching somewhere next season, I would bet on a Pac-12 team. Maybe Arizona State.
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