Tennessee football, Butch Jones can still win some 'championships' this year

The Butch Jones era of Tennessee football will be remembered for championships. In four-plus seasons under Jones, the Vols have been honored as:

TaxSlayer Bowl champions.

Outback Bowl champions.

Battle at Bristol champions.

More:Vols vs. Southern Miss: Our experts picking Tennessee to end losing streak

Music City Bowl champions.

Life champions.

Jones’ obsession with declaring championships will be missed — if, for nothing else, all the clever responses that were generated on social media. For example, after an open date, a Tennessee fan in California sent me a photo-shopped Tennessee ring with the inscription: “2017 Bye Week Champions.”

Once athletic director John Currie finds time in his apparently busy schedule, he surely will announce Jones will no longer be Tennessee's coach. In the meantime, a couple of more  championship opportunities remain for the 2017 Vols.

Non-conference champions: If the Vols beat Southern Miss in Neyland Stadium on Saturday, they would finish the regular season 4-0 against non-conference opponents. That’s enough to declare them as 2017 Non-conference champions.

And any championship deserves a ring.

More:Neyland Stadium set for $340M in renovations starting in summer 2018

More:Tennessee football vs Southern Miss: 5 things to know

The stone should be shaped like a sycamore tree in honor of the 42-7 drubbing UT administered to the Indiana State Sycamores.

State champions: If Tennessee beats Vanderbilt in its final game, it should be crowned 2017 “Tennessee Regular-Season State Champions.”

“What about Memphis?” you ask.

Never mind that the Tigers have lost only one game and are ranked 21st nationally. But failure to schedule an in-state opponent makes them ineligible for the state championship.

So the best  they can hope for is an 11-1 regular season, a conference championship and a bowl.

Tennessee 26, Southern Miss 20: How will the Vols respond to losing four consecutive games?

Like champions.

Alabama 34, LSU 7: The Tide defense will make Ed Orgeron’s offense look like Les Miles’ offense. And it will make running back Derrius Guice wonder if he got healthy too soon.

Auburn 30, Texas A&M 13: Coach Kevin Sumlin should have limited the Aggies’ video work this week. The last thing they needed to see was how Auburn manhandled Mississippi State, which beat the Aggies 35-14 last Saturday.

More:Jones, Currie respond to report Brett Kendrick played with concussion

Mississippi State 31, UMass 7: The Bulldogs might have to worry about losing coach Dan Mullen. They don’t have to worry about losing to the Minutemen.

Florida 30, Missouri 27: Former coach Jim McElwain couldn’t build a defense good enough for Gators fans. But he built one good enough to beat Missouri’s defense.

Georgia 35, South Carolina 12: The Bulldogs haven't had a bad game yet. But even on a bad day, they can beat anyone else in the division.

Kentucky 37, Ole Miss 34: As good as running back Benny Snell Jr. looked against Tennessee last week, he might look even better against the Rebels, who couldn’t hold a 24-point lead against Arkansas.

Arkansas 37, Coastal Carolina 13: The Chanticleers apparently didn’t get enough of "The Natural State" when they lost to Arkansas State 51-17. Their second visit to the state will go only slightly better.

Vanderbilt 38, Western Kentucky 23: The last time the Commodores won a game, they were 3-0 and saying, “Bring on Bama.” Since then, they have lost five consecutive games and are unlikely to risk saying, “Bring on Kentucky,” no matter how well things go against the Hilltoppers.

Record: 60-15 (.800) overall, 42-23 (.646) against the spread.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.