See , I don't think this guy is right at all. He says there's no middle ground on Butch Jones.
In taking that position as the basis for his article, he's falling prey to the same hypersensitivity and mouth-breathing misdiagnosis many of us have: that everyone here is a "nega" or a "pumper."
Fact is, in that poll we ran a few weeks ago, only around 10% said they were
confident that Butch is the man for the long term.
Likewise, only about 30% said they
don't think Butch can win any championships at Tennessee.
By far the largest group (over half of all polled, around 60% of everyone) was the group in the middle, those who thought the
possibility existed, that we MAY not have seen Butch's best yet. That is the middle ground. And it's far bigger than either extreme.
In other words, completely belying the central point of this article, the majority of VolNation (and, one would assume, the majority of the much larger Volunteer Nation) are somewhere in the middle on Butch, willing to follow where he's going for one or two more seasons, but expecting him to show championship caliber coaching in that time frame or be gone.
EDIT: I do like his final paragraphs. He is just as at-fault of ignoring the middle ground as his readers, it seems, but his words do still bear repeating here in VolNation.
The loudest voices in sports media are typically those who are either tearing down something or someone or those who are excessively praising something or someone. The people who take a neutral or moderate approach don’t catch attention because their opinions aren’t extreme enough. In this day and age of social media and the search for brief, instant fame, only hot takes or those on the opposite end of the spectrum get attention. The middle ground has become something many just ignore now.
Opinions are opinions, however. If you think Jones is a great coach or if you think he is a terrible coach, you are entitled to that. But don’t let your opinion blind you to facts and rational conversation, either. Don’t let the practice of civil discussion die.
