Jones identifies first fix Tennessee needed

#1
kamoshika

kamoshika

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#1
Butch Jones said the first thing he had to do after arriving at Tennessee on Dec. 7, 2012 was obvious. “Change the perception,” Jones told fans at the Big Orange Caravan stop in the Memphis area on Wednesday night.

That’s much easier said than done when you’ve inherited a program that had fallen from its customary perch near the top of the SEC, but it’s something Jones said had to be done. The perception of Tennessee had to change in order to get back to recruiting the types of players the Vols needed to compete for championships.

Jones pointed to one moment in particular — the loss of an elite prospect on National Signing Day in February 2013 — as a moment that hammered home the lesson of how much Tennessee’s perception needed work.
Jones identifies first fix Tennessee needed
 
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#2
#2
Nice little interview. My favorite line from it:

“We’re going to win. We’ll win big. But we want to make sure that we do it right. We have to step back and really be very gracious and excited about how far we've come and enjoy that journey and enjoy that process.”
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Love the idea of all Vols, players and coaches and fans alike, being gracious in victory. Because those big victories are coming.

Go Vols!
 
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#5
#5
winning changes perception. Hell people view OM as an elite program, and they have only been winning consistently the past 4 years. People have short attention spans.
 
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#7
#7
TNHopeful505 said:
Either Vonn Bell or Carl Lawson is my guess as to the prospect.
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There were so many, it's hard to know exactly. But I would agree, those were the 2 biggest fish....especially Bell who was reportedly a lifelong Vol fan who was right in our back yard.
 
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#9
#9
what we all don't realize is being irrelevant for 6-7 yrs to a 17 yr old is basically the same as being irrelevant his entire football life....he probably didn't even know the teams until he was 9 or 10....

Dooley, if he was actually working FOR Nick Saban and Alabama to destroy Tennessee football, couldn't have done a better job with his start! Fortunately, the fans made Hart fire his worthless ass!
 
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#10
#10
VFL-82-JP said:
Nice little interview. My favorite line from it:



Love the idea of all Vols, players and coaches and fans alike, being gracious in victory. Because those big victories are coming.

Go Vols!
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I hope it is more than a line, I would like to see an upgrade in classmanship as well as whupassmanship.
 
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#11
#11
ScornedPapaVol said:
Adoree Jackson was one of them.
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Jackson was a year later. So he was not either of the recruits referred to in the article. It was definitely Von Bell. No idea which one from last year would not look at us.

In fact, had Tennessee's track program been what Adoree was looking for, we probably would have pulled him in. He really enjoyed coming out here and liked what he saw from the football program, but his dream at the time he was being recruited was to run track in the Olympics. Sadly, our track program was in a big transition. That is why he chose Southern Cal over Tennessee.

I wonder who the other player was that would not give us a look. Was that last years class? Not 100% clear. If it was the 2015 class, there are 2 I can think of we could not get anywhere with; Iman Marshall, and Josh Sweat. If it is from 2016, Rashan Gary makes a little sense. Otherwise, I haven't a clue who that could be. Any other guesses?
 
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#12
#12
TNnative said:
I wonder who the other player was that would not give us a look was. Was that last years class?
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If I had to guess I would go with Rashan Gary.

I remember someone from the recruiting forum (it might've been GFW) who said that he had ZERO interest in us. That we were recruiting him hard but he simply had no interest.
 
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#13
#13
kamoshika said:
Butch Jones said the first thing he had to do after arriving at Tennessee on Dec. 7, 2012 was obvious. “Change the perception,” Jones told fans at the Big Orange Caravan stop in the Memphis area on Wednesday night.

That’s much easier said than done when you’ve inherited a program that had fallen from its customary perch near the top of the SEC, but it’s something Jones said had to be done. The perception of Tennessee had to change in order to get back to recruiting the types of players the Vols needed to compete for championships.

Jones pointed to one moment in particular — the loss of an elite prospect on National Signing Day in February 2013 — as a moment that hammered home the lesson of how much Tennessee’s perception needed work.
Jones identifies first fix Tennessee needed
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Guess I never realized butch got here on the anniversary of the day pearl Harbor was attacked
 
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#14
#14
wmcovol said:
what we all don't realize is being irrelevant for 6-7 yrs to a 17 yr old is basically the same as being irrelevant his entire football life....he probably didn't even know the teams until he was 9 or 10....

Dooley, if he was actually working FOR Nick Saban and Alabama to destroy Tennessee football, couldn't have done a better job with his start! Fortunately, the fans made Hart fire his worthless ass!
Click to expand...


Harry Morgan as Colonel Potter from "MASH" said it best, "Horse Hockey." Fans didn't "make" Hart fire Dooley. Fan's pathetic petition did not get Cuonzo Martin fired, or Bruce Pearl rehired. Did they? No, so get past that idea, cause that is not how the world works. That takes folks with a little more influence than average Joes like you and I.

How it all went down will more than likely never be revealed to the world. However, the following scenario would be reasonable;

As the crowd filed out of that tiny stadium in Nashville, two or three big dog donors didn't let Hart get off of Vanderbilt property until he clearly understood what his Sunday morning would entail. It might have been a cell phone call or two, or it might have been a face to face encounter, I cannot say for sure. I can safely surmise very few words had to be uttered. All that really had to be said was their private planes would be ready and available for his use. At that point, would any further words be necessary? As Macaulay Culkin said in "Home Alone" more than once, "I don't think so."

The rest is a matter of record.
 
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#15
#15
What's crazy is remembering just how quickly Butch made up ground on Carl Lawson. That kid wasn't even thinking about UT and then Butch showed up, and on NSD, we legitimately thought we had a chance. When Butch did that, I thought, "New guy on the block, okay, good push for a great player at the end..." But when Butch landed Hurd? I remember, I was giving a standardized test to my high school class, and I was like "Holy crap!" Out loud. That's when I had my first ounce of belief in Butch as a recruiter. I remember when Butch came in, everyone had their doubts about Butch as a recruiter, but when Hurd jumped on board....that's when I thought we might have the start of something good.
 
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#16
#16
Quote:
Originally Posted by kamoshika View Post
Butch Jones said the first thing he had to do after arriving at Tennessee on Dec. 7, 2012 was obvious.

DocVOLiday said:
Guess I never realized butch got here on the anniversary of the day pearl Harbor was attacked
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Interesting.

If Derek Dooley arrived Jan 15, I never realized he got here on the anniversary of the Great Molasses Flood, 1919: "A large molasses tank in Boston, Massachusetts, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets (and things really got in a sticky quagmire)."
 
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#18
#18
UT-Rex said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by kamoshika View Post
Butch Jones said the first thing he had to do after arriving at Tennessee on Dec. 7, 2012 was obvious.



Interesting.

If Derek Dooley arrived Jan 15, I never realized he got here on the anniversary of the Great Molasses Flood, 1919: "A large molasses tank in Boston, Massachusetts, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets (and things really got in a sticky quagmire)."
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OK someone who knows how, we needs comparative photos of Derek Dooley and Quagmire.

Coincidence? I don't think so.
 
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#19
#19
Kurtastrophe said:
It has to be Vonn Bell. Most felt that the only reason he didn't come here was due to his uncertainty of our ability to win.
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I thought the reason he didn't come was because Dooley never recruited him which put us behind the 8 ball in trying to make up for lost time.
 
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#20
#20
Just think of how many good players that could have been Vols if Dooley didn't screw up. Vonn Bell, Jalen Ramsey, Carl Lawson. If Butch had the whole year to recruit those guys, they'd be Vols right now.
 
#21
#21
titansvolsfaninga said:
winning changes perception. Hell people view OM as an elite program, and they have only been winning consistently the past 4 years. People have short attention spans.
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These kids are millennials; most probably couldn't identify long term football powers if one bit them - simply what have you done lately. Apparently the only real thought process for many is that the way to name recognition is to affiliate with a highly recognized team; done without any research to consider directions in which programs are moving, where they are traditionally ranked, or realistic chance of playing time.

I cringe every time alternate uniforms are tossed around as a draw. If potential players are that shallow, perhaps they do belong somewhere else. I like the old days when more kids grew up wanting to go to a particular school - to go there, do well on and off the field, and make a difference. The hype on national signing day now is that a school is lucky to have him and not that he is honored that the school considered him worthy.
 
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#22
#22
VolFreakJosh said:
Just think of how many good players that could have been Vols if Dooley didn't screw up. Vonn Bell, Jalen Ramsey, Carl Lawson. If Butch had the whole year to recruit those guys, they'd be Vols right now.
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Spilled Milk. And as to Von and Jalen, they were both part of National Championship teams. I wish they could have won them two or three times over as Vols, but that was not gonna happen, and I am happy they will enjoy their experiences for the rest of their lives.

All we can do is make sure future Vols have the support and the tools they need to make those memories for themselves.
 
#23
#23
9296potsguy said:
I thought the reason he didn't come was because Dooley never recruited him which put us behind the 8 ball in trying to make up for lost time.
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The Dooley issue was definitely part of it, but it seemed at the time that he loved Butch.

It was easy for opposing coaches to tell recruits that we couldn't win coming off the Dooley era.
 
#24
#24
The last 2 NFL drafts tell the whole story... You have to have NFL caliber players on your team to really compete in this league
 
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#25
#25
Biopsyman said:
The last 2 NFL drafts tell the whole story... You have to have NFL caliber players on your team to really compete in this league
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It does ring true that whatever your numbers say you are, you really are.
 
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