Why did Butch Jones get us so close, where Dooley and Pruitt didn't?

#1
Brave Volunteer

Brave Volunteer

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#1
Obviously it's pretty much a consensus that our last 3 coaches weren't the answer. However for whatever reason, Butch Jones got us pretty damn close to where we wanted to be. We came SO close (and should have) to winning the east two straight years! Rather than dwelling on the reasons why Butch blew it, I would like to look at it from another point of view. What did he do right to get us that close where the other two coaches couldn't even sniff that much success? Was it recruiting? Was it motivation? Was it luck? I'm just curious as to how Butch almost touched success here where the other two weren't even close.
 
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#3
#3
Brave Volunteer said:
Obviously it's pretty much a consensus that our last 3 coaches weren't the answer. However for whatever reason, Butch Jones got us pretty damn close to where we wanted to be. We came SO close (and should have) to winning the east two straight years! Rather than dwelling on the reasons why Butch blew it, I would like to look at it from another point of view. What did he do right to get us that close where the other two coaches couldn't even sniff that much success? Was it recruiting? Was it motivation? Was it luck? I'm just curious as to how Butch almost touched success here where the other two weren't even close.
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IMO Jones' success was a direct result in him being lucky enough to have several play makers on his rosters that bailed him out of some potentially bad seasons. Development was not good under his staff, he was fortunate enough to have some really good players in positions that made him look. Again, just my opinion.
 
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#4
#4
Brave Volunteer said:
Obviously it's pretty much a consensus that our last 3 coaches weren't the answer. However for whatever reason, Butch Jones got us pretty damn close to where we wanted to be. We came SO close (and should have) to winning the east two straight years! Rather than dwelling on the reasons why Butch blew it, I would like to look at it from another point of view. What did he do right to get us that close where the other two coaches couldn't even sniff that much success? Was it recruiting? Was it motivation? Was it luck? I'm just curious as to how Butch almost touched success here where the other two weren't even close.
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This is an easy one. 5 wins in his first season. Then Joshua Dobbs started. Dobbs left. Insert JG. 4 wins. Botch fired. Josh Dobbs made him look good.
 
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#6
#6
Brave Volunteer said:
Obviously it's pretty much a consensus that our last 3 coaches weren't the answer. However for whatever reason, Butch Jones got us pretty damn close to where we wanted to be. We came SO close (and should have) to winning the east two straight years! Rather than dwelling on the reasons why Butch blew it, I would like to look at it from another point of view. What did he do right to get us that close where the other two coaches couldn't even sniff that much success? Was it recruiting? Was it motivation? Was it luck? I'm just curious as to how Butch almost touched success here where the other two weren't even close.
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He did great at selling the vision and program to the in-state recruits. UT still a good but slightly tarnished brand at the time. His downfall seemed to be tied to not giving assistants space to coach, lying in recruiting, and lack of leadership. Dobbs helped him tremendously also.
 
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#8
#8
Slugmelt said:
Dobbs is my guess. Seems like every week he was bailing us out at the last second.
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That and Jones just happened to show up at a time when UT's recruiting was very uniquely advantaged. There were a bunch of legacy players and in-state homers who created the foundation for 2 or 3 really good classes.

Talent got UT "close"... Jones' inability to coach and recruit once that well dried up has a lot to do with the failure of Pruitt and where we are now. I've been as critical of Pruitt's affinity for JG as much as anyone... but when he arrived there were no other really good options. His hopes that KC might shake things up were ill conceived.

Lastly... I truly believe that he was hired because he agreed with Fulmer's "old school" philosophy of play that no longer works.
 
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#16
#16
Andy Pulley said:
Just looking at the SEC, the east was weaker when Butch was coach than Pruitt. Their SEC record while at Tennessee:
Butch 14-24 (58%)
Pruitt 10-16 (62%)
I will say that Butch took care of business in the non-conference games that they were supposed to win.
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Yeah as long as I live I will never forgive Pruitt for that GA State loss. That was an embarrassing and honestly, ridiculous game to lose! The loss to Wyoming in 2008 was bad but that was at least explainable because Fulmer had just been fired and the team checked out. But Ga State was just awful!
 
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#17
#17
As everyone else has said, talent. For all his limitations, Butch was one heck of a recruiter and signed over a half-dozen guys rated 5-Stars on one more sites and for a while absolutely dominated in-state recruiting.

It's a damn shame he couldn't develop them.
 
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#18
#18
Brave Volunteer said:
Obviously it's pretty much a consensus that our last 3 coaches weren't the answer. However for whatever reason, Butch Jones got us pretty damn close to where we wanted to be. We came SO close (and should have) to winning the east two straight years! Rather than dwelling on the reasons why Butch blew it, I would like to look at it from another point of view. What did he do right to get us that close where the other two coaches couldn't even sniff that much success? Was it recruiting? Was it motivation? Was it luck? I'm just curious as to how Butch almost touched success here where the other two weren't even close.
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Butch is a much better offensive coach. We also had star talent at multiple positions, notably Dobbs, Kamara, and Hurd in the backfield.
 
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#19
#19
While I still think Pruitt and Dooley for that matter are good coordinators, they couldnt make the jump to program CEO. Butch did have that experience. Butch knew football much less than either Pruitt or Dooley but he was lucky. Pruitt had the unfortunate luck to be left with JG instead of Dobbs, who saved Butch's butt time and time again. Butch also had BOTH Kamara and Hurd (and actually started Hurd over Kamara). I am convinced that if Pruitt had had those 3 and not have had the locker room sickness left from Butch, we would have been speaking about how Pruitt was a top coach. Maybe later he would have gotten exposed - maybe not. Often, you need to be lucky until you can grow into the position. Didnt happen for him or Dooley tho.
 
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#20
#20
Dooley and Pruitt were historically bad hires for a school like Tennessee. They were absolute dogsh-t. Butch was (at best) a mediocre coach who signed a program changing QB, recruited well, and took advantage of a down East.

It's not that Butch was great, it was just that Dooley and Pruitt were just that God awful.

Butch was that girl that's a "5" that's standing next to Lizzo (in a thong) and Rosie O'Donnell (in a thong)
 
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#21
#21
I'm no analyst of football. Is it possible that Butch worked harder, but maybe had about the same or less football IQ? The team was pretty motivated, which I think people didn't appreciate until they saw what Pruitt could fail at. He had a lot of trouble with individual player meltdowns and injuries. Maybe his ability to get players to fit what he wanted to do was just sorta average, and his X's and O's maybe was just sort of average. his players were pretty darn good.
 
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