junder13
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To start off, I don't care if its too long of a thread for you to read. Don't read it. You can keep you "tl;dr" to yourself too.
Fans should be able to discuss their dislike of coaching staff's decisions without it being perceived as overly negative or giving up on the staff or wanting the head coach fired (although I have -- I'm referring to others who are a bit more constructive but are constantly attacked as a result of their concerns). And a fan making a rational case about negative aspects of a coaching staff does not make them any less of a fan than someone who remains perpetually positive.
For perspective, if Florida fans had not demanded a top tier coach during the Zook years they would not have won the national title in 2006 (Urban's first year after Zook's firing). After beating OSU for the natty, Urban Meyer credited Ron Zook for his eye for talent. 22 of the 24 starters in the NC game were Zook recruits. On the other hand, when Meyer left UF the roster had several holes despite highly ranked recruiting classes. Just stocking a cupboard with talent does not justify a coach keeping a HC position if on-the-field results are missing (Zook), nor does on-the-field results overcome the need to continually recruit talent that will produce (Meyer and even moreso, Fulmer). Recruiting is always a necessary requirement for a top tier coach and program (Saban). And, no, I am not insinuating Meyer isn't an elite coach. He certainly is. But the way he left Florida and the holes he left in the roster would be unacceptable for any fanbase of an elite program (just ask a UF fan).
My point: "fans" who think they are superior by being positive and continuing to support a coach who cannot elevate a program to where it needs to be can be and keep it there are worse than negative fans who demand excellence. Of course, there is the extreme side of both types of fans.
I think the Fulmer supporters were (and still are) more detrimental to the program than good, as were the Majors supporters 20 years ago. The fact that our AD made two costly hiring decisions after finally letting Fulmer go does not change the fact that Fulmer needed to go. The fact that he is a "Tennessee boy" and played at UT doesn't change the fact that his time was past either (nor for Majors, who was not just a player but a legend). Fulmer probably should have been let go after the 2005 season, if not sooner. I think the delay as results, recruiting, and roster development suffered is the biggest reason UT football fell into the abyss. And no, the 2006 & 2007 season did not justify his contract extension. And to argue that we should have kept Fulmer bc of Kiffin and Dooley is a straw man argument made by weak minds IMO. Our roster should have never been allowed to deteriorate to the extent it already had.
Now, to turn my attention to our current regime:
1) Butch can change a program's culture and rebuild a roster as well as any HC I've witnessed. What has occurred on the academic side is possibly even more incredible. The only negative here is the sexual assaults/rape charges, which certainly hurt the image of the school and UT football, especially with repeat offenses. That said, I do not blame the staff for those incidents and I think they were handled properly. If the pattern were or is to persist, I would quickly change my opinion on the culture. All in all, the change in the program culturally, academically, and in terms of roster talent is of the highest caliber. This is the area that makes it the most difficult to sour on Jones as a coach. I would love nothing more than to see him succeed. He's doing an exceptional job impacting the lives of players in the most important aspect: who they are as individuals. There is nothing more important than that but it does not preclude being successful as a coach.
2) Touching on it separately, Butch and staff's recruiting effort has been above anyone's expectations. He's not only brought in great talent, he's also shown an exceptional eye for unrecognized talent early in the process. No one questions his knack for recruiting at this point. But recruiting is only half the battle (if even half). If he took the same tenacious approach to his game day strategy and, more importantly, had a tenacious approach to building and maintaining/increasing a lead, he'd become a legend. I don't see this ever happening. Given the on-the-field results and lack of offensive production, I don't see his recruiting staying at a high level either. The 2017 class could be an exception, though, as it has the potential to be one of the best since the mid-90s. Long-term, though, his conservative approach to the game will lead to declining interest from the best prospects in the south and beyond. Once his recruiting drops off, I don't see his rabid fan following sticking up for him as strongly.
3) I take considerable exception with his handling of the media. He tries to control the message they deliver on UT football. The irony is that the message had no reason but to be positive (and accordingly was) throughout the preseason and into fall camp. Also troubling is how he and his staff feed exclusive details on the roster and its developments to Hubbs & co in return for their unquestioning loyalty and glass half full message. Volquest is now the mouthpiece for the staff (kind of like how the WSJ's Hilsenrath is the mouthpiece for the Federal Reserve). Although I am no fan of Wes Rucker as a writer, I respect the stand he made during fall camp about the limited access and attempts to control the local media. In the end, I suspect Butch Jones will realize he needs (needed) to better foster these relationships. He would never treat an ESPN writer so haphazardly. For the record, I've never met Rucker and haven't lived in TN for 10 years, so I am in no way partial to him, the KNS, or any local media member (although I did write for my local paper when I was in high school, ha). In a semi-related manner, the control of the media at the political and social level is
major problem for our country (and the world, for that matter). Freedom of the press is essential for the transparency and accountability of the leaders of the world. It's no different with a coaching staff, whether at a high school level, in college, or in the NFL.
4) Little white lies/stretching the truth. I won't go into too many details on this point, as there are plenty of examples for anyone who really listens to the bs Jones occasionally spews. I'll give one of the first examples that comes to mind for me: last year before the OK road game, he said that a third of the team had never even flown in a plane before. Given that most of the 2014 recruiting class was highly recruited and took several official visits, this is as blatant a falsity/lie as it gets. There are plenty of other examples of Jones stretching the truth or outright lying to try and twist perception. His exaggeration of the situation with North's injury in the preseason was another example. It was an isolated incident with one amateur "reporter" who was really just a young fan with a twitter feed and a few connections that proved faulty. Yet, Jones used it as fuel to cut off the media for an extended period of time and VNers a'plenty rallied around their coach and the poor student athlete who had to deal with the trauma of being rumored to be out for the season, oh the horror! (blue font)
5) Personnel decisions are an extreme weakness. Playing Worley in a read option for a year-and-a-half was beyond inexcusable. When he was hired he said he would coach based on the skill set of his inherited roster. This was simply a lie. Butch is a used car salesman, so his lying/stretching of the truth is quite common (e.g., "best staff in America" or the lip service to an offensive coordinator search last year). Playing Jacob Johnson at MLB last year after AJ's dismal was inexcusable. Bynum performed much better against Iowa. Johnson isn't even a LB anymore and is not likely to finish his career in a UT uniform (or, if he does, not be a significant contributor). Similarly, playing Colton Jumper at MLB with Kirkland and Bynum as options is even more inexcusable. This has proven to be detrimental in two games now, and very costly in the OU loss. On a smaller scale (but not insignificant), throwing two passes into the endzone against BGSU to Preston Williams, a true freshmen who, at the time, had only practiced for a week and still could not cut (essentially could only run go routes) when Marquez North had not been targeted all game was inexcusable. Coaching decisions like that eventually lead to top talent choosing other schools. It's not surprising Kyle Davis has seemingly lost interest with UT. He is very similar to North in build and skillset and probably realizes his talent would not be fully realized in UT's offense. He is very likely making the right decision here. Also, not having a single receiver with 100 yards receiving after two games will cost you recruits, too. While it was great to see 400 yards rushing against BGSU, it's better to have balance for the long-term health of an offensive system and for development of the roster/team. The argument that we were holding our playbook back for OU proved entirely wrong (I said as much to those around me). While holding a few plays back for the toughest competition, it is unheard of holding back a majority of plays. Elite coaches don't do this because they know teams cannot stop it even when they see it on film. Plus, they have more to prepare for. Then you have the OL personnel choices. Jones moved Kendrick to guard when he proved to be our best option at tackle last year. Who did he move into the tackle spot? The most ineffective: Coleman Thomas, who is now our starting center. A week following this ignorant position switch a week before fall camp was complete, Kendrick and Dylan Weisman considered leaving the program. Three practices later they were re-inserted into the starting lineup rotation in practice and have been starters ever since. How does that look to a team to either (a) be that poor at recognizing who your best players are, or (b) give in to player demands to prevent departures? Either way, the handling of the OL in fall camp was piss poor, as were/are the comments that 7-8 OL will rotate into the games. There's a reason that good teams do not rotate their OL. They have to gel and become cohesive, learning to trust each other. This cannot happen when you have musical chairs. When a team has a reasonable lead and it is late in the game, that is when you develop the second level of the OL.
6) The conservative mode that Butch goes into is unlike any I've ever seen before. He went into a shell in both the Bowling Green and Oklahoma game after just a little over one quarter! Unbelievable. Most fans have already forgotten about the occurrence with BGSU because we recovered and won by a comfortable margin, but with the game 21-17 and BGSU in the redzone with around 5 minutes left in the first half, fans were not so happy with the shell Butch crawled into after being up 21-3 early on. Of course we held BGSU to a field goal (making it 21-20) and scored two TDs before halftime (making it 35-20) and all was forgotten. But that same mindset is the biggest reason why we lost to Oklahoma, IMO. Same could be said for the UF loss last year and the Vandy loss the year before. I also recall the offensive strategy against Mizzu last year was extremely tepid before we fell into a 16 pt deficit that we tried to claw our way back from. Josh Dobbs looked great once we opened up the offense (4th quarter), but it was too little, too late. He looked dismal for the first 3 quarters against Mizzu and all 4 quarters against Vandy, dealing with the same subdued offensive playcalling. I think Dobbs performance against good teams/defenses is more a reflection of Butch Jones' coaching philosophy than it is an indictment on Dobbs ability.
7) Playing not to lose is gutless. I wouldn't complain about a loss if we were swinging the whole time. Watching us try not to get hit after starting a match with several knockdowns, though, makes me want to stop watching UT football under Butch Jones. It's not the losing. It truly isn't. It's the loser mentality that I can't stand. If it continues, I'll stop watching and supporting UT until he digs his own grave (just as Fulmer did and Majors before him -- both played not to lose with a lead and it cost us plenty of crucial games over a three decade period). I don't have another team I follow and support so it'll be tough to not watch UT football as often but I refuse to watch a coward coach my team to a loss against teams with similar or inferior talent that we can obviously go toe-to-toe with.
8) Butch Jones cheap slogans and coach speak might be helpful for the team (although I doubt it), perhaps motivational (again, I doubt it), but its empty words for the fanbase now. And, please, for the love of Saint Pete, quit using youth as an excuse! Quit telling us it's a process -- even if it is. Fans should not be expected to snap and clear pivotal losses because of an overly conservative scheme after building a lead. It's unacceptable and it will be remembered for the rest of his career, no matter how long or short that career turns out to be. The 2014 UF game and the 2015 OK game will not be cleared from our memory, just like the 2001 SEC championship, 1999 Arkansas, 1996 Memphis games, 2001 UGA game (pooch kick anyone?) will never be forgotten by fans who witnessed them, nor the multiple loses to UF during Fulmer's best years. The difference with Fulmer's first 7-8 years is he had enough big wins to accept some of his biggest failures (how UT played against UF was probably his biggest failure, which is why the 1998 and 2001 victories against Florida rank up at the top of Fulmer's biggest wins in his coaching career).
9) Butch Jones is a salesman. He's not a coach. Not yet at least. I'm hoping he can improve but after watching the first few minutes of his presser today I am convinced he will not improve. Why? Because he refuses to recognize and change his biggest flaws. Most VN fans talk about how he finally accepted responsibility (lol) for the OK loss, as though now everything is okay again. What I heard was a coach that said we were one play away from a victory. That's all I needed to hear to know this guy doesn't get it. He doesn't get that the game should have never came down to one play after building a 17-0 lead (which should have been 21-0 bc that field goal from the half yard line was a pitiful, gutless call at home with our defense). He has justified his coaching decisions in his mind. We were close to winning against Oklahoma and just needed one more break or one more play and all would have been fine, he thinks. For him, that is enough. That is why things won't improve with him in this regard. We will continue going into excessively conservative mode against teams when we build a lead.....and we will continue losing these games when talent is equal and there is enough clock for the opponent to make up a deficit. And in the SEC you can bet that teams will out-talent us or be on par 3 or 4 times (if not more) a year, every year.
And this leads me to my final point:
10) Butch Jones will never be an elite coach in the SEC. If he stays here long enough he may have an occasional +10 win season but it will not be sustained. Assuming he stays for several years (which I suspect he will be just good enough to stay for quite some time, considering how low the expectations for the average fan have seemingly dropped), UT fans will have to decide if being a middling SEC team is good enough for the program. Of course, middling in the SEC is still top 25 or on the brink of top 25. Will that be enough for you as a fan?
For me, if it included a mindset of playing fearlessly and giving every opponent our best shot each and every Saturday I truly believe I could honestly say yes. But with the philosophy of this coach I can unquestionably say no. No, it is not good enough. No matter the record I will not support and be a fan of a coach who plays scarred and thinks that statistical likelihoods justify poor playcalling (he actually insinuated as much during the SEC media days -- that even a conservative approach that leads to punts could be the right thing to do in certain circumstances). This is not a coach I will support. I still support UT football but I am permanently off the Butch Jones bandwagon. Many fans are waiting for the result of the Florida game but today's presser was enough for me. In his mind he was only "one play away" from beating Oklahoma. Had we beaten Oklahoma -- by his logic -- there would be no reason for concern. My decision to no longer support Butch Jones is on based on a preponderance of evidence and am content with my conclusion. I realize that most will disagree with me but just give the man enough time and he will prove himself unworthy of leading an elite college program. The longer we tolerate a second tier coach leading our program, the further from the upper echelon of college football we will fall (although, as I've said before, he has drastically improved where our program is today compared to the past 7 seasons). If his ceiling is low, will that be enough for most fans? With his gutless mentality, no, it is not enough for me.
Fans should be able to discuss their dislike of coaching staff's decisions without it being perceived as overly negative or giving up on the staff or wanting the head coach fired (although I have -- I'm referring to others who are a bit more constructive but are constantly attacked as a result of their concerns). And a fan making a rational case about negative aspects of a coaching staff does not make them any less of a fan than someone who remains perpetually positive.
For perspective, if Florida fans had not demanded a top tier coach during the Zook years they would not have won the national title in 2006 (Urban's first year after Zook's firing). After beating OSU for the natty, Urban Meyer credited Ron Zook for his eye for talent. 22 of the 24 starters in the NC game were Zook recruits. On the other hand, when Meyer left UF the roster had several holes despite highly ranked recruiting classes. Just stocking a cupboard with talent does not justify a coach keeping a HC position if on-the-field results are missing (Zook), nor does on-the-field results overcome the need to continually recruit talent that will produce (Meyer and even moreso, Fulmer). Recruiting is always a necessary requirement for a top tier coach and program (Saban). And, no, I am not insinuating Meyer isn't an elite coach. He certainly is. But the way he left Florida and the holes he left in the roster would be unacceptable for any fanbase of an elite program (just ask a UF fan).
My point: "fans" who think they are superior by being positive and continuing to support a coach who cannot elevate a program to where it needs to be can be and keep it there are worse than negative fans who demand excellence. Of course, there is the extreme side of both types of fans.
I think the Fulmer supporters were (and still are) more detrimental to the program than good, as were the Majors supporters 20 years ago. The fact that our AD made two costly hiring decisions after finally letting Fulmer go does not change the fact that Fulmer needed to go. The fact that he is a "Tennessee boy" and played at UT doesn't change the fact that his time was past either (nor for Majors, who was not just a player but a legend). Fulmer probably should have been let go after the 2005 season, if not sooner. I think the delay as results, recruiting, and roster development suffered is the biggest reason UT football fell into the abyss. And no, the 2006 & 2007 season did not justify his contract extension. And to argue that we should have kept Fulmer bc of Kiffin and Dooley is a straw man argument made by weak minds IMO. Our roster should have never been allowed to deteriorate to the extent it already had.
Now, to turn my attention to our current regime:
1) Butch can change a program's culture and rebuild a roster as well as any HC I've witnessed. What has occurred on the academic side is possibly even more incredible. The only negative here is the sexual assaults/rape charges, which certainly hurt the image of the school and UT football, especially with repeat offenses. That said, I do not blame the staff for those incidents and I think they were handled properly. If the pattern were or is to persist, I would quickly change my opinion on the culture. All in all, the change in the program culturally, academically, and in terms of roster talent is of the highest caliber. This is the area that makes it the most difficult to sour on Jones as a coach. I would love nothing more than to see him succeed. He's doing an exceptional job impacting the lives of players in the most important aspect: who they are as individuals. There is nothing more important than that but it does not preclude being successful as a coach.
2) Touching on it separately, Butch and staff's recruiting effort has been above anyone's expectations. He's not only brought in great talent, he's also shown an exceptional eye for unrecognized talent early in the process. No one questions his knack for recruiting at this point. But recruiting is only half the battle (if even half). If he took the same tenacious approach to his game day strategy and, more importantly, had a tenacious approach to building and maintaining/increasing a lead, he'd become a legend. I don't see this ever happening. Given the on-the-field results and lack of offensive production, I don't see his recruiting staying at a high level either. The 2017 class could be an exception, though, as it has the potential to be one of the best since the mid-90s. Long-term, though, his conservative approach to the game will lead to declining interest from the best prospects in the south and beyond. Once his recruiting drops off, I don't see his rabid fan following sticking up for him as strongly.
3) I take considerable exception with his handling of the media. He tries to control the message they deliver on UT football. The irony is that the message had no reason but to be positive (and accordingly was) throughout the preseason and into fall camp. Also troubling is how he and his staff feed exclusive details on the roster and its developments to Hubbs & co in return for their unquestioning loyalty and glass half full message. Volquest is now the mouthpiece for the staff (kind of like how the WSJ's Hilsenrath is the mouthpiece for the Federal Reserve). Although I am no fan of Wes Rucker as a writer, I respect the stand he made during fall camp about the limited access and attempts to control the local media. In the end, I suspect Butch Jones will realize he needs (needed) to better foster these relationships. He would never treat an ESPN writer so haphazardly. For the record, I've never met Rucker and haven't lived in TN for 10 years, so I am in no way partial to him, the KNS, or any local media member (although I did write for my local paper when I was in high school, ha). In a semi-related manner, the control of the media at the political and social level is
major problem for our country (and the world, for that matter). Freedom of the press is essential for the transparency and accountability of the leaders of the world. It's no different with a coaching staff, whether at a high school level, in college, or in the NFL.
4) Little white lies/stretching the truth. I won't go into too many details on this point, as there are plenty of examples for anyone who really listens to the bs Jones occasionally spews. I'll give one of the first examples that comes to mind for me: last year before the OK road game, he said that a third of the team had never even flown in a plane before. Given that most of the 2014 recruiting class was highly recruited and took several official visits, this is as blatant a falsity/lie as it gets. There are plenty of other examples of Jones stretching the truth or outright lying to try and twist perception. His exaggeration of the situation with North's injury in the preseason was another example. It was an isolated incident with one amateur "reporter" who was really just a young fan with a twitter feed and a few connections that proved faulty. Yet, Jones used it as fuel to cut off the media for an extended period of time and VNers a'plenty rallied around their coach and the poor student athlete who had to deal with the trauma of being rumored to be out for the season, oh the horror! (blue font)
5) Personnel decisions are an extreme weakness. Playing Worley in a read option for a year-and-a-half was beyond inexcusable. When he was hired he said he would coach based on the skill set of his inherited roster. This was simply a lie. Butch is a used car salesman, so his lying/stretching of the truth is quite common (e.g., "best staff in America" or the lip service to an offensive coordinator search last year). Playing Jacob Johnson at MLB last year after AJ's dismal was inexcusable. Bynum performed much better against Iowa. Johnson isn't even a LB anymore and is not likely to finish his career in a UT uniform (or, if he does, not be a significant contributor). Similarly, playing Colton Jumper at MLB with Kirkland and Bynum as options is even more inexcusable. This has proven to be detrimental in two games now, and very costly in the OU loss. On a smaller scale (but not insignificant), throwing two passes into the endzone against BGSU to Preston Williams, a true freshmen who, at the time, had only practiced for a week and still could not cut (essentially could only run go routes) when Marquez North had not been targeted all game was inexcusable. Coaching decisions like that eventually lead to top talent choosing other schools. It's not surprising Kyle Davis has seemingly lost interest with UT. He is very similar to North in build and skillset and probably realizes his talent would not be fully realized in UT's offense. He is very likely making the right decision here. Also, not having a single receiver with 100 yards receiving after two games will cost you recruits, too. While it was great to see 400 yards rushing against BGSU, it's better to have balance for the long-term health of an offensive system and for development of the roster/team. The argument that we were holding our playbook back for OU proved entirely wrong (I said as much to those around me). While holding a few plays back for the toughest competition, it is unheard of holding back a majority of plays. Elite coaches don't do this because they know teams cannot stop it even when they see it on film. Plus, they have more to prepare for. Then you have the OL personnel choices. Jones moved Kendrick to guard when he proved to be our best option at tackle last year. Who did he move into the tackle spot? The most ineffective: Coleman Thomas, who is now our starting center. A week following this ignorant position switch a week before fall camp was complete, Kendrick and Dylan Weisman considered leaving the program. Three practices later they were re-inserted into the starting lineup rotation in practice and have been starters ever since. How does that look to a team to either (a) be that poor at recognizing who your best players are, or (b) give in to player demands to prevent departures? Either way, the handling of the OL in fall camp was piss poor, as were/are the comments that 7-8 OL will rotate into the games. There's a reason that good teams do not rotate their OL. They have to gel and become cohesive, learning to trust each other. This cannot happen when you have musical chairs. When a team has a reasonable lead and it is late in the game, that is when you develop the second level of the OL.
6) The conservative mode that Butch goes into is unlike any I've ever seen before. He went into a shell in both the Bowling Green and Oklahoma game after just a little over one quarter! Unbelievable. Most fans have already forgotten about the occurrence with BGSU because we recovered and won by a comfortable margin, but with the game 21-17 and BGSU in the redzone with around 5 minutes left in the first half, fans were not so happy with the shell Butch crawled into after being up 21-3 early on. Of course we held BGSU to a field goal (making it 21-20) and scored two TDs before halftime (making it 35-20) and all was forgotten. But that same mindset is the biggest reason why we lost to Oklahoma, IMO. Same could be said for the UF loss last year and the Vandy loss the year before. I also recall the offensive strategy against Mizzu last year was extremely tepid before we fell into a 16 pt deficit that we tried to claw our way back from. Josh Dobbs looked great once we opened up the offense (4th quarter), but it was too little, too late. He looked dismal for the first 3 quarters against Mizzu and all 4 quarters against Vandy, dealing with the same subdued offensive playcalling. I think Dobbs performance against good teams/defenses is more a reflection of Butch Jones' coaching philosophy than it is an indictment on Dobbs ability.
7) Playing not to lose is gutless. I wouldn't complain about a loss if we were swinging the whole time. Watching us try not to get hit after starting a match with several knockdowns, though, makes me want to stop watching UT football under Butch Jones. It's not the losing. It truly isn't. It's the loser mentality that I can't stand. If it continues, I'll stop watching and supporting UT until he digs his own grave (just as Fulmer did and Majors before him -- both played not to lose with a lead and it cost us plenty of crucial games over a three decade period). I don't have another team I follow and support so it'll be tough to not watch UT football as often but I refuse to watch a coward coach my team to a loss against teams with similar or inferior talent that we can obviously go toe-to-toe with.
8) Butch Jones cheap slogans and coach speak might be helpful for the team (although I doubt it), perhaps motivational (again, I doubt it), but its empty words for the fanbase now. And, please, for the love of Saint Pete, quit using youth as an excuse! Quit telling us it's a process -- even if it is. Fans should not be expected to snap and clear pivotal losses because of an overly conservative scheme after building a lead. It's unacceptable and it will be remembered for the rest of his career, no matter how long or short that career turns out to be. The 2014 UF game and the 2015 OK game will not be cleared from our memory, just like the 2001 SEC championship, 1999 Arkansas, 1996 Memphis games, 2001 UGA game (pooch kick anyone?) will never be forgotten by fans who witnessed them, nor the multiple loses to UF during Fulmer's best years. The difference with Fulmer's first 7-8 years is he had enough big wins to accept some of his biggest failures (how UT played against UF was probably his biggest failure, which is why the 1998 and 2001 victories against Florida rank up at the top of Fulmer's biggest wins in his coaching career).
9) Butch Jones is a salesman. He's not a coach. Not yet at least. I'm hoping he can improve but after watching the first few minutes of his presser today I am convinced he will not improve. Why? Because he refuses to recognize and change his biggest flaws. Most VN fans talk about how he finally accepted responsibility (lol) for the OK loss, as though now everything is okay again. What I heard was a coach that said we were one play away from a victory. That's all I needed to hear to know this guy doesn't get it. He doesn't get that the game should have never came down to one play after building a 17-0 lead (which should have been 21-0 bc that field goal from the half yard line was a pitiful, gutless call at home with our defense). He has justified his coaching decisions in his mind. We were close to winning against Oklahoma and just needed one more break or one more play and all would have been fine, he thinks. For him, that is enough. That is why things won't improve with him in this regard. We will continue going into excessively conservative mode against teams when we build a lead.....and we will continue losing these games when talent is equal and there is enough clock for the opponent to make up a deficit. And in the SEC you can bet that teams will out-talent us or be on par 3 or 4 times (if not more) a year, every year.
And this leads me to my final point:
10) Butch Jones will never be an elite coach in the SEC. If he stays here long enough he may have an occasional +10 win season but it will not be sustained. Assuming he stays for several years (which I suspect he will be just good enough to stay for quite some time, considering how low the expectations for the average fan have seemingly dropped), UT fans will have to decide if being a middling SEC team is good enough for the program. Of course, middling in the SEC is still top 25 or on the brink of top 25. Will that be enough for you as a fan?
For me, if it included a mindset of playing fearlessly and giving every opponent our best shot each and every Saturday I truly believe I could honestly say yes. But with the philosophy of this coach I can unquestionably say no. No, it is not good enough. No matter the record I will not support and be a fan of a coach who plays scarred and thinks that statistical likelihoods justify poor playcalling (he actually insinuated as much during the SEC media days -- that even a conservative approach that leads to punts could be the right thing to do in certain circumstances). This is not a coach I will support. I still support UT football but I am permanently off the Butch Jones bandwagon. Many fans are waiting for the result of the Florida game but today's presser was enough for me. In his mind he was only "one play away" from beating Oklahoma. Had we beaten Oklahoma -- by his logic -- there would be no reason for concern. My decision to no longer support Butch Jones is on based on a preponderance of evidence and am content with my conclusion. I realize that most will disagree with me but just give the man enough time and he will prove himself unworthy of leading an elite college program. The longer we tolerate a second tier coach leading our program, the further from the upper echelon of college football we will fall (although, as I've said before, he has drastically improved where our program is today compared to the past 7 seasons). If his ceiling is low, will that be enough for most fans? With his gutless mentality, no, it is not enough for me.
