The tantrum people over Ole Miss recruiting and Auburn recruiting sicken me. Really. I was BEYOND pissed when the text rolled in that Bell had signed with OSU. That being said, Butch Jones had pulled quite an impressive feat as it is.
Ole Miss: Hugh Freeze is going to make Ole Miss a contender in the West again. He had enough bright spots in his 6-6 first season to go out and relentlessly sell his school, and in case you haven't been, Ole Miss has a lot to sell on their campus not directly football related.
Auburn: National Champions in the past 5 years, which btw, CAN NOT BE OVERPLAYED!!! Why? Cause anyone who followed football these past 5 years knows it was GUS who engineered their run, who coached Cam Newton, the one and done superstar that remains fresh in everyone's mind's with TV commercials and the like, and GUS is only one or two years removed from the Auburn program. Gus' absence did one thing in recruit's minds: let them know Gus was the reason for all off Chizik's success.
Now to Tennessee: 5 years, 4 coaches, NCAA sanctions, and 2 BACK-TO-BACK losing seasons. And we expect the new coach to land the number 4 player IN THE NATION in 30 days?!? Or repair the destroyed relationship of the 5-star recruit and beat out two coaches with back-to-back national championship resumes? Sickening.
The good news? Here you go: Butch Jones has in 30 days done one thing with this class: solidified UT's presence again in the mind of the recruit. If anything, the Bell recruitment has struck a chord with the legacy recruits after seeing the backlash and pain that followed Bell's Debacle. Like the fact's said, he gained 12 NEW recruits in those 30 days, and 8 of those were commits elsewhere. And they weren't 2* players, they were 3 and 4* players.
Goals needed on this season? Got those, too: Make the Oregon game interesting. You don't need to win, and you really don't HAVE to have it be close, but a close loss or a victory over a down-trending Oregon team will put a statement on everything Butch is trying to sell next year.
Second: Win the easy games, and put a stamp on Vandy and Auburn. Those are the two most critical games this year, bar none. Not Florida. Not Alabama. We. Aren't. There. Yet. Deal with it. Vandy and Auburn are our two biggest challenges when battling for recruit's this year, and because of this Butch needs to put a solid win over both THIS YEAR. A win over Auburn negates ALL of Auburn's advantages over us, and a BIG win over Vandy puts a lot of assurance back into in-state recruits over where the real power lies in Tennessee.
Well the goals were met, but what else does Butch have to sell? The top facilities IN THE COUNTRY, as of this year, the SEC, NFL potential that is STILL here, along with our rich history and tradition, all amplified by a new attitude and an up-trend season.
