Doug Mathews on Butch Jones' Flaws

#1
DiderotsGhost

DiderotsGhost

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#1
Doug Mathews Evaluates Butch Jones' Flaws

This is pretty spot-on. Mathews says Butch was good at most aspects of being a head coach but his flaws:

1. He was not a good game day coach.
2. He did not develop the talent on his roster.
3. He did not recruit well to his offensive style.

I think that's a good summation. As much as people like to gripe about the Butch-isms, he was a good motivator and knew how to get effort out of his players. He wasn't good at developing talent and he was terrible with X's and O's. I also think that he just wasn't a good offensive strategist; he sort of mindlessly tried to run a scheme without adapting to changing defenses.
 
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#2
#2
So in other words, aside from recruiting quality, he was really chitty at what's most important in coaching. Yep, I agree. I could have dealt with the dumb cliches and silly metaphors if he had just won.
 
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#4
#4
I can't agree that he was a good motivator.
Motivated offensive players score more points and motivated defensive players allow fewer points.
 
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#5
#5
He was the absolute best UT could hire at the time. He was about 5-6th interview, right? Dont want to scare you but dont hold you breath on a big name but a great up and comer maybe? Saban was at one time. right?
 
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#7
#7
TennTom said:
So in other words, aside from recruiting quality, he was really chitty at what's most important in coaching. Yep, I agree. I could have dealt with the dumb cliches and silly metaphors if he had just won.
Click to expand...

No, in dm's words: He did not recruit well to his offensive style (in other words, we just watched nearly 5 years of Butch stuffing and stuffing good-well-rounded players into his squareheaded-stubborn-no-change-holed offense ; except of course, Josh Dobbs bailed him out for 2 yrs.).
 
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#8
#8
In other words he was a good organizer...we could have hired anyone with organizational skills. His game day coaching was a disaster. I think back to Texas AM who we wore down and could have gone 6-0 if he had gone for two. They were on their heels, we are at their place and we are running all over them. We score.he refuses.to go for two and we lose the game. That's the Butch Jones I knew. Bye, bye Butch.
 
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#9
#9
DiderotsGhost said:
Doug Mathews Evaluates Butch Jones' Flaws

This is pretty spot-on. Mathews says Butch was good at most aspects of being a head coach but his flaws:

1. He was not a good game day coach.
2. He did not develop the talent on his roster.
3. He did not recruit well to his offensive style.

I think that's a good summation. As much as people like to gripe about the Butch-isms, he was a good motivator and knew how to get effort out of his players. He wasn't good at developing talent and he was terrible with X's and O's. I also think that he just wasn't a good offensive strategist; he sort of mindlessly tried to run a scheme without adapting to changing defenses.
Click to expand...

where would UT fans be without Doug Mathews? What insight!
 
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#10
#10
DiderotsGhost said:
Doug Mathews Evaluates Butch Jones' Flaws

This is pretty spot-on. Mathews says Butch was good at most aspects of being a head coach but his flaws:

1. He was not a good game day coach.
2. He did not develop the talent on his roster.
3. He did not recruit well to his offensive style.

I think that's a good summation. As much as people like to gripe about the Butch-isms, he was a good motivator and knew how to get effort out of his players. He wasn't good at developing talent and he was terrible with X's and O's. I also think that he just wasn't a good offensive strategist; he sort of mindlessly tried to run a scheme without adapting to changing defenses.
Click to expand...


So as a FOOTBALL COACH, HE SUCKED!
 
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#11
#11
I could add several.
Thin skinned and paranoid being close to the top.

The guy is an actor portraying a coach. The problem is, he doesn't know it.
 
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#13
#13
I had a long-time UT fan offer a great description to me after the Florida loss this season. He said, "Butch Jones is a good coach six days a week, he just doesn't know how to coach on Saturday's. He improved our image on the education front, understands the value of social media with recruiting, etc., but when it comes to game day the guy is absolutely terrible." He was calling for his job then, as many of you all were.
 
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#14
#14
VFLintheBurg said:
I had a long-time UT fan offer a great description to me after the Florida loss this season. He said, "Butch Jones is a good coach six days a week, he just doesn't know how to coach on Saturday's. He improved our image on the education front, understands the value of social media with recruiting, etc., but when it comes to game day the guy is absolutely terrible." He was calling for his job then, as many of you all were.
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CBJ also was bad at speaking straight up after a loss. The coach speech and cliches flowed strong with him.
 
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#15
#15
Madscientistvol said:
CBJ also was bad at speaking straight up after a loss. The coach speech and cliches flowed strong with him.
Click to expand...

Yep, that was part of his Game Day inclusion. Said he would have won himself over more people if he would have just owned some of the mistakes and quit speaking in cliches (stating the obvious) I know
 
#16
#16
He basically rode his crib notes from Brian Kelly and his snake oil salesman pitch to the TN position. The UT administration, being who they were at the time, bought it without question.

I am not even convinced he was that great a motivator. This team was blown out and embarrassed plenty of times in his tenure and the number of players that walked out on the program still seems high in comparison.

Toss in the snarky relationship with the press, the off the field stuff that has trickled out about him for 2 years, the shameless self promotion and the used car salesman playing coach description fits.

It was obvious to most he was a lousy game day coach and developer of talent early on in his tenure.
 
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#17
#17
So Doug stated what most football knowledgeable posters have been stating for 5 years about Butch and his "infallible system" and "best staff in America". Glad he caught up to the rest of us.
 
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#18
#18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Madscientistvol View Post
CBJ also was bad at speaking straight up after a loss. The coach speech and cliches flowed strong with him.

VFLintheBurg said:
Yep, that was part of his Game Day inclusion. Said he would have won himself over more people if he would have just owned some of the mistakes and quit speaking in cliches (stating the obvious) I know
Click to expand...

Yes but the "obvious" -- obviously -- is what John Currie needs to be addressing (in addition to brick-n-mortar improvements), before these things get out of hand this next go-around (Hart retiring Aug 2016 and a new AD getting feet wet during the near-entirety of 2017 season, imo, proved to be disastrous regarding leadership over the football program head coach).
 
#19
#19
He will learn from this experience and he will be back coaching. Butch will find a fit he will do great.He did some good things but bottom line you have to win.
 
#20
#20
DiderotsGhost said:
Doug Mathews Evaluates Butch Jones' Flaws

This is pretty spot-on. Mathews says Butch was good at most aspects of being a head coach but his flaws:

1. He was not a good game day coach.
2. He did not develop the talent on his roster.
3. He did not recruit well to his offensive style.

I think that's a good summation. As much as people like to gripe about the Butch-isms, he was a good motivator and knew how to get effort out of his players. He wasn't good at developing talent and he was terrible with X's and O's. I also think that he just wasn't a good offensive strategist; he sort of mindlessly tried to run a scheme without adapting to changing defenses.
Click to expand...

So, good coaches do Xs and Os, and recruit and develop good talent. And have them ready to play.

I think we all agree with Doug.
 
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#21
#21
JonGrudensAgent said:
He basically rode his crib notes from Brian Kelly and his snake oil salesman pitch to the TN position. The UT administration, being who they were at the time, bought it without question.

I am not even convinced he was that great a motivator. This team was blown out and embarrassed plenty of times in his tenure and the number of players that walked out on the program still seems high in comparison.

Toss in the snarky relationship with the press, the off the field stuff that has trickled out about him for 2 years, the shameless self promotion and the used car salesman playing coach description fits.

It was obvious to most he was a lousy game day coach and developer of talent early on in his tenure.
Click to expand...
If you didn't know it was a bad hire in 2012 when the BSiA all came from Central Michigan/Cincinnati, you surely realized it when the trumpet player hired an Olympic gymnastics coordinator as his OC.
 
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#22
#22
Keep in mind that UT was paying him $4m annually.

Now....think of it this way...

example 1:

He was a decent CFO. He had great relations with the bankers and insurers, but...

1) he never did understand accounting principles that well
2) his staff never live up to their potential of really helping the company
3) he totally sucked in the Boardroom - said the dumbest things

-or-

example 2:

He was a decent EVP of Marketing. He was great with the graphics people and social media people, but...

1. He never really understood the differences between "sales" and "marketing"
2. Creating a "brand" for our company's products and services was over his head
3. He couldn't adapt his marketing strategy to current consumer trends

In either of the last 2 situations, they'd be fired in the first 6 months.
 
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#24
#24
His orange and white games were infantile also. It was like a circus and he was the ringmaster. Very stupid, just play a scrimmage like the rest of the teams in the SEC.;)
 
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#25
#25
It was almost as though twenty or so years ago he decided he wanted to be a football coach..recognizing he was at best of average intelligence, and had no special skills or abilities he pursued a path that included 'acting, sounding, and behaving' like a coach...what he lacked in intelligence he compensated with 'coach speak', having no shame in asking and cultivating relationship with those he anticipated could help him...in other words, he 'faked it'...

On a personal note I'm an engineer...I barely graduated from UT...but got a very good job...learned early on it was far easier to merely learn the language, lingo than the skills required...learned how to act and who to sidle up to ...early on I was always concerned that someone would figure out I had NO idea what I was doing...but the years rolled by and the promotions kept coming....

Butch was masterful in the way he cultivated (played) Tennessee fans...win or lose..sometimes its difficult to tell an imposter from the real thing...

So Butch is probably still in bed...when he got up to pee around 4am he thought to himself..I'm going to go to the kitchen and eat that left over pizza...pee again...and go back to bed...
and make $12K today...
 
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