I loved Butch Jones up until the South Carolina game in 2016. Honestly, I have been MIA from this forum and Tennessee Football largely because of what happened in 2016 (now this year is just adding to it). I loved what Butch did up until that moment.
-He took UGA to the end in Neyland in 2013 and beat a ranked South Carolina game. We were literally inches away from bowl eligibility after losing to Vanderbilt. I was at all three of those games.
-In 2014 he built on the success of the year before and we had soooo much momentum going into the next year. We lost to UGA by three, Florida by one, and Missouri by nine, and still blew out Iowa in the bowl game.
-The talent and the legacies that he was bringing in were awesome-Dobbs, Hurd, North, Todd Kelly Jr., Vic Wharton, Derek Barnett, Dewayne Hendrix, Josh Malone, Shy Tuttle, Kamara, the Wolfs, Reeves-Maybin, Darrin Kirkland, Khalil McKenzie, Jack Jones, Cam Sutton, the Berry twins, It's horrible and perplexing how we were not better with so much talent, that just shows how untalented Butch ultimately was.
-2015 was even better. We were in literally every game that we lost. I remember standing in Bryant-Denny after the 19-14 loss and Alabama fans coming up to me and shaking my hand and telling me that we were going to beat them next year. We lost to Florida, Arkansas, and Oklahoma in close games as well and finished the season with another blowout win.
-2016 was the year. We had nearly everyone back-most of the aforementioned players. We had Bama and Florida at home and were going to play in what turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life-The Battle at Bristol. We started out 5-0 and after that hail mary from Jauan Jennings, how could you not believe we weren't the team of destiny? Then of course we had the double OT loss to A&M, the blowout by Alabama, and the upset from South Carolina. I was present at the latter of the two games and I've never felt so defeated (until this season) as I did following the USC loss. Though we ended the season with another big bowl win, I was done. The blowout by Vandy had me through with Butch.
-2017 was bizarre, despite the red flags from Butch. The win against GT to open the season had me believing again for a week, but I was done again by the UGA game. Ever since then its been a precarious climb back.
I, like you, didn't hate Butch like others, I think he just disappointed me. I believed in him and saw what we could be, and still think about what Tennessee Football could have been.