Remember the great feeling then ho-hum?

#1
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madbamahater

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#1
It was 2012. A cool day. I was parked in lot at Opry Mills in Nashville waiting to take my son into the Opryland Hotel for all of the Christmas stuff. It was a nice day out, a great day for family fun.

The reason we were waiting in car to go in is because I was listening to the radio. The press conference. The press conference to announce UTs new coach.

Dooley had been fired after the shameful loss at Vandie. It was liberating when they fired Dooley. There was optimism in the air. The worst coach ever was now gone.

The announcement. The official announcement from UT athletic department. It was now official. The Vols had a new coach. A new life. A breathe of fresh air. A new hero was gonna take us to the promise land.

Well................

Well, the announcement was Butch ****ing Jones. That's right. That Butch Jones. The "who's that" Butch Jones. The one from Cincinnati that had mild success with Brian Kelly's players. Yeah.....that guy....

I remember feeling so great when Doolander was fired and so disappointed when Butch was the guy.....

Just really ho-hum....I remember walking around Opryland confused. Trying to wrap my head around the decision. Hoping for the best. Hoping for a diamond in the rough. Another Knute Rockne another Robert Neyland another Bear Bryant. Hell even another Jimmy Johnson.

But, there was this feeling. This ho-hum feeling. This feeling of man this guy sucks. As much as I tried to focus on the above mentioned hopes, my gut kept reeling me back to what a ****ty hire this was.

But, I bought in. I saw the commercials. The billboards. The slogans. The recruiting. Locking down the state. Our state. Tennessee's state. I was all enthusiastic! Excited! Thrilled! Hopeful!

But, then again, this feeling would come back. This ho-hum feeling. This nervous feeling. I tried to push my fears away and just believe.

.....and then.....a bunch of stuff happened.....a ton....but I was fed a bunch of promises and excuses...but they didn't seem like excuses...they seemed like legit reasons......

.... more and more happened and I grew weary....mad....sad....fooled..hustled...groped....tricked..and ashamed.

Ashamed I had fallen for it. Gone against my gut. Gone agaisnt everything I knew...

I had fallen for Butch Jones. Butch ****ing Jones....

Now here I sit....2017...and here I sit knownig we have the worst coach ever all over again...
 
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#2
#2
I didn't like the hire from the beginning and I never could buy into the brick by brick and BS cliches.
 
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#3
#3
I remember thinking, "you mean the guy Dooley beat? Seriously?"

It was never gonna end well.
 
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#6
#6
I remember watching Jones during warmups of the Cincinnati game at Neyland. I got kind of a strange feeling at that time of "he's putting on tough" in order to have his players be tough. (Remember no sleeves in the freeze at UK 2013?) I remember watching an exchange he had out there with that JUCO WR that committed to us under Dools, then re-opened after he was fired. Landed at UC and was a pretty good player. Can't remember name.

What I remember thinking is "this guy looks like a pretender". I usually don't pay that much attention to an opposing coach pre-game. But that day it stuck for some reason. When Butch was hired that was one of the 1st things I thought about, but I was not sure why? Along the way, I got fully behind Butch and was pretty excited about the possibility that he may deliver. Especially when his first real class was 35+ recruits and a ton of elite ones like Jalen Hurd, Todd Kelly, and Derek Barnett etc.

At this point, VolNation was 99% on the Butch Train. DO NOT LET THIS THREAD OR THE CERTAIN HOST OF OTHERS TELL YOU ANYTHING ELSE. I'm not saying to a person everyone was sold on Butch, but the vast majority on here were. And expressed it so.
Especially during the hype of that 1st monstrous legacy class. After that class started building and then signed, there was only a wimper of "wait and see" around VN.

As is well documented Butch little by little allowed us to look into his "house of cards". Blasted horribly by the elite teams (59 by UO, and could have been 80), losing to Vandy, losing to USC, losing to some of the worst UF teams in decades. Remember Peterman getting that start at the Swamp? :-o Then how Worley came in and nearly brought us back. Remember 10-9 at home with checkerNeyland? Remember 4th & 17? Remember how UF was in a state of offensive disarray basically every one of those years? Then came OU, then Arky, then USC, then AppState, Ohio, etc etc.

But along the way there were some carrots to keep believing. Top 10 classes, Bowl game dominance, UGA 13 (even tho a loss), USC 13 '(His only real upset), UGA 15&16, UF 16, starting 5-0.

But, to shorten this and to not rehash the pain ... the wraps have come completely off now. Vandy 16', UF 17', 41-0 put the final nail in about every VN fan's coffin. And it sucks. Butch seems like a committed family man. He's done pretty well at the peripherals of his job off the field. APR, grads, no more nightly KPD news blotter, good personality with fanbase, rebuilt HS relations across the south etc.

But, now when I look back at what I observed before the UC game, it all seems to make more sense now. This guy has a successful coaching facade that he uses on players, staff, and fans. That facade works for some time. But eventually the veneer wears off to reveal incompetence and reality. Games where score is kept reveal all weak spots. It has become painfully clear that at this level of competition he is in over his head as a field general. Slowly but surely I have progressed to accept this. My final nail was 1st and Goal at the 1/2 in the Swamp. :-\

Butch is gone regardless of whether he finishes the season or not. Now, here's to hoping our admins land the RIGHT coach, period. It's a crapshoot in most every way.
 
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#7
#7
I bought in because I'm all Vol! Now it's time for him to go. Sad times in Knoxville. I was up for the USCe game and had a great time. It's even changed since then. Gotta move on from Butch!
 
#10
#10
madbamahater said:
It was 2012. A cool day. I was parked in lot at Opry Mills in Nashville waiting to take my son into the Opryland Hotel for all of the Christmas stuff. It was a nice day out, a great day for family fun.

The reason we were waiting in car to go in is because I was listening to the radio. The press conference. The press conference to announce UTs new coach.

Dooley had been fired after the shameful loss at Vandie. It was liberating when they fired Dooley. There was optimism in the air. The worst coach ever was now gone.

The announcement. The official announcement from UT athletic department. It was now official. The Vols had a new coach. A new life. A breathe of fresh air. A new hero was gonna take us to the promise land.

Well................

Well, the announcement was Butch ****ing Jones. That's right. That Butch Jones. The "who's that" Butch Jones. The one from Cincinnati that had mild success with Brian Kelly's players. Yeah.....that guy....

I remember feeling so great when Doolander was fired and so disappointed when Butch was the guy.....

Just really ho-hum....I remember walking around Opryland confused. Trying to wrap my head around the decision. Hoping for the best. Hoping for a diamond in the rough. Another Knute Rockne another Robert Neyland another Bear Bryant. Hell even another Jimmy Johnson.

But, there was this feeling. This ho-hum feeling. This feeling of man this guy sucks. As much as I tried to focus on the above mentioned hopes, my gut kept reeling me back to what a ****ty hire this was.

But, I bought in. I saw the commercials. The billboards. The slogans. The recruiting. Locking down the state. Our state. Tennessee's state. I was all enthusiastic! Excited! Thrilled! Hopeful!

But, then again, this feeling would come back. This ho-hum feeling. This nervous feeling. I tried to push my fears away and just believe.

.....and then.....a bunch of stuff happened.....a ton....but I was fed a bunch of promises and excuses...but they didn't seem like excuses...they seemed like legit reasons......

.... more and more happened and I grew weary....mad....sad....fooled..hustled...groped....tricked..and ashamed.

Ashamed I had fallen for it. Gone against my gut. Gone agaisnt everything I knew...

I had fallen for Butch Jones. Butch ****ing Jones....

Now here I sit....2017...and here I sit knownig we have the worst coach ever all over again...
Click to expand...

:cray: :frown: :swoon3: :boredom: :fool: :wacko:
 
#11
#11
I was playing Gears Of War 3 Horde Mode when a clan buddy told me we hired Butch. My first reaction was meh. I wasn't hot or cold on the hire. After his initial press conference I'll admit I was sold.

Unlike Dooley I always liked Butch. I really wanted him to succeed. I really starting doubting after we lost to USCjr last season then I officially jumped ship after Florida this season.
 
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#12
#12
As bad I want him gone I wish him nothing but success wherever he ends up. He built us back and made our next HCs job a lot easier. We were a hot mess when he got here and he turned the ship around.
 
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#13
#13
I was against the hire at the time and was in full 'wait and see' mode. I thought he had only been advancing his career by following Brian Kelly.
When he got early commitments from Hurd and Todd Kelly, I decided that if they were in, I was in and would support CBJ, as I thought those two guys were the most important commitments to pick up, with Hurd being an instate 5* RB when we desperately needed RB help and Kelly being a legacy and 4* Knoxville recruit.

The 2013 Vandy loss was a red flag that, at the very least, CBJ probably wasn't going to be a top-level coach.
The 2014 Florida loss made it clear that CBJ was a bad game manager.
The TaxSlayer win gave me hope that CBJ would always have us ready to play well in bowls.
The 2015 Oklahoma loss showed that CBJ was not ready for the bigtime. CBJ's ensuing lie about 4th down analytics made me wonder how long he could embarrass himself in pressers and continue to recruit well without having a big season.
The 2015 Florida loss and CBJ's chart captured all of the above negatives in one day.
The Outback win provided hope that perhaps 2016 would be different, and we'd break through.

I entered 2016 thinking that if we didn't go unbeaten in September, the whole train could derail. We escaped Sept. 2016, but the CBJ train was starting to leave the tracks.
CBJ's reinvention of expectations at UT after the 2016 SCar loss was all I needed to know about him. The 2016 Vandy loss then convinced me that if he were retained, it would derail in 2017, and we'd be coach-shopping again.
 
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#14
#14
I ashamedly admit I bought a “bUTch” T-shirt after he signed the 2014 class
 
#15
#15
I didnt know who Butch Jones was. Honestly, I was excited because I thought he had to be bettef than Dooley.
 
#16
#16
I hated the hire from day 1. I was a huge Leach supporter at the time and got destroyed on vn for it.

I wonder if we would be baffled why Currie isn't firing Leach in year 5 if they had hired him.
 
#17
#17
My hope this time is that Butch is replaced not retained (there is a change of this) and replaced with a coach who doesn't have to "learn" or "grow" on the job. UT can't afford that. Learning and growing on the job is not something done at a place like UT. That is what happens at mid-major programs. Well, that's what UT is now...

The warning signals were sounding off all over the place. Yes, Butch made the roster much better and competitive. Yes, Butch fired them up and they played hard and never quit (still kind of the case). But, the players did their part. They showed off their skills and played hard. The problem is they were constantly put in situations where they had little chance to succeed or let me say compromising situations. The play calling. The time management. The play calling at times was questionable at best. Mostly nonsensical. Mostly confusing. Mostly delusional.
 
#18
#18
I think it was easier to buy into Butch by what we had just dealt with. Had to be better than the dumpster fire we had just got rid of. Evidently the ashes were still smoldering and have flared up again.
 
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#20
#20
volunator said:
I think it was easier to buy into Butch by what we had just dealt with. Had to be better than the dumpster fire we had just got rid of. Evidently the ashes were still smoldering and have flared up again.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The program was so low by then I think anybody they trotted out not named Dooley was reason enough for excitement. He had enthusiasm and spoke with passion albeit cliched passion and for a while I thought “oh yeah we’re back”
 
#21
#21
It's just like the preseason hype that comes every...single....season. UT is going to break out and show the football world that the big orange really is CFB royalty and we're back. Ready to take the season by storm. Fans naturally imagine the best. They want to believe. That's why they're fans. Nothing wrong with that. I think every UT fan hoped this hire would be different. That this coach would finally be the one. They'll do the same thing with the next hire as well, but there are no guarantees of success no matter who it is. It's a crapshoot and we won't know for sure how this marriage with the new guy is going to work until he turns over the roster and puts his stamp firmly on the program. All I know is the next guy needs to be an alpha dog....a legit alpha to control the 85 egos in that locker room. Kids can smell a fraud. Gonna be a process no matter who it is....a long and bumpy process.....again.
 
#22
#22
:hi:
livefaith said:
I remember watching Jones during warmups of the Cincinnati game at Neyland. I got kind of a strange feeling at that time of "he's putting on tough" in order to have his players be tough. (Remember no sleeves in the freeze at UK 2013?) I remember watching an exchange he had out there with that JUCO WR that committed to us under Dools, then re-opened after he was fired. Landed at UC and was a pretty good player. Can't remember name.

What I remember thinking is "this guy looks like a pretender". I usually don't pay that much attention to an opposing coach pre-game. But that day it stuck for some reason. When Butch was hired that was one of the 1st things I thought about, but I was not sure why? Along the way, I got fully behind Butch and was pretty excited about the possibility that he may deliver. Especially when his first real class was 35+ recruits and a ton of elite ones like Jalen Hurd, Todd Kelly, and Derek Barnett etc.

At this point, VolNation was 99% on the Butch Train. DO NOT LET THIS THREAD OR THE CERTAIN HOST OF OTHERS TELL YOU ANYTHING ELSE. I'm not saying to a person everyone was sold on Butch, but the vast majority on here were. And expressed it so.
Especially during the hype of that 1st monstrous legacy class. After that class started building and then signed, there was only a wimper of "wait and see" around VN.

As is well documented Butch little by little allowed us to look into his "house of cards". Blasted horribly by the elite teams (59 by UO, and could have been 80), losing to Vandy, losing to USC, losing to some of the worst UF teams in decades. Remember Peterman getting that start at the Swamp? :-o Then how Worley came in and nearly brought us back. Remember 10-9 at home with checkerNeyland? Remember 4th & 17? Remember how UF was in a state of offensive disarray basically every one of those years? Then came OU, then Arky, then USC, then AppState, Ohio, etc etc.

But along the way there were some carrots to keep believing. Top 10 classes, Bowl game dominance, UGA 13 (even tho a loss), USC 13 '(His only real upset), UGA 15&16, UF 16, starting 5-0.

But, to shorten this and to not rehash the pain ... the wraps have come completely off now. Vandy 16', UF 17', 41-0 put the final nail in about every VN fan's coffin. And it sucks. Butch seems like a committed family man. He's done pretty well at the peripherals of his job off the field. APR, grads, no more nightly KPD news blotter, good personality with fanbase, rebuilt HS relations across the south etc.

But, now when I look back at what I observed before the UC game, it all seems to make more sense now. This guy has a successful coaching facade that he uses on players, staff, and fans. That facade works for some time. But eventually the veneer wears off to reveal incompetence and reality. Games where score is kept reveal all weak spots. It has become painfully clear that at this level of competition he is in over his head as a field general. Slowly but surely I have progressed to accept this. My final nail was 1st and Goal at the 1/2 in the Swamp. :-\

Butch is gone regardless of whether he finishes the season or not. Now, here's to hoping our admins land the RIGHT coach, period. It's a crapshoot in most every way.
Click to expand...
:hi:
 
#24
#24
madbamahater said:
My hope this time is that Butch is replaced not retained (there is a change of this) and replaced with a coach who doesn't have to "learn" or "grow" on the job. UT can't afford that. Learning and growing on the job is not something done at a place like UT. That is what happens at mid-major programs. Well, that's what UT is now...

The warning signals were sounding off all over the place. Yes, Butch made the roster much better and competitive. Yes, Butch fired them up and they played hard and never quit (still kind of the case). But, the players did their part. They showed off their skills and played hard. The problem is they were constantly put in situations where they had little chance to succeed or let me say compromising situations. The play calling. The time management. The play calling at times was questionable at best. Mostly nonsensical. Mostly confusing. Mostly delusional.
Click to expand...


If Jones could have actually learned and grown on the job, we may not be witnessing this mess right now.

Instead, he has steadfastly refused to change anything about the way he approaches the job and it has caught up to him.

Same crap offense, same problems with d line and o line depth, same QB issues that plagued him before Dobbs took over, same asinine quotes and tone deafness at press conferences, etc. etc. .

The man bought his own hype when he proclaimed himself the best staff in America and it has come back to bite him spectacularly.
 
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#25
#25
When you have to google the new coach on your phone..its going to be rough. I'll be honest I was impressed by the two 9 win seasons but this year showed he can't do anything of much when its entirely his program and those coattails are out of reach.
 
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