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Butch Jones’ Mentor, Brian Kelly, Says He Led Notre Dame “Poorly” Last Season

By Zach Ragan

Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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Regardless of who you pull for, it’s always nice to see a head coach take responsibility.

Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones counts Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly among his biggest mentors.

So it might be wise for Jones to take a page out of Kelly’s playbook.

Notre Dame finished the 2016 season with a 4-8 record. That is Kelly’s worst record since 2004 when he went 4-7 as the head coach at Central Michigan (Butch Jones was Kelly’s running backs coach that season).

It was definitely an uncharacteristic year for Kelly as a head coach. He did face some adversity. Off the field problems plagued the program before the season. Kelly also dealt with some attrition, losing top wide receivers Will Fuller and Corey Robinson.

But Kelly didn’t use those circumstances as excuses. Instead, he took full responsibility for the poor effort last season.

Here’s what Kelly had to say on Monday.

"Brian Kelly: “There are no bad football teams. There’s just poorly-led football teams. And I think I led this team poorly”"

You can’t ask for much more than that as a fan.

In fact, I think a lot of Vol fans would love to hear this same sentiment from Butch Jones.

Look, we all know that Tennessee dealt with their fair share of issues last season. Player departures, a multitude of injuries, etc.

But fans don’t need to be constantly reminded of that from the head coach.

Given the circumstances, Tennessee’s nine wins could be considered impressive.

And they probably would be viewed that way by more fans, if Jones would just step up and issue a statement similar to Kelly’s.

It would definitely give the “nega-Vols” some hope.

Not to mention it would give all fans the hope that Jones is willing to evolve and question anything and everything in the program.

Though it’s worth noting that the Vols have made some big coaching changes this off-season.

But the changes can’t stop there.

Tennessee has the talent to be a national championship contending team.

However, it’s going to take a national championship caliber coach to get them to that point.

Next: Ranking Butch Jones' First Four Recruiting Classes

Can Butch Jones be that guy?

Unfortunately only time can tell.

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