Tennessee Vols: CBS Says Butch Jones Is Underrated, Are They Right?

CBS Sports makes a strong case for Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones being underrated.

I haven’t been shy about saying Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones isn’t as bad as some fans make him out to be.

The guy has brought Tennessee’s football program back from the dead, but I wouldn’t say he’s been perfect in doing so.

Jones owes a lot of the Vols’ success over the last two seasons to quarterback Josh Dobbs. If it wasn’t for Dobbs, who routinely saved Tennessee late in games after Jones’ gameplan failed disastrously, the Vols would have been a six or seven win team the last two years.

But Jones is also the coach that recruited Dobbs to Tennessee, so I can understand why some fans may balk at that argument.

CBS pointed out several reasons why they believe Jones is underrated. One of those reasons was because Derek Barnett was taken 25th overall in this year’s draft (which is false, he was actually taken 14th overall). They also pointed out that Jones coached JJ Watt at Central Michigan.

It’s true that Jones coached Watt, but he almost completely ruined the future star NFL player. Jones wanted to play Watt at tight end or offensive tackle. Watt left Central Michigan and walked on at Wisconsin and became a star defensive end. His success had zero to do with Jones.

The other player cited by CBS is Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown. Apparently his hard work in the NFL after being a sixth round draft pick is because of Jones, but I digress.

Players like Barnett, Watt and Brown are rare players. They would be where they are now regardless of who coached them in college (except for maybe Watt, fortunately he went somewhere that would play him at defensive end).

Look I’ll buy that maybe Jones is better than fans are giving him credit for — it’s not like he’s Derek Dooley or Joker Phillips out there. But Jones isn’t going to ever bring a national championship to Tennessee either.

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I think Jones’ ceiling is Mark Richt. I think he can win 10 games on a regular basis, but he’s never going to turn Tennessee into Alabama or even what LSU was under Les Miles.

Jones is doing at Tennessee what he’s done his entire head coaching career — having good, but unremarkable, seasons. He’s a decent coach that could be at Tennessee for years, but there’s a good portion of the fan base that he’s never going to satisfy.

And at this point, I don’t think it’s worth firing him just to hire someone else that will probably deliver the same results.

The Vols should let this play out and see what Jones can deliver with a team that isn’t expected to compete for the SEC East.

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Tennessee Vols: CBS Sports Says Butch Jones Is Underrated, Are They Right?

By Zach Ragan | Jun 1, 2017

CBS Sports makes a strong case for Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones being underrated.

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