Tennessee Vols: Breaking The Butch Jones Code

Butch Jones is the Tennessee Vols’ head coach, but who is he really as a coach?

Most of us are all on the same page when it comes to Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones.

We know that he’s not the guy that’s going to lead Tennessee back to greatness.

But we need to break the “Butch Jones code” in order to not make the same mistake with the next hire.

Obviously the clichés and excessive coach speak are annoying. But we have to be on the lookout for more than infuriating slogans.

What has Jones done, or not done, during his career as a head coach? What are the signs we need to look for?

When you take a look back at Jones’ coaching record, the first thing that sticks out is that he’s only won 10 games or more twice in his ten years of coaching. He’s also never had a team finish higher than 21 in a final AP or coaches poll.

On first glance, those things might not seem that concerning.

But if you look a bit deeper, you’ll see plenty of reason for concern.

Jones’ teams have never really overachieved. His teams that were “successful” (2009 Central Michigan, 2011/12 Cincinnati, 2015/16 Tennessee) all relied on incredibly special players just to get Jones to a decent season. It’s not like he got the best out of his players, he just had rare talents on some of those teams.

• 2009 Central Michigan: Antonio Brown, Eric Fisher, Dan LeFevour
• 2011 Cincinnati: Isaiah Pead, Travis Kelce, Kenbrell Thompkins, Derek Wolfe
• 2012 Cincinnati: Travis Kelce, Kenbrell Thompkins, George Winn, Munchie Legaux
• 2015 Tennessee: Josh Dobbs, Alvin Kamara, Jalen Hurd, Josh Malone, Derek Barnett, Cam Sutton, Jalen Reeves-Maybin
• 2016 Tennessee: Josh Dobbs, Alvin Kamara, Jalen Hurd, Josh Malone, Derek Barnett, Cam Sutton, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, John Kelly, Jauan Jennings

(Looking back at 2015/2016 Tennessee with all that talent, how in the world did Tennessee lose a game outside of Alabama?!?!?!)

But back to the point. Butch Jones has proved through his 10 year career as a head coach that he can only field a top 25 team when he has elite talent. Other coaches probably would have achieved much better results with some of the talent that Jones has had.

The only thing that’s kept Jones around as a head coach this long is his ability to recruit. But once the talent arrives, he doesn’t really know what to do. He doesn’t know how to discover each team’s identity and play to those strengths. Instead, he just tries to ram his philosophy down everyone’s throats. Sometimes he has the talent to make it “work”. Other times, like this season, his system abundantly displays its flaws, without a fail safe (like Josh Dobbs) to rely on.

So what do we take from this?

Well, Tennessee needs to make sure they hire a coach that actually develops players and makes good game day decisions. It’s about more than an interview. Hopefully they actually watch some game tape of prospective coaches and see what they do in certain situations. Tennessee needs to find a coach that takes command of the situation, not one that seems like he’s making it up as he goes along.

The Volunteers also need to be on the lookout for “fools gold”. PJ Fleck is an example of this. He turned a 13-1 season at Western Michigan into a job with Minnesota. How did he do it? On the shoulders of Corey Davis, one of the best college wide receivers ever. Would Fleck have the job he has now without Davis? Probably not. Just like Jones probably wouldn’t have the job he has now without Antonio Brown and Travis Kelce.

Next: Top 5 Coaches To Replace Butch Jones

Jones would make a good position coach/recruiting coordinator, but I don’t think anyone should trust him to be a head coach again. At least not at the Power 5 level.