Tennessee Football: Butch Jones Has Been A Snake All Along

The signs were there when Dave Hart hired Butch Jones to coach the Tennessee Vols in 2012.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the last few weeks have confirmed that Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones isn’t a very good person.

The signs were there back in 2012 when he was hired to “return Tennessee to greatness”.

Jones, with his smug smile and frequent references to Peyton Manning, has always been a man in search of a way to get to the top — by whatever means necessary.

You see, Jones has never actually been that great of a coach. He inherited programs that Brian Kelly built at Central Michigan and Cincinnati. He then relied on rare talents like Antonio Brown, Isaiah Pead and Travis Kelce to carry him to respectable seasons. Those seasons were never that impressive, but they were just good enough to make some folks take notice.

Jones basically faked it until he made it.

And he eventually did make it — all the way to Tennessee.

Fortunately for Jones, he landed a couple of extremely rare talents in Josh Dobbs, Derek Barnett and Alvin Kamara, among others.

Jones had a roster full of players that should’ve competed for a national championship.

But instead, they lost to South Carolina and Vanderbilt, ending what could’ve been a special season.

With those rare talents gone, we are seeing Jones for what he truly is — a high school PE teacher from Michigan masquerading as a football coach.

Not only is Jones pretending to be a football coach, he’s also pretending to be a good person.

But we know better.

And we knew better in 2012.

From USA Today:

"But here’s the thing about Lyle Jones. Here’s why his departure makes Brian Kelly’s exit three years earlier look gracious, and why Jones has made cynics of more people in one day than Kelly or Mark Dantonio did in six years:He pretended to be committed to Cincinnati.He made the university look foolish. While Whit Babcock and Santa Ono huddled to find ways to appease Jones, Jones was job hunting.He said how much he loved it here, then spent every available moment looking to leave. If this is Monday, we must be in Boulder. Jones was a starlet, batting his eyes all over Hollywood. He was a vacuum salesman, knocking at your door, tipping his cap and throwing dirt on your living room rug."

This should sound familiar, considering that Jones, according to one report, already has his agent looking for a potential landing spot for him next season.

While his players are literally leaving it all on the field, Jones has his foot already halfway out the door.

And trust me, I can’t wait to see him go. But there is still a locker room full of players, some of them in their final games at Tennessee, that are trusting him to lead the team.

Could you blame any of the players for not giving a full effort at this point?

I wouldn’t.

But the thing is, they’re still giving their all. Brett Kendrick played through a head injury for Tennessee on Saturday night against Kentucky.

When Jones was asked about it, however, his comments didn’t reflect concern for Kendrick or the process that failed him, instead Butch just tried to distance himself as far as possible from the situation.

I’m sorry, that’s just not how it works, Butch.

If you want to call yourself the caretaker of Tennessee football, then you damn well better take care of Tennessee football and their players.

Was it Jones’ fault that Kendrick wasn’t removed from the game?

Not entirely. In fact, Jones is probably at the bottom of the list in terms of blame.

But it is his job to look out for Kendrick, his well being and what happens in the aftermath. Jones was too busy worrying about himself, though, to worry about Kendrick and why he wasn’t taken out of the game.

Perhaps that kind of reckless “leadership” is what Vol For Life coordinator Antone Davis was referencing when he resigned from Tennessee this past week.

From WMNL:

"Former Vol Antone Davis said he submitted his letter of resignation Oct. 31 as VFL coordinator after six years because he endured “constant intimidation, bullying and mental abuse’’ from Tennessee coach Butch Jones."

You’re not going to find many people, if anyone, that has a bad thing to say about Antone Davis. And there are very few people that love Tennessee as deeply as Davis.

But this is who Butch is as a person — an arrogant, thin-skinned coach that loves to berate folks and mislead others.

And it’s an absolute shame that Tennessee is still letting him run through the T.