Tennessee Vols: Butch Jones Embarrases Himself Again
By Zach Ragan
Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones continues to show his true character.
On Tuesday, the Tennessee Vols received some bad news when five-star 2018 recruit Cade Mays, a native of Knoxville, decommitted from UT.
Butch Jones indirectly addressed Mays’ decommitment on Wednesday, and he basically said that Mays wasn’t up to the challenge of returning Tennessee football to a high level.
Butch: as a 2-3 year commit, you have to look into a crystal ball and see where a program's going in the next 4 years. You have to figure out what's best for you...guys like Trey Smith were up to the challenge to try and get TN back to a very, very high level.
— Luke Slabaugh (@LukeSlabaugh) November 8, 2017
I about spit my drink out when I heard this quote from Butch, though I really shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Jones loves placing the blame on anyone but himself.
Mays had been committed to Tennessee for over two years. The only way he wasn’t going to play college football on Rocky Top is if someone gave him a really, really good reason not to play there.
Butch Jones gave him that reason.
Jones has been selling “rebuilding Tennessee” since he arrived in Knoxville in late 2012. His recruiting pitch is the same now as it was then — come be part of returning Tennessee to greatness.
I’m not the first to say this (I believe it was Fox Sports Knoxville’s Jon Reed), but Butch Jones really is running a ponzi scheme at Tennessee, where you keep investing hope, but you never get any return.
Mays has watched Jones fail to deliver on his promise of returning Tennessee to a “very high level” for the past five seasons. The closest Jones has come to greatness has been two nine win seasons with a roster loaded with future NFL players.
But for whatever reason, Jones thinks Mays is the one “not up to the challenge” of playing at Tennessee. What a disgraceful thing to say about a high school kid.
If Mays goes to Clemson or Georgia, he’s going to have to fight for playing time. His status as a five-star recruit won’t matter once he hits the practice field. If he went to Tennessee, he could go through the motions and still be a starter on the offensive line. So tell me Butch, how is he “not up to the challenge”.
I’ve met a lot of people like Butch Jones is in my life. They love to cast blame on others, and turn their back on folks when things don’t go their way.
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Jones has no business coaching Tennessee football a moment longer.
But yet here we are, preparing for another letdown on Saturday from none other than Butch Jones.