The Knoxville nightmare is over.
Following Missouri’s 50-17 domination of Tennessee on Saturday night, athletic director John Currie has fired fifth-year head coach Butch Jones, according to multiple reports. FOXSports’ Bruce Feldman was the first to report Jones notified his staff this morning.
The ouster is effective immediately, and defensive line coach and associate head coach Brady Hoke will assume coaching responsibilities for the remainder of this woeful season.
The Vols are 0-6 in the SEC with games remaining against LSU and Vanderbilt at Neyland Stadium. After consecutive nine-win seasons under Jones, 2017 has been forgettable as UT has fallen apart. It’s arguable that this is worse than at any time during the Derek Dooley era.
What’s even more frustrating is lack of competitiveness. When you couple that to all the infighting, the embarrassment of Jones’ public comments, a losing streak against every single SEC program currently and the lack of player development, it was a no-brainer to part ways with Jones.
Controversies such as the Brett Kendrick concussion fiasco and Vol For Life coordinator Antone Davis’ not-so-quiet departure only contributed to the dysfunction in the final few weeks.
When asked by VolQuest.com’s Jesse Simonton on Saturday night if he still believed he had the full support of Currie, Jones quipped that at least Simonton was consistent in his questioning before his answer:
“The message is the same. We have two games left,” he said.
“It’s all about this football team and how we finish. We work exceptionally hard every single day. It’s very disappointing when you invest the way you invest each and every day to win on Saturdays.
“That’s what it’s all about. It’s about these seniors. It’s about these players. It ain’t about the coach. It ain’t about nothing but nothing else. It’s about our players and it’s about our seniors. Again, how do we finish? We have a great challenge Saturday night in Neyland against LSU. What a great opportunity.”
Jones was 34-27 in five seasons at Tennessee, but he finished 1-4 against Florida, despite being arguably better than the Gators in at least four of those years. He never sniffed Alabama in a game, either. The Jones era was characterized by baffling coaching decisions [consult the “chart”, anyone?], Butchisms such as “Champions for Life” and “Five-Star Hearts” that made Tennessee a national laughingstock, and that dumb garbage can that became is “Opportunity is NowHere” moment. There were also bizarre things such as Jalen Hurd quitting in the middle of last season and Shy Tuttle mysteriously “falling on a helmet.”
His ouster was met with some vitriol from people who knew and covered him. Knoxville radio personality and former UT player Jayson Swain tweeted this:
“My 1st reaction is not happiness. My thoughts immediately go to the former staff members, assts, & former players of Butch Jones. They had their world turned upside down & careers negatively impacted by probably one of the worst Human beings I’ve encountered In a long time.”
Former UT player Andrew Butcher tweeted a scene from “Elf” with Will Ferrell waving: “BYE!”
It was a frustrating affair with the media and fans, to say the least; one that turned nasty this year.
But there also were good things. Consecutive nine-win seasons hadn’t been accomplished at Tennessee since the Phillip Fulmer era. He was excellent for the grade-point average of the student-athletes, and he consistently put together top-15 recruiting classes.
But he failed to develop those players into championship-caliber athletes. Then, when quarterback Joshua Dobbs, cornerback Cameron Sutton, running back Alvin Kamara, defensive end Derek Barnett and others left, the program fell apart on the field.
That’s ultimately led to Jones’ undoing.
When it became evident that mediocrity may be the ceiling under Jones and that the lowest-lows of 2017 could occur often, Currie had to cut bait. He did, and now, the Vols are looking for their fifth coach since 2008.
Finally, there was some recruiting fallout, as expected. Instate receiver Alontae Taylor will look around, he told Rivals.com’s Woody Wommack. He’s looking at schools such as Georgia, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, among others. Also, receiver Shocky Jacques-Louis decommitted, and 4-star safety Trey Dean said he would “probably” decommit.
That’s not surprising; there’s always going to be recruiting fallout. But as the decommitment from 5-star offensive tackle Cade Mays proved last week, it already was falling apart. It’ll be interesting to see if and how the next coach can put together a solid class. The bottom line is that the Vols weren’t developing those players as well as they needed to with Jones, so if the ’18 class is a sacrifice, it’s a necessary one.
Keep it right here for updates, hot board candidates and columns throughout the day.
