Take Dooley's worst moments (13 men on the field against LSU, letting clock expire against Mizzou) against Butch's (blown lead against Oklahoma, blown lead against Florida, the routine under-use of someone like Alvin Kamara and routine inability to get the ball into the hands of his best players). I'll think you'll find that they were both bad tactical coaches, with perhaps Butch being marginally worse. Butch certainly had better talent, which perhaps made his tactical mistakes more noticeable as well.
My overall point is that Dooley went 16-21 (5-19) in 3 years at Tennessee (wasn't officially credited with the last win but including it here). That record, more or less, is a pretty good indicator of the actual talent level of his teams. He had a boneheaded by strong-armed QB, good/great WRs, an offensive line that could pass block, but not much else. His defenses, especially that last season, were under-talented and generally horrendous.
In his last 3 years at Tennessee, Butch went 22-16 (9-15). He wasn't officially credited with the last 2 losses but including them here. IMO that record is not indicative of the talent level he had during those years. They should have been much better than than during that 3 year period. He had a good QB tailor-made for his system, an RB tailor-made for his system (Kamara), good WRs, who while not perfect fits for his system were good players, a decent offensive line, and a host of good defensive players (Barnett, JRM, DKJr, Gaulden, Sutton). That's pretty pathetic that a team with those guys, plus other solid players I could have included, won just 37% of its conference games during that 3-year period. Of course many of the aforementioned guys were hurt for large parts of their careers here, but I'd say some of that is on the coaching staff too and their lack of an adequate S&C program.
2015 and 2016 both should been 9-11 win regular seasons, with 2017 being something like a 7-win rebuilding year after the loss of many of the aforementioned guys.
