Why is Butch Jones (still) hated so much?

[25vol]

Because he’s a backstabbing, lying, arrogant dumbass traitor who set our program back YEARS who got fired for being so incompetent and then celebrated BEATING HIS OWN PLAYERS THAT HE RECRUITED while being Satans little ballwasher. I’ll never forgive that freaking hack and I hope he gets fired from every job he ever has because he’s not fit to be a water boy in a college football program.

To answer another one of your questions: Pruitt was in WAYYY over his head as our HC. He also was stubborn and made very poor personnel positions. But Pruitt was a great recruiter who loved his players and it seemed like he was well liked by them in turn, even though he was a poor HC. Lyles own players didn’t even like him or respect him because he was a joke.

I can’t fault Pruitt for doing a bad job as HC because he Phil never should have hired him to begin with. He had no prior HC experience and was a poor candidate. I do fault him for his stupid decisions that led him to be fired though.

 

[lastlapuncle]

Other than the fact that he was a lying ,back-stabbing ,non-coaching POS,I can't imagine why he would be hayed for wasting soo much talent!

 

[SpookyAction]

The crazy part was that guy believed he was that good. He got exposed without Jancek.

I was pretty excited Shoop was hired.

 

[sjt18]

Seems that many threads turn into eith a Jones or Kiffin bashing thread. Don’t get me wrong; I hate CLK came in and ran half the team off and had virtually none of his recruiting class pan out and, Jones never could get over the hill. But, there seems to be more hatred towards Jones on VN threads than any of the other coaches and this includes Pruitt.

Is it because more was expected of him or that we didn’t really expect more from the other coaches? I mean, Pruitt could have completely devastated the program but yet he doesn’t seem the most disliked of our coaches. Jones was like forever and three coaches ago but, again, he’s beat down still and a lot.

Don't hate any of them. They failed.

For my part, my bias against Jones is two part.

One, he was a fraud and blowhard. He was ridiculous and not a very good coach... especially on game day. He was full of arrogance but below average in "coaching smarts". His "record" coming in was a facade. He beat up on bad teams and struggled against teams with a winning record. He was terrible at managing player relationships and leadership... and hurt the careers of some very talented guys. He should have never been hired. If not for Dobbs bailing him out with off schedule plays... he wouldn't have had a winning season IMO.

Two, he had a greater opportunity than anyone since Fulmer and maybe going back several years into Fulmer. He basically had a bunch of legacies and homer recruits fall into his lap. He squandered that opportunity and missed advancing UT football into the upper tier.

I don't like Kiffin personally. I thought his bailing on UT was low class. But the guy can coach. He's one of the smartest X/O guys out there.

Just before Fulmer was fired he was quoted, "We've won a lot of games around here doin' what we're doin'... and we ain't changing now". Pruitt IMO was Fulmer's effort to vindicate that attitude. He hired a guy who he thought would "do it the way he did it"... right down to the McDonald's "Happy Meals". Fulmer's era was gone both on and off the field... Pruitt was his attempt to prove it wasn't.

 

[NetworkVol]

In hindsight, I like all of them. Without them, we wouldn't have gotten to where we are today.

 

[UTblood4life]

Because he blew an SECCG appearance, and squandered talent

 

[UTblood4life]

Because he blew an SECCG appearance, and squandered talent

 

[GiveHim6InSC]

I don’t hate him. I just think he’s a pompous, self-centered non-hacker who got to the highest level of college coaching by deception and empty promises.
He is exactly where he needs to be- coaching a small school and completely uninvolved with UT.

 

[Voljayton]

To me he just seemed like a fraud. A used car salesman that sold us a clunker and left with money in his pocket and smile on his face.

 

[Volunteer_Kirby]

Seems that many threads turn into eith a Jones or Kiffin bashing thread. Don’t get me wrong; I hate CLK came in and ran half the team off and had virtually none of his recruiting class pan out and, Jones never could get over the hill. But, there seems to be more hatred towards Jones on VN threads than any of the other coaches and this includes Pruitt.

Is it because more was expected of him or that we didn’t really expect more from the other coaches? I mean, Pruitt could have completely devastated the program but yet he doesn’t seem the most disliked of our coaches. Jones was like forever and three coaches ago but, again, he’s beat down still and a lot

Jones - the chart, the trash can, optional workouts, players falling on helmets, promises made to Hurd, the Butchisms, the cigar after the Bama game.

After the Bama cigar I knew he was just a spiteful man with no redeeming qualities. He was given the keys to a Porsche (see the legacy recruits & the incredible peer recruiting those guys did) and drove it like a camry.

2016 was playoff caliber talent. Butch deserves all the hate he gets and more.

 

[VolPack22]

Probably because we beat Georgia and Florida in the same season and all we had to do was beat South Carolina and Vanderbilt to get to Atlanta. He couldn’t even do that. Even after the loss to South Carolina all we had to do was beat Vanderbilt to make the Sugar Bowl and couldn’t even do that. This was a year after we lost all of our games by a combined like 15 points or something like that. Josh Dobbs was the only reason we had winning seasons. If Josh Heupel had those teams we would have had back to back SEC Championship appearances.

 

[Volfan1000]

Seems that many threads turn into eith a Jones or Kiffin bashing thread. Don’t get me wrong; I hate CLK came in and ran half the team off and had virtually none of his recruiting class pan out and, Jones never could get over the hill. But, there seems to be more hatred towards Jones on VN threads than any of the other coaches and this includes Pruitt.

Is it because more was expected of him or that we didn’t really expect more from the other coaches? I mean, Pruitt could have completely devastated the program but yet he doesn’t seem the most disliked of our coaches. Jones was like forever and three coaches ago but, again, he’s beat down still and a lot.

He was a snake oil salesman.

 

[BruisedOrange]

Because (1) we Tennesseans are predominantly Scots-Irish and always have to be hating someone, and (2) because there is no forum for anonymous, global, banking schemers who negatively impact our real lives and deserve our actual hate.

So, that leaves Butch Jones as our piñata-of-convenience.

 

[kckempf]

Seems that many threads turn into eith a Jones or Kiffin bashing thread. Don’t get me wrong; I hate CLK came in and ran half the team off and had virtually none of his recruiting class pan out and, Jones never could get over the hill. But, there seems to be more hatred towards Jones on VN threads than any of the other coaches and this includes Pruitt.

Is it because more was expected of him or that we didn’t really expect more from the other coaches? I mean, Pruitt could have completely devastated the program but yet he doesn’t seem the most disliked of our coaches. Jones was like forever and three coaches ago but, again, he’s beat down still and a lot.

Smoking cigars with the Bammers laughing at the players he recruited to Tennessee.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Seems that many threads turn into eith a Jones or Kiffin bashing thread. Don’t get me wrong; I hate CLK came in and ran half the team off and had virtually none of his recruiting class pan out and, Jones never could get over the hill. But, there seems to be more hatred towards Jones on VN threads than any of the other coaches and this includes Pruitt.

Is it because more was expected of him or that we didn’t really expect more from the other coaches? I mean, Pruitt could have completely devastated the program but yet he doesn’t seem the most disliked of our coaches. Jones was like forever and three coaches ago but, again, he’s beat down still and a lot.

I mean at the time Butch took over my standards for our football program were at an all time low. All I really expected from him was to get us to a point where we could consistently dominate SC, Vandy and UK

He failed at that. He led us to our only winless season in the SEC. And then there were his stupid sayings and excuses. But as much as I hate Butch, Pruitt was far worse.

 

[The Vin Man]

He was an insecure mental midget who panicked in big games, squandered talent, made horrible personal decisions, treated everyone differently, relied on sports psychologists and probably a few palm readers too, lost to Vanderbilt, smoked victory cigars with Bama, milked UT for every penny he could, and had a turnover trash can.

Do you want me to keep going?

 

[Dadof2Vols]

Probably because of all of his stupid sayings and then being photographed smoking cigars with a bunch of butt picking Bammers

 

[ffemtp]

I’ll have to consult my chart and see why the answer is.

 

[livefaith]

1. People hated the hire to begin with, so hating on him now gives them validation.

2. He squandered a load of talent, made terrible in-game coaching decisions, he made terrible player personnel decisions, and had some really stupid slogans.

3. He took the massive payout and, instead of getting a real job, he took a low paying job and drained every penny he could from UT. . . at Alabama - then blew cigar smoke in all our faces after their win.

4. He's an easy person to pick on in general.

5. He lost to Vanderbilt and missed a huge bowl game because of it.

6. Barb's Chip Dip

7. A combination of all those things.

Any of those things would bring hate his way. Add them all together and your have someone who is pretty much universally disliked.

Great list. You left out the fact that he didn't handle the wheels coming off well and took it out on the fanbase, including the one caught on camera during a game. Not a real smart guy.

 

[stolitonic]

Honestly? I just disliked him from......maybe not the start, but pretty close to it anyway.

His cliches wore thin VERY quickly.

Backed into some very high end legacy/in state talent and squandered it all.

That 2017 season was pain personified man. We just never stood a chance. 2020 was bad, but not even in the same ballpark.

Sorry, I just can't give Lyle a pass for driving the bus straight into the ditch.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

Hate is a strong word. Annoying is a more accurate description along with clueless. He was clueless about the expectations at UT. Jones celebrated little things that didn’t really amount to jack squat. Beating second rate big 10 teams is fun for about 10 minutes. Any coach worth a damn would have at least won the SEC East twice with the collection of talent in 2015-16.

 

[Tarkus]

Seems that many threads turn into eith a Jones or Kiffin bashing thread. Don’t get me wrong; I hate CLK came in and ran half the team off and had virtually none of his recruiting class pan out and, Jones never could get over the hill. But, there seems to be more hatred towards Jones on VN threads than any of the other coaches and this includes Pruitt.

Is it because more was expected of him or that we didn’t really expect more from the other coaches? I mean, Pruitt could have completely devastated the program but yet he doesn’t seem the most disliked of our coaches. Jones was like forever and three coaches ago but, again, he’s beat down still and a lot.

I really don’t hate the guy. I think he was in over his head but he didn’t hire himself. Tennessee offered him the job and he took it and probably did the best he was capable of but as I said, he was just in over his head. I think he’s a mid Major head coach that got a shot at the big time and just couldn’t pull it off.

 

[Rocky_Top_Vol13]

I agree with everything that has been said but came to post this one. His contract said UT had to pay him ~$12 million, but he was required to make a reasonable effort to obtain comparable employment to offset the buyout. Instead, he brought Nick Saban coffee for next to no money. When the UT buyout payments were finished, he immediately found someone dumb enough to give him another head coaching job.

It always irked me that UT didn't cut off his payments for breach of contract.

This!!! This right here. Making 35K a year getting Saban’s dry cleaning and coffee until he milked every cent he could from UT and then went for a real job. Small d**k energy if ever there was one.

 

[Rocky Top T]

Because he was a idiot! Wasted talent, he wasted 2 half seasons for Josh Dobbs and flat out lied to Jalen Hurd! I can't stand him

 

[zeppelin128]

Because he's a prick.