Will Butch Jones be a better coach this year?

#26
#26
iKrager said:
Butch has had one year with an awful roster and a tough schedule, of course he deserves the benefit of a learning curve - that's why I think it's silly. I'm not sure there are many coaches who would have done better knowing the condition of the program. Jmo.
Click to expand...

It isn't silly because many things that happened last year were the product of coaching and coaching decisions. Oregon may have won because they had more talent and were fully implemented in their system... that didn't cause a complete blowout. The Vandy loss and possibly the UF loss were due to coaching decisions.

It was a coaching decision to stick with some of the OL's even after Jones openly expressed dissatisfaction with the way they finished blocks. It was a coaching decision to play McCullers and Hood when this year's projected starting DL indicates they would rather play smaller and faster on the DL.

I am willing to give him this benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was playing the seniors while putting extra development time into the returning players. He appears to have done that with Jackson and Maggitt for sure. Both could have helped in critical ways last fall. Maybe it does take a year for the players to become comfortable and sync in his system.


There are LOTS of coaches who would have done better in terms of wins and losses. Fulmer would have and few here have been rougher on Fulmer than me. He would have just "thrown it all at them" to see what would stick then he would have gone with it.

One of the things I like best and take the most hope in concerning Jones is that he seems to build his system from the ground up. The team and players have to master one level before moving on to the next.

I guess if I had to summarize it would be that Jones seems to mold/recruit/coach/develop players to the strength of his system while guys like Fulmer (and there are many of them who succeed) mold their system to the strength of their players. When you say that Chaney or even Cut has an "offensive system"... it is a lot looser than what we would call Jones' O system. Theirs are much more variable.

I cannot adequately express how much I prefer what I "think" Jones is doing over the way Fulmer did it... I hope it works.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#30
#30
98utvols said:
Agreed.

The coaches obviously knew the secondary speed was well below average for the SEC, so you think our coaches would have worked on the angles our guys were using.
Click to expand...

Sometimes even good angles can't overcome the lack of speed we had last year. It's not as if the objects that were being chased were stationary. Our defense was terribly slow last year. Hell, Aaron Freakin Murray ran down the middle of the field last year. He outran the entire D. Look at the UT Pro Day numbers....Palardy was the fastest or second fastest. That is sad :cray:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
#31
#31
MANY D's with less speed and talent than UT's last year performed better than UT did.

The one major concern I have right now about the coaching staff is that the DC flat looked outclassed many times last fall... and not just by the big boys. USA's OC twisted him in knots.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
#32
#32
CBJ has a better perspective as to what to expect from the SEC this year. True, he has played SEC teams in the past at other schools. but he didn't have to go against them week after week. Our record may not reflect a better coaching job (hope not) but I think the play calling may be better and the effort from the players will be better. I look to see a lot of running in the first several games from our offense to give the line and new running backs time to learn to pass block better.
 
#33
#33
sjt18 said:
MANY D's with less speed and talent than UT's last year performed better than UT did.

The one major concern I have right now about the coaching staff is that the DC flat looked outclassed many times last fall... and not just by the big boys. USA's OC twisted him in knots.
Click to expand...

Agree.
 
#34
#34
There is always a learning curve in coaching.. For example, last year was full of opportunites to see how these kids are maturing and what their capable of. This year should be the same, I would say the way a coach approaches the game of football is relatively the same without change. But the way each coach coaches each player always changes as you are always learning what each player is capable of throughout the season. So I would expect there to be some improvement this year in his coaching as we should have more gametime options because of the talent influx but I wouldnt expect to see any of these options blossom until after the first quarter of the season unless it is an older player. There is a balance between what a coach can do on his own to effect the game and what he can do according to individual dependability of his players.

Defensive scheme has to get better. and I personally think it should considering that we have experience at Linerbacker, DB's, corners. And to be honest, I'm not sure it would take much to match the level of play of our defensive line last year and improve some.

Go Vols!!!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#35
#35
sjt18 said:
It isn't silly because many things that happened last year were the product of coaching and coaching decisions. Oregon may have won because they had more talent and were fully implemented in their system... that didn't cause a complete blowout. The Vandy loss and possibly the UF loss were due to coaching decisions.

It was a coaching decision to stick with some of the OL's even after Jones openly expressed dissatisfaction with the way they finished blocks. It was a coaching decision to play McCullers and Hood when this year's projected starting DL indicates they would rather play smaller and faster on the DL.

I am willing to give him this benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was playing the seniors while putting extra development time into the returning players. He appears to have done that with Jackson and Maggitt for sure. Both could have helped in critical ways last fall. Maybe it does take a year for the players to become comfortable and sync in his system.


There are LOTS of coaches who would have done better in terms of wins and losses. Fulmer would have and few here have been rougher on Fulmer than me. He would have just "thrown it all at them" to see what would stick then he would have gone with it.

One of the things I like best and take the most hope in concerning Jones is that he seems to build his system from the ground up. The team and players have to master one level before moving on to the next.

I guess if I had to summarize it would be that Jones seems to mold/recruit/coach/develop players to the strength of his system while guys like Fulmer (and there are many of them who succeed) mold their system to the strength of their players. When you say that Chaney or even Cut has an "offensive system"... it is a lot looser than what we would call Jones' O system. Theirs are much more variable.

I cannot adequately express how much I prefer what I "think" Jones is doing over the way Fulmer did it... I hope it works.
Click to expand...

It was a strategic decision by Butch to sacrifice results last year. He stayed with some of the players to get those that are starting and playing this year ready. It was not the most popular decision but that was the decision that he made. He let all if not most of the seniors play out their time at UT.

The team that is taking the field this year is Butch's team. He has the own the wins and losses this year.
 
#36
#36
In reality I would have to say that last year had several factors going on. Among those these would be the biggest, at least to me 1) Not a ton of talent (lack of overall team speed and let’s face the offensive line was over rated) on the field to work with. 2) Another new system to be learned by the players. 3) Coaches getting their first experience with a higher level of competition. 4) A very brutal schedule that did us no favors.

Bottom line is that the season wound up being about what I expected minus the South Carolina win and the Vandy loss, but those balanced out. I did not expect to be so close to beating Georgia, but it seems to me that Georgia seems to choke or at least tries to against Tennessee.
 
#37
#37
sjt18 said:
MANY D's with less speed and talent than UT's last year performed better than UT did.

The one major concern I have right now about the coaching staff is that the DC flat looked outclassed many times last fall... and not just by the big boys. USA's OC twisted him in knots.
Click to expand...

Please name a D with less speed than UT, that performed better?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
#43
#43
titansvolsfaninga said:
Vandy had less speed? I doubt it. Their linebackers were a lot faster than ours.
Click to expand...

Being in the right place and in the right defense can make teams appear faster than they are

Just as teams in the wrong defensive alignment and consistently playing out of position can make a defense appear slow
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#44
#44
I know we our all bashing our defense and rightly so, but lets not forget that our offense couldn't keep the ball long enough to give our d a rest.
 
#45
#45
CountVolcula said:
Being in the right place and in the right defense can make teams appear faster than they are

Just as teams in the wrong defensive alignment and consistently playing out of position can make a defense appear slow
Click to expand...

Boise State under Wilcox was a good example of this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#47
#47
vandy wont look real fast in that 3-4. Azubike is not a space player. hes a hand in the dirt DE like Jac was. Hes about as slow. Id imagine they will be out of place alot this year. Teams never transition well to that in this league. We were slow no doubt but we def appeared to be slower just because we were never in good position. We will improve this year. Butch Jones teams always improve in year 2.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top