Worst Class Since?

#176
#176
Catbone said:
Legit question.. You guys think if we didn't throw that miracle to Jennings vs UGA and went 7-5 butch would be fired now?
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No. But 6-6 is a yes. 7-5 would have caused a full house cleaning. Which really should happen now save Gillespie.
 
#178
#178
Catbone said:
The thing is, 8 wins seasons are not necessarily bad. But what posters here don't understand is that our roster WAS STACKED THIS YEAR! That's what makes 8 wins so very underwhelming.

And before someone says something about injuries, we should have taken care of Appy State and Ohio better when we were healthy. And when the injury bug hit, that's NO excuse for losing to Vanderbilt and South Carolina after a freaking bye.
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Our roster was not stacked. We had very good skill people on offense, but very little depth in the oline, dt and at lb. DBs, other than Sutton were very questionable and inexperienced. TKjr is good but not great. Gaulden is more of a run stopper and struggles in coverage. Abernathy has great potential, but is just young. IMO Evan Berry should be on offense.

I am like everyone else I had hoped for a great year, but the media greatly exaggerated our talent and depth. Our linebacker situation was ok but we only had 3 and all three got hurt. Our d had lots of holes before the injury. I believe coaching changes need to be and will be made on the defensive side of the ball.

Everyone is saying we could have been 6-6 or 7-5, but without 7 turnovers we win at A&M and if Gaulden does not drop the pick six we beat Vandy. We could have just as easily been 10-2.
 
#180
#180
Catbone said:
Ehhh... Why were we picked by everyone to win the East and preseason top 10? This was supposed the year for Butch and the vols
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Because fans and media focus on skill players, but football is won in the trenches.

I am not giving CBJ a pass. He came in already behind on the offensive line when Dooley signed no olinemen in his last class. But we have had too many misses when it comes to offensive line (Raulerson, Sanders, Blair). Things are looking up on that side of the ball (Smith, Mays), but we were never going to challenge for a National title or beat Alabama even if our current guys stayed healthy.

Defensive tackle is/was our other weakness. O'Brien was solid. Tuttle and Mac have great potential, but we have failed to recruit this position. Until our lines are strong, we will not be in the upper tier of the SEC.

Again, fans and media focus on skill positions but games are won in the trenches.
 
#181
#181
Ace said:
Our roster was not stacked. We had very good skill people on offense, but very little depth in the oline, dt and at lb. DBs, other than Sutton were very questionable and inexperienced. TKjr is good but not great. Gaulden is more of a run stopper and struggles in coverage. Abernathy has great potential, but is just young. IMO Evan Berry should be on offense.

I am like everyone else I had hoped for a great year, but the media greatly exaggerated our talent and depth. Our linebacker situation was ok but we only had 3 and all three got hurt. Our d had lots of holes before the injury. I believe coaching changes need to be and will be made on the defensive side of the ball.

Everyone is saying we could have been 6-6 or 7-5, but without 7 turnovers we win at A&M and if Gaulden does not drop the pick six we beat Vandy. We could have just as easily been 10-2.
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In a weak East, we should have been in the SEC CG. Should have beat SC and absolutely no excuse for losing to Vandy. If our depth was exaggerated, it's because we've done a piss poor job of developing our players. That leads us back to coaching. Our position coaches have continually struggled with this very basic part of their job, but Butch's single-minded loyalty to his staff has kept us from finding position coaches who can teach. It's time to put his team ahead of the loyalty to his staff. Our players deserve better than what they've received.
 
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#182
#182
Bottom line - This team was poorly prepared physically, schematically and chemistry from the 1st snap of the App St game. Subsequently there was not one inch of improvement throughout the year. The biggest example of how garbage this staff was when they had two weeks to get healthy and prepare for South Carolina. I have seen enough and heard enough BS from Butch Jones. He will do well coaching Buffalo or UNLV
 
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#183
#183
OH-Vol said:
Based on the assessment of people paid to evaluate recruits this could be the worst recruiting class we have had since the Kiffin -> Dooley offseason.

I hope I am wrong Trey Smith, Chandler and Gray will hopefully be great but d*mn! We just saw what Jones does with loaded classes, imagine when talent falls off!
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Your Mom said for you to come up stairs and put your clothes in the dryer. NOW!!!!!!
 
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#185
#185
Any time Butch makes excuses rather than owning losses, whenever he comes up with things like "champions of life", he just looks bad, and like he has no clue what he's doing. As a Tennessee fan, I'm tired of excuses. It would be far easier to respect him if he just owned his losses. Admit your screw ups and shortcomings. It's the first step to fixing any problem. Excuses just hold us back.
 
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#186
#186
Weezer said:
Any time Butch makes excuses rather than owning losses, whenever he comes up with things like "champions of life", he just looks bad, and like he has no clue what he's doing. As a Tennessee fan, I'm tired of excuses. It would be far easier to respect him if he just owned his losses. Admit your screw ups and shortcomings. It's the first step to fixing any problem. Excuses just hold us back.
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100% agree. Hence the problem, he thinks he does even though the evidence clearly shows he does not. That demonstrates a lack of wisdom, which you have to possess if you are going to win at an elite level. You can't have a theme of "own it" and not own it yourself.

He is a really good recruiter and wants to build a roster based on good character. So I do not think the sky is falling on this class. But that's about it with Butch. So to do well, he is going to need to acknowledge his shortcomings by hiring the best coaching talent and S&C available; have them develop the players the way they want them; and let them determine the O and D schemes and plays that fit the roster. He's got to let go of "his" offense. He becomes the CEO, handles the media, and continues recruiting.

Doubt he will do it. Micro-manager. The trees keep obscuring the view of the forest.
 
#187
#187
Unless Butch pulls something big off down the stretch, i'm not sure i'd call him that great of a recruiter. I can't remember a coach that didn't recruit well here. If he were still pulling off top 5, top 10 classes then you could make the argument. This class looks like a few good pieces and a lot of filler. Dooley recruited at this current level. There is nothing special going on.. Now there is still time and he may pull a few more good players this class. I still don't think it finishes in the top 10. This isn't championship level recruiting because the results haven't been there. At some point you have to prove it on the field, that's where Butch comes up short.
 
#188
#188
Cartervol said:
Unless Butch pulls something big off down the stretch, i'm not sure i'd call him that great of a recruiter. I can't remember a coach that didn't recruit well here. If he were still pulling off top 5, top 10 classes then you could make the argument. This class looks like a few good pieces and a lot of filler. Dooley recruited at this current level. There is nothing special going on.. Now there is still time and he may pull a few more good players this class. I still don't think it finishes in the top 10. This isn't championship level recruiting because the results haven't been there. At some point you have to prove it on the field, that's where Butch comes up short.
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Trey Smith, Ty Chandler and possibly Cam Akers are all elite of the elite. That's pretty good recruiting if you ask me. If Ray comes also, hard to deny his ability to recruit.
 
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#189
#189
Bassmaster_Vol said:
Trey Smith, Ty Chandler and possibly Cam Akers are all elite of the elite. That's pretty good recruiting if you ask me. If Ray comes also, hard to deny his ability to recruit.
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Agree. It is amazing how far the trolls, who posted above, will go to try to interrupt Tennessee”s recruiting. They are aware how well Butch closes in his recruiting during January and they are scraping the bottom of the barrel It hasn’t happened in the past and it will not happen this year. We will have a really good class this year, regardless f their efforts. In fact, this may be the best class Tennessee sings in the last 10-12 years.
 
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#190
#190
Bassmaster_Vol said:
Trey Smith, Ty Chandler and possibly Cam Akers are all elite of the elite. That's pretty good recruiting if you ask me. If Ray comes also, hard to deny his ability to recruit.
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Those are the good pieces. The first couple of classes were good because he was new and had something to sell. If he can pull a top 10 class this year i'll give him some credit. I don't think it happens just my opinion. May be wrong. I don't think so though.
 
#191
#191
VOLINVONORE said:
Agree. It is amazing how far the trolls, who posted above, will go to try to interrupt Tennessee”s recruiting. They are aware how well Butch closes in his recruiting during January and they are scraping the bottom of the barrel It hasn’t happened in the past and it will not happen this year. We will have a really good class this year, regardless f their efforts. In fact, this may be the best class Tennessee sings in the last 10-12 years.
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Been hearing that.. Once again he's going to have to finish really strong for that to happen. Hope it does.. I''m not trying to derail anything, not a troll either. I just don't pump sunshine like a lot of you optimist do.. The average rank of these recruits isn't very high. It's the numbers that have it where it's at. When these other teams fill out their classes it's going to into the back half of the top 20..
 
#192
#192
I think Butch is overrated as a recruiter also. If he pulls in Akers and Ray I'll have to give him props, that'll be big time. However his high ranked classes were littered with legacy recruits, so I'm still not convinced he's this great recruiter everyone labels him as
 
#193
#193
Berry4Heisman14 said:
I think Butch is overrated as a recruiter also. If he pulls in Akers and Ray I'll have to give him props, that'll be big time. However his high ranked classes were littered with legacy recruits, so I'm still not convinced he's this great recruiter everyone labels him as
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Barnett,Sutton,Dobbs and Maybin have been the mainstays...not legacies. Best legacy has been Kelly. That's a crutch for those unwilling to concede one single point in their pointed agenda.
 
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#194
#194
butchna said:
Barnett,Sutton,Dobbs and Maybin have been the mainstays...not legacies. Best legacy has been Kelly. That's a crutch for those unwilling to concede one single point in their pointed agenda.
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8-4 is all I had to see. Don't care how well he supposedly recruits, he can't coach anyways
 
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#199
#199
KBVol said:
A little more context is required here.....

Stevens isn't interested in Tennessee in large part because of how Butch said they wanted to use him/which position they wanted him to play. Once they revealed that to Jacoby, it appears he pretty much eliminated Tennessee as an option.

Higgins is headed to that program with a recent track record of putting receivers in the league, because under Jones, our passing game has been horrible and he hasn't put any wrs in the league....the two aren't mutually exclusive imo

Jones gets much kudos for landing 5 star Smith given how his team performed this year....did some nice things to get him to Knoxville.
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Stevens has had heavy LSU interest forever. Jones' scheme isn't anything that drove Jacoby away. Some kids really like the instate draw. Some kids really like the out-of-state draw. You can't blame Jones for that.

The passing game has definitely been subpar while the running game has been great. We have a big time instate RB committed and a 5* out of state RB still considering us late, but Jones' scheme doesn't get credit for that just blame on the passing offense.

Trey Smith was a great pull for sure.

Getting the top 3 guys in your state should always be a goal and priority, but it's more of a rarity than a given.

UF/FSU don't have the top 3 guys in FL

UGA doesn't have the top 3 guys in GA

Clemson doesn't have the top 3 guys in SC (though SC might get them)

LSU doesn't have the top 3 in LA (though there's still a chance, and they did it last year)

Right now, the only schools owning their state are Mich and OSU. Both are top flight programs without many schools around to compete with them. It's MUCH harder than it seems to lockdown the top of a state unless you're the upper tier of elite. We're still working our way back to that point.
 
#200
#200
Berry4Heisman14 said:
8-4 is all I had to see. Don't care how well he supposedly recruits, he can't coach anyways
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8-4 is progress. You all do realize we never won more than 6 with Dooley right? I mean hell, the season was a disappointment, but acting like 8-4 is the low point in the history of UT football is a joke.
 
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