Tennessee has hired Butch Jones

crimsonaudio

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With all due respect, we didn't hire Saban until January because Rich Rod backed out at the last minute. Thank you queen of the aqua net.
Saban would not even entertain the discussion until the season in Miami was over.

And for the record, Mal Moore quite deftly 'offered' the job to RichRod - once I found out the real story, I was amazed at his 'political' abilities. He knew what he was doing the whole time...
 

GrayTide

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This is completely an upgrade. Tennessee is not in a position tochallenge the big boys anytime soon because the SEC landscape has changed considerably since they were relevant. This can get them back to relevance, and occasionally good status. Every football person who knows this guys says he is the real deal. The hire doesn't scare me, but he I think given the state of the Tennessee program this is a good hire and is in the realm of what they should have been pursuing all along.
I agree with Columbus Tide on UT hiring Butch Jones. IMO he is a better hire than either Malzahn or Stoops and on par with Bielema. All of these new HCs are going to struggle because this is the SEC. If I recall there were a lot of posters on here who made fun of Brian Kelly and ND when he was hired from Cincinnati.

UT finally came to the reality that if they are to climb back into
contention they are going to have to rebuild from the ground up and had to have and experienced head who wanted to be in Knoxville. It was not a rock star, but it is a good start.
 
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RTR91

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He's never built a team... His two head coaching stops have followed Brian Kelly building a program, then him taking it over. Even Chizik won a national title, through no fault of his own. Until he proves something, he's no better a hire then a coordinator at a top flight program.
And Gus Malzahn replaced Hugh Freeze for one season. Freeze was 10-2 in his one year at Arkansas State. Neither of them built a program.
 

GrayTide

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Can anyone on here truthfully admit they saw the Bielema hire at Arkansas? Why does this not happen all the time when a school is trying to hire a new HC? I understand the fans, the internet and the media float all kinds of names, but in the vast majority of the cases none of the names are hired or even interviewed. Think of all the names we heard for the Arkansas job; Petersen, Miles, Briles, Gundy, Tuberville, Franklin, Butch Davis, etc. then out of nowhere they hire Brett Bielema. It appears Jeff Long knew who he wanted for the job all along and kept it extremely lose to the vest. I really like it when a new HC is announced with total secrecy up to his introduction. Also I love it when the sports media and the espn so called experts are blindsided.
 

Matt0424

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And Gus Malzahn replaced Hugh Freeze for one season. Freeze was 10-2 in his one year at Arkansas State. Neither of them built a program.
Hugh Freeze was a good FIT for Ole Miss, no matter his record. He knew the Mississippi land scape, had been a head coach (although all on a college level) for almost 15 years.

Malzahn fits the same mold. He had 13 years of Head Coaching experience (albeit the High School level) before jumping to Arkansas. He does only have one year of Head Coaching experience at the college level, but he fits well at Auburn. He knows the lay of the land, and is primarily responsible for Auburn's success from 2008-2011.

Butch Jones came up through the ranks, under the tuttledge of...wait for it...RICH RODRIGUEZ. He had his first head coaching job at Central Michigan. Brian Kelly had taken a Central Michigan team who had been to two bowl games in their history, and took them from 11 consecutive losing seasons to bowl eligibility. After he had a couple of classes under his belt, in steps Butch Jones to take over the already succesful program. Very similar at his next stop, where Kelly took a team who had been okay (7-8 wins a year), but had only ONE conference championship in the last 42 years at the time. Kelly won two Big East championships, and went to back to back BCS Bowls...and handed the keys to Jones. Who had a bad first year (4-8), but maintained reasonable success...even backing in to a conference championship this year...

Sounds like a desperate hire for Tennesse, when the other school's got one of their primary targets...
 

rolltide_21

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Ive spent some time on Rocky Top Talk reading their articles on this hire. They've written five or six on it. They are less than thrilled to say the least. I cant blame them. If this were Bama circa 2006, I would be upset with this hire. He very well may be a great fit at UT, but the UT fan base doesnt think so. My favorite comment was "AD is Bama guy and the Chancellor is a UF guy. They are working together to keep us in mediocrity." :biggrin:
 

81usaf92

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I disagree... I would take any of the coaches over Jones, who has to arguably be the most overrated coaches on the market. They should have just held out and waited, I think a better situation would have presented itself...
The point I was making is that Arkansas and Auburn were so desperate for a name they really didnt look at the situation they were putting themselves in to by hiring these coaches. Take this for example Bilema had all the talent from wisconsin with only Iowa and Michigan trying to invade for recruits. Now he has 3 to 4 aggresive recruiters invading arkansas stealing the skill players that they have. Plus Bilema is more of a big boy type football coach wheras the recruits they have now are air raid so the transition is going to take awhile, and to top it off Meyer took him to town in recruiting head to head so just imagine what Saban,Sumlin,and Miles are going to do to him.

As for Malazhan... its pretty much an extension of Gene chizik. After the game against oregon, gus was raved as an offensive genius and really should of cashed it in for a big time job then instead the following year his credibility was hit with massive uncertanty and he had to settle for ARKST. Arkst played in an easy conference and gus thrived because of it. When Jay called it pretty much spelled the doom for Auburn. Instead of hiring a smashmouth coach and cashing in on probably the best chance they have to get good physical players, they hire Gene Chizik v 2.0. Gus hired ellis Johnson which doesnt solve one of Auburn's most gaping problems that their defense cant tackle anyone.

As for Butch Jones he is a great game time coach and he has inherited a very talented team, and I can see 7 to 9 wins his first season because of it. Talk about him following chip kelly all you want to but you dont just win 4 out of 6 conference titles just because of the previous coach.
 

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