One of Butch Jones’ best attributes as Tennessee’s coach was his incredible ability to recruit elite talent to Rocky Top. In fact, his first two full recruiting cycles in Knoxville ranked as some of the best in the nation. The 2014 class ranked No. 7 in the nation and the 2015 class No. 4 in the nation — according to 247Sports Composite Rankings.

The 2014 class should have been the foundation of Jones’ program, instead, of the 32 signees that would have been seniors or redshirt juniors for the 2017 season, only 13 players remain on the roster today. The defections from that class include RB Jalen Hurd, DE Dewayne Hendrix, RB Derrell Scott, OL Dontavius Blair, DB D’Andre Payne, WR Vic Wharton (Jones’ first ever commit at Tennessee) and TE Daniel Helm among others.

With so many defections, which is a common theme of Jones’ Tennessee recruiting classes, the Vols have struggled with the necessary depth to compete once injuries begin to mount. That issued plagued the 2016 and 2017 squads and could be argued ultimately led to Jones’ dismissal after his teams failed to handle the adversity that comes with injuries every season in the SEC.

Why the program suffered from so many defections is a natural question to ask. According to an email written by Steve Helm, Daniel Helm’s father, to former UT chancellor Jimmy Cheek, which was acquired by John Adams of the Knoxville News Sentinel, the answer appears to be Jones’ treatment of his players.

After Helm was allegedly berated by Jones during a team meeting, the former Tennessee coach allegedly ordered Helm to write “I’m a pussy” 100 times in his notebook during the meeting, he decided to leave the program following the alleged incident.

Here’s a section of the email Steve Helm sent to Cheek:

“I made sure we got Daniel out of there before (Butch) Jones put him in a place where Daniel might have knocked him out. Then, my great straight A kid would have an assault charge. If a member of that football team does finally lose it with Jones and an assault charge is filed, we will provide authorities with everything we know as we will not let that man ruin a young kid’s life.”

Pretty damning comments from a parent of an elite recruit with no issues in his past or at his next destination — Helm left Tennessee and transferred to Duke. To go so far as to warn Tennessee officials of providing evidence should an attack occur in the future should have registered as a major red flag. It’s unclear what, if anything, the school did with this information.

Knoxville radio host and former Tennessee receiver Jayson Swain added an interesting thought on Twitter soon after Adams posted his story: Why would Wharton, Jones’ first commitment of Rocky Top, be so eager to leave the program just as his career began to blossom?

The full story by Adams can be read here.