Would the Vols be in this colossal mess if they hadn't fired Butch Jones ... or hired Greg Schiano?
As Tennessee embarks on yet another coaching search, you wonder how we got to this point. Since firing Phil Fulmer in 2008, the Vols have had 4 head coaches (not counting interims) with a 5th on the way.
The results of that instability are no surprise. Tennessee’s record over the past 13 years is 78-82, with a dreadful 4-35 mark against their biggest rivals (Alabama, Florida, Georgia).
Jeremy Pruitt added to that ineptitude with a 16-19 record and zero wins against the Big 3. He also leaves Tennessee with what will likely be NCAA sanctions from alleged recruiting violations.
The Pruitt era only happened because Tennessee fired Butch Jones and then backed out of a deal with Greg Schiano. Considering what a mess the UT football program is right now — did anybody else transfer while I was typing this sentence? — it’s more than fair to ask 2 tough, related questions.
Did the Vols give up on Jones too soon? Should Tennessee have hired Schiano?
Let’s start with Jones. Jones was fired with a 34-27 record in almost 5 seasons at UT. The Vols won 3 bowl games. Tennessee won 9 games in consecutive seasons. He won more games in his first 4 seasons (30) than Fulmer did in his final 4 seasons (29).
On paper, that’s not too bad!
But the moment Florida clinched the 2016 SEC East title, the Butch Jones era was over, even if he was in place for another year.
Tennessee had the most talent in the SEC East in 2015 and 2016. Georgia had undergone a coaching change and Florida was in the middle of the uncomfortable Jim McElwain era. It was all lined up for the Vols to succeed, but UT couldn’t win the division either year. In 2016, the Vols beat Florida and Georgia — and still failed to hang a banner.
“I thought 2016 was their best shot and they got decimated by injury,” former Tennessee assistant coach Mark Elder told me. “Butch needed that year for Atlanta because I could have told you 2017 was gonna be a problem. You lost a bunch of players at the same time. He needed to get to Atlanta to have a forgiveness card. It just was not the year that quite gave him the pass. Everyone thought the writing was on the wall.”
Following the 2016 season, Tennessee lost 6 key players to the NFL Draft, including defensive end Derek Barnett, running back Alvin Kamara and quarterback Josh Dobbs. The players Butch Jones brought to Knoxville, including quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, weren’t ready to fill the void.
“In the SEC that happens every year,” former Tennessee assistant coach Zach Azzanni said. “To be a top-5 program, the guys you recruit have to step up. If you recruit worse, you’ll be worse. Ty Chandler has to be as good as Alvin Kamara. That’s why recruiting is so vital.”
And with Tennessee struggling in 2017, their recruiting class collapsed as well. Things were getting worse, not better.
In my opinion, firing Jones was the right move. If they weren’t going to win the East in 2015 or 2016, I don’t think they were ever going to win it under Jones.
That leads us to Nov. 26, 2017 … what has become known as “Schiano Sunday.” Tennessee’s attempt to hire Schiano, then Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, was squashed by an uprising that involved Vols fans, alums, boosters, former players and even state politicians.
There are a lot of reasons people didn’t like the hire. Much like Jones wilted under the pressure that comes with the Tennessee job, Schiano would have been challenged in the Knoxville market, which covers the football team 24/7 and 365 days a year. Like Jones, Schiano was a hothead with thin skin. He got woeful Rutgers into the national rankings, but that also happened at a time when the Big East had lost Miami and Virginia Tech. Schiano had no experience coaching in the SEC.
Schiano’s loose connections to the Sandusky scandal at Penn State were the biggest reason the hiring was questioned. It has never been proven that Schiano was aware of Sandusky’s crimes. But remember, in late 2016 Tennessee was still a little over a year removed from the settling of a well-publicized Title IX lawsuit. Bringing in someone with even the slightest hint of scandal should have given Tennessee reason for pause.
In my opinion, Tennessee was wise to not hire Schiano. From a PR standpoint alone, it would have been a nightmare. From a football point of view, he wasn’t a good fit at all.
He had a rough 2 years as Tampa Bay’s head coach in the NFL, going 11-21. But the biggest issue might have been Schiano’s relationship with his players.
Tennessee prides itself on being a school that sends guys to the pros. Walk into the football complex and you’ll see alums who made it to the NFL recognized on the walls. But Schiano was well known for treating NFL scouts with disdain. “At Rutgers, it was a really unpleasant day,” sportswriter Mike Silver wrote. “You were made to feel like an outsider, like you weren’t welcome. And everyone was scared to talk to you.” That’s obviously not a great thing for guys trying to take that next step in their careers.
In terms of how he treated his players, some former Buccaneers compared life under Schiano like “being in Cuba” due to his authoritarian ways. “One of the keys to a great coach is adapting,” sportswriter Mike Freeman wrote. “I have never seen a locker room turn so quickly against a coach. The players hated him.”
It’s worth noting that since leaving Tampa Bay, Schiano succeeded at Ohio State and now is back at Rutgers, where he had a better record in Year 1 than Pruitt did in Year 3.
Did the Jeremy Pruitt hire work out? No. No it did not.
That doesn’t mean they should have kept Jones or brought in Schiano.
I would like to put my name in the Tennessee’s coaching search. I used to play a little nurf turbo football back in the day. And I would even give out money bags from a better quality restaurant.
Are you going to post the same thing on every TN article? Lame.
It’s funny every time I hear it. You have my vote!
Yes a$$hole. I did it just for you
No. You the a$$hole
Now that’s funny
Is it?
Well, I too used to play a little nurf turbo football back in the day so I can relate to being qualified for a HC position.
florida cock…maybe give out $$$ in Calhoun’s Ribs takeout boxes ?
I was called yesterday and asked if I would like to be the new head coach at the College of Knoxville. I notified the person calling me that I had ties the Burger King and due to my contractual obligations, I would not be allowed to hand out money in McDonalds bags. The caller then told me that due to the fact that I was over qualified to be the coach of the little orange football team, I was being removed from their call back list.
THE DUMPSTER FIRE CONTINUES TO GET BIGGER AND BIGGER!!!!!!
The McDonalds jokes are already stale.
Not a joke. They really called me and I work for Burger King.
I believe half of that.
> The McDonalds jokes are already stale.
So are the burgers.
C’mon Mark. You are better than this article.
Did you read it? He’s saying it was still the right decision to fire Jones and not hire Schiano. I agree with him.
Yeah I read it, Junior.
My point is stop rehashing this crap. This type of story is yesterday’s news and is lazy.
The real question is, would they have been better off with hiring Mike Leach. That’s who they would have ended up with instead of Pruitt, if not for the Fulmer coup.
Tennessee is my sworn enemy but good gosh how many articles can you do on the demise of Tennessee football?
The over/under is 50.
You clicked on it.
Are you familiar with how Internet ad revenue works?
It’s like driving by a car wreck, you just have to look.
It’s funny. So many people try to tell us Tennessee football is irrelevant, and yet, we have dozens and dozens of articles, and hundreds of comments (mostly from non-Vols) from these articles.
If you don’t care about Tennessee football, then scroll on past it. Trolling is caring.
Don’t flatter yourself. Tennessee football is relevant for all the wrong reasons. Basically the laughing stock of the SEC since Kiffin dumped you.
Tennessee football has been screwed up since they fired Phil as a knee jerk reaction without a plan. THAT is when Tennessee football went in the toilet.
If there were “likes” here, this should be the top-rated comment. Did TN treat Fulmer worse than Kiffin treated TN? IMO, No. Rare is the coach that can pull off year-after-year trophy contention; the good ones do it on a cycle, and they cut him at the bottom of one.
(This isn’t a comment on his latest tenure with the university – there’s much to critique there….)
Thanks Dan… And yeah, there’s way too much on the latest tenure to comment on. But SDS is going to try! Even after their nearly claiming the second coming after a sloppy end to 2019 and those 6 wins!
Not exactly knee jerk when a coach has 2 losing seasons out of 3. At least not in the SEC.
Hey Tide, I’m not defending Phil here or his record at his demise… Mainly the fact there was no plan by the leadership to make a change or have a contingency ready when they gave him the boot.
My full belief in Bama’s success under Saban is you’re always prepared to replace someone in your system. I also won’t be surprised if that’s the case when Saban does finally take a bow. It’s truly impressive, but it’s all due to leadership and planning.
TN has been wondering around headless for nearly two decades now. And doesn’t appear to be changing that. At some point something will have to change, but Luke my approach with all the coaches we’ve had, I’ll need to see constant success before I can buy back in.
Like my approach*
Thanks swipe texting! :P
As Saban’s and Spurrier’s NFL stints clearly show, lack of coaching success at that level is no indication of potential success in college.
This seems fairly obvious.
If one of your best arguments against hiring Schiano is his lack of NFL success, then you’ve lost the argument.
Yeah I’m also not understanding why it would have been a PR nightmare? Please explain what Schiano did wrong besides the media and UT fanbase going on a witch hunt?
Read the article…we just got finished with. Title ix lawsuit. Hiring someone remotely linked to sandusky would not be a good look. So in that situation, we were screwed whether we hired him or not. We get backlash both ways…
I think I drove by Penn state when Sandusky was there am I tainted now as well?
It’s just perception. Im not saying it’s right or wrong, but apparently that’s how the media spins it. We were perceived as stupid because we didn’t hire him after all. We would have been perceived as hypocritical if we did hire him after the suit. Screwed either way.
Saban, Spurrier, Holtz and more. Dont forget how bad Holtz was in the NFL, comes back to college and has great success at Arkansas and won big Notre Dame.
EVERY school Holtz coached at git hit with probation.
I should say except ND. They were bulletproof. Though they did get caught doing some things, the NCAA let it slide. Heck he recruited Ricky Waters who could not spell Ricky without prompting.
Schiano was bad in the nfl, but that’s not what the fan protest was about. It was about his time at Penn State and the Sandusky issues. He wasn’t the answer.
Let’s be honest, they used that as an excuse because he wasn’t a sexy pick. They would’ve hired Charles Manson or Bin Laden if they could win games
Bingo.
Nash, I’ve never seen Charlie Manson as sexy but, to each his own, I guess. ;-)
I heard Coach Manson was absolutely killing it out in California…
I think it was a mix of him being a disreputable coach, history with a program that hurt children (there are no secrets in locker rooms), and a probable bad hire. Again-he did well in a very pedestrian big East and was a clown by all accounts for multiple experienced coaches and players (incl his own team). What % that mix is across the fanbase isn’t knowable or quantifiable.
Trying to pin the Sandusky thing on Schiano is a reach and a half.
The real question should be: Would the Vols be in this mess if Mike Hamilton had hired Gary Patterson in 2008, who wanted the job, instead of Lane Kiffin? When Hamilton let Patterson know UT was going with Kiffin his reason was “you’re too much of a football coach.”
Exactly
NFL players negative comments about a coach should be taken with the old grain of salt.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Exactly…it really doesn’t matter does it…
Dominoes effect! That is what happening now and been going on since Phil!
Saban had a lot of praise for Butch. I think time is all that was needed. Everybody wants the next Saban. It just doesn’t work that way. Perfect mesh of ad and coach when Saban came to tuscaloosa.
His position on the team didn’t reflect the praise. He’s not going to say he’s an idiot who grabs my coffee and handles admin tasks for me.
What an idiot:
You can’t correct one mistake (Pruitt) by replacing him with another mistake (SchiaNO!).
Pruitt was a great DC and a good guy that the players and their families loved but he was a poor multitasker and he let things spin out of control. The assistant coaches under him recruited well (chaching!) but were terrible at development and game prep.
He just wasn’t ready for the next step.
Also, college football has changed. It used to be a dominating defense (like Georgia’s) could clamp down on a great offense. Now they don’t stand a chance.
New Coach/OC needs to be Guru for modern west-coast spread offense like bama, FL, etc.
“Schiano’s loose connections to the Sandusky scandal at Penn State were the biggest reason the hiring was questioned. It has never been proven that Schiano was aware of Sandusky’s crimes.”
And Schiano has never testified otherwise or filed a defamation suit against McQueary for his testimony naming him. Has he?
Well there you go.
___
With competent leadership at UT, Jones would have been fired in October, 2017 after losing to Georgia 41-0. There was a bye week and a chance to regroup and try to get through the rest of the season. Had this been done, then they surely would have hired a new head coach sooner-thus avoiding Schiano altogether.
Missed opportunity #2 was when Bahama John Currie decided to fly down to the islands to watch the basketball team instead of getting Dan Mullen on campus and into the boat. Instead, Chip Kelly went to UCLA, Florida went all in on Mullen, and Currie went to…you guessed it, Greg Schiano.
Greg Schiano is at Rutgers! Rutgers doesn’t have the facilities like Tennessee does. Also recruiting is a lot easier at Tennessee than it is at Rutgers that was recently in the Big East conference. Never been good at Football. Only when Greg took over and it took time to get to winning ways. Then he left and it went back down. Then he demanded new facilities. The President turned demands down. After about a week or two the President changed his mind and accepted the demands and then it will take 3 to 4 years and might take longer due to corvid-19 to get the facilities built. I wanted him at Missouri. But Drinkwitz is turning to be a good hire so far.
If Schiano was picked up the Vols would be better than they are now
If Butch Jones was retained the Vols would be better than they are now
The constant firing and hiring of coaches every 3/4 years that’s become tradition at rocky top is going from a lame duck cycle to suffocation
I want to weigh in on the Schiano/Sandusky thing. I was a probation officer for nearly 7 years. Each of you, just imagine the last relative, outside your own parents, you think would be a child molestor. That person is who it would be. People think no way Paterno or Schiano did not know. They have no clue what they are talking about. Football coaches have tunnel vision like few other professions. We have no idea if Schiano would have been successful. With the way the fans acted, it would have been tough. We do need to stop the nonsense that he was aware of what Sandusky was doing.
Yes.
I know I am late to the party but I always kinda thought that we rushed things on Both Fulmer and Jones. Fulmer had a down cycle with losing his OC’s and the boosters meddling and basically forcing his hand in going with a (somewhat new then) spread offense OC. The claw-ffense didn’t have enough time to get the right players to make it effective and Fulmer was booted after 1 seasons attempt to do it. Jones- he over achieved in several games but had the teams competitive in both 2015 and 2016. The 2015 season all 4 losses were a combined 17 points. 2016 was mostly close losses as well. Some dumb and unexpected but that is football. 2017 probably should have been a freebee to him since he lost so much talent. It wasn’t, he was expected to build and be better and his tantrums and non-answers in press conferences certainly did not help.