As you all know, I mainly watch/cover the SEC. Unfortunately for me, most of my memories of the SEC have been hot garbage as I missed a majority of the golden years when the SEC contained three or four elite teams. Along with those were three or four more teams that were also pretty respectable and created some sort of parity. That now seems like a distant memory, as the SEC is only average at best.
So who is to blame for all of this? Well we could blame the athletic directors for hiring such crappy staff members, but in hindsight, it was hard to see these hires ending poorly when they first made the hire. We can say it is bad from the start, but plenty of people didn’t like certain hires that worked out well and vice versa.
So do we blame the players? Not really. Despite the awfulness that the SEC has provided us, they still have some of the best recruits in the country and SEC teams still do extremely well for recruiting. It is the coaching. There are a lot of bad coaches in the SEC, but I think most would agree that the head of this crap train is Butch Jones. Due to this, I decided I should share my thoughts with Butch and please pass this on to Butch Jones through his attorneys .
My Letter
Salutations Butch Jones,
How are you? I am well. Not really, but not the point. I would like to share my thoughts about your tenure at Tennessee and how it perfectly represents the rapid decline of the SEC.
First, there is the pattern of extremely high recruiting classes, yet such poor product on the field. Now there are plenty of teams that finish with a very high recruiting ranking that haven’t translated to the field. However, Tennessee has by far been the worst with such highly ranked recruiting classes. The Volunteers are currently 0-4 in conference play, along with Missouri and Vanderbilt in the SEC East. Let’s take a look at the recruiting rankings for these three teams.
Rankings (SEC Rankings)–According to 24/7 Sports
Missouri
2014: 37th (13th)
2015: 25th (12th)
2016: 43rd (13th)
2017: 45th (13th)
Vanderbilt
2014: 46th (14th)
2015: 49th (14th)
2016: 54th (14th)
2017: 66th (14th)
Tennessee
2014: 7th (5th)
2015: 4th (2nd)
2016: 14th (7th)
2017: 18th (7th)
See the issue? Of course some of the players from the 2014 class are now in the NFL, but I do not believe that warrants any passes here. Other schools like Kentucky and South Carolina are doing much better than Tennessee and with so-so coaches, so-so recruiting classes, and not the awesome history that Tennessee has that usually attracts top players.
Rivals
Next, the abhorrent record against your three biggest rivals: Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Since your arrival, the Volunteers have posted an astounding 3-12 record against these programs. While Alabama has been a powerhouse for the entirety of your tenure, both Florida and Georgia have seen better days as powerhouse programs. This was supposed to be something to take advantage of, instead you decided to one-up them in mediocrity. This one is probably the one that hurts the most for the fans, as they have had to sit quietly while other fan bases have mocked them for years. While you also have to deal the mockery from other teams and media members, the fans don’t have millions of dollars to comfort them in times of stress like you Butch.
Thievery
Here is what I’ll give you Butch… this is not entirely your fault. You were set up to fail as the state of the program was not very good when you took over. However, the thing that I will criticize is lack of self awareness and not knowing your limitations. It is good to know your limitations, as it could prevent you from these kind of disasters. For example, I know I am OK cook as I can cook several things that are relatively difficult and time consuming to make. But that doesn’t mean I should open a restaurant and become the head chef. Nevertheless, the fact you are getting paid millions of dollars is thievery as all you do is make generic football fans, such as myself, cringe and piss off people who support Tennessee.
Legacy
While your legacy at Tennessee has been rather disappointing, you will certainly be remembered for more than just your win-loss record. Over the last year and a half you have provided a lot great one liners such as: “Champions of Life”, “Five Star Hearts”, and more recently, “Leadership Reps”. Your ability to get more emotional over a regular season win than Nick Saban gets winning his many championships is quite amazing, and of course you have the trash cans. The kind of entertainment that you brought to us was more enjoyable than what has been seen on the field. For that, I thank you.
Conclusion
In closing, I don’t want to sound crass. I do think you are a genuinely nice person and lots of people–including your players–like you and would defend you no matter what. However, as a football fan and someone who invests his time into sports, I am rather disappointed at what you have done to the Tennessee program. It has become more laughable than your memorable one-liners and that right there is a problem. What you have done to this program perfectly represents what has gone wrong with this once elite conference. Now, of course, the only way to change this pattern is to start fresh and maybe other programs with follow. Until then, I will continue trying to watch SEC football, which now seems like more of a chore than a guilty pleasure.
Sincerely, Bucky