Being a Tennessee fan, we often find ourselves second guessing everything. One of the easiest things to second guess is the absence or misuse of certain players. For instance, members of the ‘71 team still swear that they would have won a National Title had Condredge Holloway been eligible as a freshman. Another example is the claim of many a Vol fan that Tennessee would have beaten Florida in’97 had Jamal Lewis been the starting RB over the Darden/Ford combo. Are there better examples of talent misuse ?
Worley and Peterman over Dobbs, especially in 2014. JRM being only a special teams guy as a freshman.
The answer is Butch Jones. Had we not hired him, we would be in a golden age of Tennessee football, not wondering whether 2019 will be the year we sneak by Vanderbilt or let them make it four in a row. Butch came to campus with three very good college quarterbacks set up for him. Tyler Bray, Nathan Peterman, and Riley Ferguson were all extremely good at the college level and they were all brought in by his predecessors. None of them would be good under Butch. Butch started with a great linebacker (Reeves-Maybin) and a great defensive back (Sutton) already committed. He rode into Neyland with an NFL caliber offensive line prepared to help him get his feet under him. He came to UT in a time when an unusual number of highly rated legacies would automatically generate recruiting momentum for him and had some of the best instate talent we'd seen in a decade. An all-time great defensive lineman was growing up in state. A freak running back was growing up in state. Everything was there to set up a nice run for the first few years. Instead we had humiliating losses, nationally embarrassing cliches, and an offense so predictable and nonsensical that top shelf offensive players started to write us off before recruiting even began. Fast forward a few years and this bumbling ineptitude has caused us to miss out on a ton of great players that are now the nucleus of the only program that's been able to grow strong enough to match Saban's Alabama. Trevor Lawrence and Tee Higgins could have been the guys that broke the Bama streak for us. Now they'll have their jerseys retired in the wrong shade of orange. That is all on Butch Jones. We had a window open for greatness and we blew it.
Jon Gruden can eat a whole bag of [Richards]. And when he's finished, he can eat another bag, slap full of more [Richards]
...hired Kelly or Patterson after Fulmer. Once upon a time I was a fan of the idea of Gruden. I think we dodged a very expensive bullet.
I enjoyed the Kiffin hire and, at the time, it looked like the best hire possible. That being said, if Gary Patterson gets it, we would be a lot happier right now
Chipped alex brown. That game atmosphere was intense and nasty afterward. Florida fans somehow think its ok to gator chomp on UT fans heads and it turned into brawl city before leaving the stadium then bled over to the bars. Never will go back. Yell all you want. Call us anything. Dont put your hands on us.
