"The Athletic" discussion

Let's not act like Butch wasn't lying like it was his job on the recruiting trail. He was a shit head, too, on top of being a dumbass.

 

Patterson was interested. Patterson wanted to be in Knoxville. Hamilton had already had a handshake agreement with Kiffin by the time they spoke

 

Yeah that's the way I've always heard it.

My question to you is, how early on during '08 was that handshake deal made?

I ask that because the consensus at the time was that following the dust up between Fulmer and Hamilton in the '05, (Fulmer went over Hamilton's head regarding his contract during the off-season) that Hamilton was going to fire him at the first chance he thought he had the political capital.

 

Patterson could have been had either way.

 

Yes, if Hamilton wanted to break his handshake deal and go back on everything he'd been preaching to his group of check signers, he could have gotten Patterson.

 

I felt this way right up until Butch's last season or maybe the one before. I've softened on Dooley a bit from time alone admittedly, but it's Butch's handling of the players that makes me despise him. That and the SOB had my cancer ridden mother snowed into thinking he could coach right up until he was fired.

 

Yep, he could have been had.

 

Butch Jones showed me that my priorities in life were mixed up. When Dooley left, I just wanted to win. By the halfway point of the '16 season, I had heard enough about Butch that I really didn't care much about Ws and Ls any longer. At that point I'd have settled for a rotten coach as long as he treated the kids well.

 

Trying to decide whether I dislike Jones or Dooley more is like trying to decide which type of cancer I'd prefer to have. I actually have to go with disliking Jones more because Dooley made little pretense about being terrible or a shithead. He was done after three years and, had the admin any balls whatsoever, would've been gone after year 2, like Dooley himself wanted. Jones had a significant amount of the fanbase snowed in for a long time up until year 5 when most couldn't ignore going 0-8 in the conference. I hate more than anything a phony gimmick charlatan and I recognized this aspect of him from the opening press conference. I mean, do you all remember "Volympics"? I argued that shit on VN with the dolts for a bit and the usual dipshits couldn't understand the sheer idiocy of it. Vollygirl said to me "Maybe sports aren't your thing" and I realized then we would not be rid of Jones for years.

So, in essence, I hate Jones more than Dooley mainly because I hate a phony shuckster more than a genuine asshole.

 

I think this is where 99% of us are. Butch Jones is the Creflo Dollar of coaches.

 

Don't disrespect Creflo like that. He don't pretend to be nothing that he ain't.

 

I still hate Dooley more. Butch at least tried. He was just the guy caught in quicksand and all he knew to do was flail about hysterically and drag himself down faster

 

They both are terrible coaches, but Butch is also a terrible human being. Dooley is just a spoiled brat

 

Any coach that puts his picture up on the score board next to the General and then goes to bama, contributes nothing, then struts around smoking a cigar after the win after beating the team that he built deserves to be a lifetime coffee boy. [uck fay] butch and if I ever meet that SOB, there will be a misunderstanding.

 

Butch had a chance to redeem himself after he got fired. He coulda gone back to some directional school up north and done a little introspection and he might have been able to have a little personal growth and hell 5 or 6 years in the future maybe I'd even pull for him to have a little success. Instead he went to go be Saban's [itch bay] while milking the buyout money so [uck fay] him. Dooley seems like an asshole but at least he had the decency to go put his head down in the NFL somewhere to cash his buyout checks

 

The cigar thing told me everything I need to know about Butch. The amount of cognitive dissonance required to celebrate defeating the team you built, while you did relatively jack shit to make the win happen, is staggering.

 

Idk what’s more annoying, all that or the fact they lied to us for about a year about needing a crane to take that shit down

 

Butch Jones was a small man - in both stature & character.

 

The problem is that neither of them could take criticism. I’d actually argue that was Butch’s fatal flaw—no other reason he couldn’t have just rounded up a ridiculous staff and tried going the Dabo route. But he wasn’t smart and still had to feel like he was the smartest guy in the room.

 

I'm a bit disappointed in his country ham take.