As best I can gather, Butch Jones recruiting strategy seems radically different from his most recent predecessors at UT -- Kiffin and Dooley. Kiffin's -- and in reality Orgeron's model -- was to throw around early offers to every big name player in the land, no matter who they were and where they lived. They would then work their way down the list. The approach was twofold: 1) to identify and secure the best "stars" in the land, especially potential EEs; 2) create public buzz surrounding the program leading to a "domino" effect for future recruits. This approach is sound, and not too different from what Tennessee was doing with Fulmer by the mid-1990s. But Kiffin only made it a year and a half, and some of this "buzz" resulted in both positive and negative press. And though Kiffin himself was a very talented recruiter, Orgeron laid out the gameplan from Day 1. Dooley's "approach" -- if we can call it that -- was radically different. Dooley offered very few prospects and only after very careful consideration. He didn't like early commitments because of the responsibility for hanging on to them, and he hated what he considered "flashy" or "hot sauce" recruiting. There is nothing wrong per se with being judicious, but the tricky part is if you miss, as UT did last year with DJ Humphries and this year with Derrick Greene, then you have very few (if any) fallback options. In retrospect it appears Dooley disdained many of what you might consider the bedrocks of recruiting -- constant contact, developing parental relationships, and maintaining visibility in the coaching community. Butch Jones has done something fairly interesting -- generating buzz within the pre-existing framework of UT football -- by going after legacies, people that "love" UT, and high school coaches he feels are sympathetic to the message. Like Kiffin, he has offered a lot of kids already, and also like Kiffin, he has been active on radio and television. But unlike Kiffin, he is using the pre-existing UT brand and the "family message" as his sales pitch. Kiffin thought recruits would be more interested in Reggie Bush than Jamal Lewis. Dooley clearly understood the history of Tennessee, but clumsily tried every possible way to deny its existence. I don't think for a minute that Tennessee was Butch Jones dream job, but he does understand how meaningful UT is to so many people, and has tapped into that passion early. Kiffin believed it was irrelevant to getting good players and Dooley occasionally mentioned it, but never really wanted to get his hands dirty with it. I also believe this strategy is 110-percent Butch Jones' -- it's almost quaint, if not downright cheesy. What does this all mean? Nothing really. Just something to observe going forward. As always, the rubber hits the road when we see if Butch Jones can actually win football games.
Solid analysis, but it helps that his first solo class just happens to have a ton of solid legacies in it. Almost a duh move.
Last time I checked the Berry twins were far from a lock and Kelly hasn't committed yet either. Regardless of the fact they're legacies, Butch still has to close the deal with these kids. If he does, he deserves the credit.
They are at that status because the previous coach was a giant **** up. Jones must get nearly all, if not all, of those legacy recruits. These are kids who grew up wanting to be Vols, so the minimum expectation should be to get these kids here. Jones starts getting kids in the top 100 from around the area and I'll give him credit there.
Good post, Volfanjo. I agree. Jones has one shot at building recruiting credibility - make lemonade out of lemons. He has to squeeze more wins out of a less talented roster than exists in half of the SEC. That is possible in his first season due to the opponents' lack of familiarity with the schemes he uses. He has to develop a hardnose, kick ass type team mentality. It will take several years of mending fences with legacies, HS coaches and traditional Vol feeder programs as you described. He has to can any coaches immediately that don't get it done. He needs more help from the UTAD and school in clearing obstacles to success out of the way - which is the part that concerns me the most.
We might have less talent than half the SEC, but we don't play just the top half of the SEC. 6-6 should be expected if he and his staff are worth a damn.
Obviously the "legacies" are fortuitous. I guess what I'm getting at is Butch really has to sell himself since he's an outsider and came to the SEC by way of Ferris State and Central Michigan. But guys that "came out of nowhere" so to speak -- Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Brady Hoke (all former MAC coaches) -- really had to build relationships from the ground up. You aren't selling facilities, or great weather, or even NFL opportunities at those places. So you sell things like "family" or "vision"... or, more to the point, yourself. Will Butch be more Urban than Gary Pinkel on the recruiting front? Time will tell. We can only hope.
