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Recruiting is now being affected .....unfortunately, I'm afraid we are taking the path downward again.....  please tell me what or who can get Tennessee back to the level the fans expect and deserve?   I'm just not sure... :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:   

Rumors floating Butch is out... going to Purdue. TIFWIW. He has been very quiet post Vandy. I just hope there is a plan of some sort.

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Who decommitted btw?

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Here you go --

http://www.rockytoptalk.com/2016/11/29/13788426/breaking-3-highly-rated-17-recruits-decommit-from-tennessee-vols-football-butch-jones (http://www.rockytoptalk.com/2016/11/29/13788426/breaking-3-highly-rated-17-recruits-decommit-from-tennessee-vols-football-butch-jones)

Dang. Something going on.

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Hadn't heard this....but if he can't take the pressure, he needs to go.

Two were due to grade issues, most likely were not going to qualify
The other, recruited over

Ok PV...thanks for the info...I don't keep up with recruiting normally, but saw this on FB this morning.

I doubt there is any truth to the rumors. If Jones did leave us high & dry would we be forced to go for Miles? :eek: Crazy I know. Seems the rumors on other boards have settled. May have been a Twitter troll.

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Yup.  Room for some five stars now.  It's a great sales pitch.  "We really need you at Tennessee.  If you go to bammer/Florida/Georgia, you will sit the bench". (Typed with straight face).   :naughty:

The Jones to Purdue rumor is garbage. It was started by a fake Bruce Feldman twitter account.

10-4

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^This....one was told to look around and the others was most likely sign and place.

Actually it has been out there since long before it was posted on that fake account, CW.

Not likely to happen since Purdue won't come up with the $4 million to buy Butch out of his contract, however.  

That said, guys whom I trust say that his agent has been sending out feelers.  

I have no doubt that he's looking, and that he'd jump in a heartbeat...but I don't think it will be Purdue.

Yep.  He wants out. 

you are correct

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tennessee-football/wild-butch-jones-purdue-rumors-shot-know/ (http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tennessee-football/wild-butch-jones-purdue-rumors-shot-know/)

I'm tired of hearing that he's a victim of his own success. That's nonsense. He's a victim of his own cliches. He tried to spin, tried to control the narrative, and tried to pump sunshine up the butts of the entire 102,455, and now he's offended that most folks are disillusioned.

Truth. His "I am the smartest guy in the room" act has worn on his coaches, many of his players, and a large part of his support and fan base. 

As time moves on and the dots begin to connect, I'm beginning to see this more and more. It explains a lot of things like Hurd and the conduct on the sidelines. It looked like the players just didn't have it in them this year

And the dots continue to connect.  

Tony Basilio just made the statement that Butch and his agent are pushing hard for a raise and a contract extension.  Given the way this season completely exploded down the stretch, that in itself is an arrogant move.  That's an indication that they may be looking for an excuse and/or justification to leave.  

I keep hearing Butch talk about how his teams are 13-4 in its last 17, or whatever the number is.  

But the reality is that he is also 3-4 in his last 7, and that includes losses to South Carolina and Vanderbilt.  This is a "what have you done for me lately" business.  To be talking about a raise and extension at this point is absurd. 

I was puzzled by this as far back as Fulmer 2007...the tendency to give extensions and raises at the drop of the hat. I did finally read last year though, that this is very common now for two reasons.  One, it builds confidence for recruiting.  Two, coaches are seen as being entitled to an "annual bump", which is just part of the nature of the whole overpriced profession that it has become. 

On the second part, "all the other schools do it' and no one wants to be left out. If you don't offer your coach a bump for even a modestly successful season it's seen as a loss of face for him, and/or lack of confidence by the admin.  So...as stupid as it seems to me, this is just the way things go in NCAA coaching in 2016.

Having said that, even with the low bar to a "bump", I don;t think Jones deserves an extension or even a raise.  But given the nature of the profession these days, I think he and his agent are almost obligated to ask for it and push hard for it.  It's just what they do.

I don't expect him to get a raise and particularly not an extension.   I might could live with a small raise "just because that's how it is", but no way no how does he get an extension. It's time for him to man up and face some pressure.

Finally....had we made the Sugar Bowl, I am almost certain he would have been given a raise, and possibly an extension. 

Agree...he is no "victim of his own success".  I find that unlikely because even though we have improved greatly since the dark days of dooley, 8-4/9-3 type years are considered barely acceptable by most older Vols.

What I would say though, and I would say this even if Neyland came back from the dead and was coaching us these same last four seasons, is that there is a very vocal and way too big minority of our fanbase that will.  Never.  Be. Satisfied.  With ANYTHING, other than being undefeated very year.  Generally they don't even pay that much attention to the team or have much football smarts, they just whine a lot.  So that to them, starting a season 5-0 and then slumping might as well be 1-11, to hear them talk.  Apparently nothing less than a 14-0 championship every single year is acceptable. 

It's that same segment that ran off Fulmer (IMO) before it was time for him to go, or at best (I think most anyone would agree) in a way that was not handled well at all.  It's that same segment that wanted a brash guy like Kiffin, that were his biggest supporters, that largely, even to this day, think his 7-5 season was somehow a "really good season".  Some of the morons  even say they are okay with him coming back now!

Basically they are a bunch of bandwagon jumpers who desert like rats at the first sign of trouble, whine incessantly, and can't really back up any of their arguments with facts.  They put undue pressure on new coaches also by having unrealistic expectations. 

/rant   :naughty:

Final note...I am happy to report that in the last half of this season, for whatever reason, the numbers have seemed to turn against the fans I rant against above.  Finally.  My guess is, beating Florida and Georgia really helped the reasonable fans appreciate that, while this season is far from perfect, the program is still on the way up (or was until Vandy, but even then I think most fans realize that if Butch goes the effort to improve is much, much smaller than it was in 2012).

I think that's a pretty gross generalization. You don't have to be a know-nothing bandwagon type to come to the conclusion that Butch is in over his head and that he'll never be a championship-level coach in the SEC.

And, for the record, I hated Lane Kiffin. I remember being mildly toasted (and it may have even on this board, if I weren't too lazy to dig back and see) for saying I was ready to see him canned after one of his flareups of verbal diarrhea that season.

I'm not putting you in that category.  You have been more or less reasonable about the whole thing.  However...I wouldn't put it past the media to cater to the type I describe...controversy sells.  :naughty:

But for some posters on VN, what I describe above is, unfortunately only a slight exaggeration.