The Vols are currently on an upward trend, and that has Butch Jones in a much different position in his second season than where Derek Dooley sat in his second year at the helm. PHOTO: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Now that current Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones has completed his second regular season at the helm of the Volunteers, his tenure can start to be evaluated more effectively. Specifically, his efforts can start to be compared to the rebuilding job his predecessor, Derek Dooley, originally undertook in 2010.
For Vol fans, the rebuilding effort in Knoxville seems to have been ongoing for a decade now. And, in a way, that’s more or less true. But be that as it may, things look as though they are finally starting to turn around on Rocky Top for the Vols.
But how do the first two seasons of the Butch Jones era compare to the first two of the Dooley era? The two are remarkably similar in a lot of regards.
On the surface, that is.
Through two seasons, the two have nearly identical records. Butch Jones still has a bowl game left for the 2014 season, and a loss in the bowl game would make their overall records exactly the same. Dooley went 6-7 with a loss in the Music City Bowl in 2010 and 5-7 in 2011. Butch Jones went 5-7 in 2013 and is so far 6-6 in 2014. That makes Dooley 11-14 in two seasons and Jones 11-13. The two even have nearly identical SEC records, with Dooley going 4-12 and Jones 5-11.
Those aren’t the only statistical similarities. Here is a breakdown of some of the statistics during Derek Dooley’s first two years on the job for the Vols:
And here are the same stats for Butch Jones’s first two years at the helm of the Vols:
The perception that Butch Jones is a better coach than Derek Dooley is one most fans make from mere observation of the teams the two put on the field. But the stats tend to back that up as well, and statistics are an unbiased measurement of performance. The difference in several key statistics give weight to these claims.
There are several similarities in these statistics right off the bat, however. Both offenses saw improvements in 3rd down conversion and red zone scoring efficiency in their second seasons under both coaches, and the overall defensive numbers saw a good jump in the second year. The Vols’ defense actually finished 27th in the nation in Dooley’s second season; Jones’s second Tennessee squad currently sits at No. 35 in the NCAA.
But the differences are what separate the two in their first two seasons on Rocky Top. One difference that immediately sticks out is how much more disciplined Jones’s two teams have been compared to Dooley’s. The first two years under Jones have seen a significant decrease in penalties, finishing No. 9 in the country in the regular season this year.
While Dooley’s second team may have improved overall defensively, their sack numbers dropped off significantly, falling from 55th in the nation to 107th in 2011. The team also had a worse turnover margin, going from a +4 margin to an even 0 in Dooley’s second year. Jones’s second team has nearly doubled their sack output from 2013, going from a mere 18 sacks to 35 in 2014, a number that eclipses anything the Vols have done in the post-Fulmer era.
Dooley’s Vols’ squad saw a massive dip offensively in his second season, dropping at least 30 spots nationally in 4 major offensive categories. The two most condemning stats are the rushing offense and “splash play” ability of the 2011 squad. The Vols averaged only 90.1 yard rushing despite only giving up 18 sacks in 2011. The offensive line was obviously talented, but they were groomed to be one-dimensional. The Vols also went from producing 75 plays of 20 or more yards in 2010 to netting only 36 such plays in 2011.
In Butch Jones’s second season, Tennessee’s offense and defense both saw overall improvements. While Jones’s rushing numbers dipped, they didn’t approach the abysmal 91 yards a game Dooley’s second squad saw. Scoring, passing yards, total offense, “splash plays,” and 3rd down conversions were all up in Jones’s second year. The biggest improvement came in the team’s red zone scoring, which jumped from 102nd in the nation in 2013 to 9th in 2014. Granted, a lot of that scoring came on field goals, but points in the red zone still matter regardless.
One humongous difference on a defensive front is the inability for Jones’s second squad to stop teams in the red zone in 2014. Only once did a team not pick up a touchdown or a field goal once they crossed Tennessee’s 20 yard-line in 2014, as the Vols let opponents score an NCAA-worst 96.7% of the time. Dooley’s second team saw a tiny drop from 2010 to 2011, but their 80% scoring rate is practically a steel wall compared to Tennessee’s 2014 red zone defense.
Part of the reason the Vols struggled to stop teams from scoring so close in 2014 has to do with the team’s youth on defense, but that cannot be used as an excuse to validate something that ranks dead last in the country no matter how anyone slices it.
Another glaring difference from the 2011 and 2014 squads can be more easily explained when you compare the rosters of 2014 and 2010, Dooley’s first year. Dooley’s first team gave up and SEC-worst 41 sacks in 2010; Jones’s second team also ranks dead last in the SEC in sacks allowed at 42. The reason both of these lines struggled is easy: They lacked experience.
The 2010 offensive line had one senior, offensive guard Jarrod Shaw. The rest of the starting offensive line that season was comprised of inexperienced sophomores and freshmen.
Sound familiar?
Future NFL players Ja’Wuan James, James Stone, and Zach Fulton were all freshmen that season. Another future NFL offensive lineman, Dallas Thomas, was a sophomore. The 2010 unit that many fans at the time said was “no good” and never would be went on to only give up 18 sacks in 2011, going from last in the SEC to 2nd.
This is not to say the 2015 Tennessee offensive line will see a similar improvement. But it should serve as a reminder that young, inexperienced linemen take time to learn the ways of offensive line play in the SEC. The Vols played a handful of freshmen and players who had never started or sparsely started on offensive line in college in 2014, and that showed. But that does not put them beyond redemption.
Another big difference between Dooley and Jones goes off the field. Recruiting under Jones has flourished, whereas Dooley’s recruiting only declined the longer he coached the Vols.
The first recruiting class Dooley helped hold together after taking over was the 2010 class, which ended up finishing 9th in the country according to 247Sports. His second, the 2011 class, was his first full-time recruiting class, and it finished 14th. At the end of the 2011 season, Dooley was working on the 2012 class that would end up 20th in the nation.
Butch Jones has seen an upward trend in Tennessee’s recruiting since taking over. After holding on to several key pieces and adding other players like Marquez North and Josh Dobbs, Jones’s first class, the 2013 class, finished 24th in the country. His second class and first full-time class saw a huge jump, finishing 7th in the nation. His third class isn’t finalized yet, but it currently sits at No. 5 in the country with a chance to end even higher with a strong finish to the class.
Overall, there is a more positive perception surrounding the team in 2014 after Butch Jones’s second season than there was in 2011 after Derek Dooley’s second full year as Tennessee’s head coach. The Vols made a bowl in Dooley’s first year then failed to do so in his second. The opposite pattern has happened for Jones.
Dooley’s staff also saw plenty of turnover in his time at UT, but Jones’s staff stayed entirely intact from 2013 to 2014 and looks as though it will remain relatively unchanged heading into 2015 as well. The importance of having consistency with position coaches cannot go understated, and players under Dooley rarely had that.
There are still deficiencies Jones and his staff still need to work on. But through two seasons under similar rebuilding circumstances, Jones currently has the Vols heading in a much better direction than Dooley did after his second year. The two may have similar records after two seasons, but Jones is trending upward.
And that is something Dooley never did at Tennessee.
All stats were taken from cfbstats.com and recruiting rankings from 247Sports unless noted otherwise