Tennessee football: Butch Jones classy and bush-league to Vols in return

Tennessee football’s loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide included to former Volunteers Butch Jones’s return to Neyland, working for Bama.

We all know that Butch Jones did not leave Tennessee football on the best of terms. What appeared to be a collection of inspirational quotes from a motivational speaker on the way up for his first four years turned into pathetic excuses by a man many considered to be a snake-oil salesman and a liar during his final 12 months.

To be fair, both were true. But it ended ugly, as in his final season, Jones lied to the public multiple times, continued his excuses, and actually went out of his way to blame the media for many of the program’s issues. And because that’s what’s fresh in Vols fans’ minds, Jones is still very unpopular in Knoxville right now.

On Saturday, we saw both of these things in Jones’s return to Knoxville as an offensive analyst for the Alabama Crimson Tide. To be fair, there were some positives about his classiness in return. You saw specific instances of him meeting with players he coached. Here’s Jones going out of his way before the game to visit with Jonathan Kongbo, a guy he recruited to Knoxville whose career is now over due to injury.

After the game, however, Jones’s actions were mixed. It started with the players giving him the Gatorade Bath. And yes, that was as ridiculous as it sounds. Here’s the bath on video right after the Tide won the game.

Now, let’s process this. Jones is getting a gatorade bath as an offensive analyst. He’s literally an INTERN for the Crimson Tide! Why the heck would he get a gatorade bath? After all, the biggest reason for Alabama’s blowout win is because of his failures’ as Tennessee football head coach. So that’s not something to celebrate.

But in a positive again, Jones showed more class after the game. Here’s a look at him going out of his way on the field to find players that he coached in the past. It started with Marquez Callaway and continued with plenty of other players Jones tried to seek out.

So this is all fine, outside of the gatorade shower. That was just pathetic. However, combining that with his locker room antics were bush-league. Jones lit up a victory cigar, a tradition for the winner in this rivalry and something he never was able to do as Tennessee football’s head coach. He lit one up with Mack Wilson and Chris Owens.

What’s so bush-league about this is he knowingly took these pictures and had to be aware of the fact that they would go public. It was a personal shot at the Vols, and that’s beyond pathetic. Again, Jones’s only contribution to the victory cigar is how bad of a job he did with the Vols.

Seriously, he’s literally celebrating how bad of a job he did with the program he built. For the players to act like he deserves a celebration for finally being on the right side of this game is embarrassing. He wore down his side to irrelevance and then switched to the other side to get the win only after he was fired. Former Tennessee football defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth brought that up on Twitter. By the way, he did that while still collecting a check from the football program he destroyed.

Finally, although we had some positives with him meeting former players, there were a few key players who noted that they never did see their former coach. You can read about them here on Patrick Brown’s GoVols247 article. Now, all three said they were focused on the game, but as the millionaire who coached them, Jones should be the one to take the bigger road and reach out to them.

I actually was a guy who thought Jones did a lot of good things for the Vols off the field even if his incompetence became too much to overcome on the field. But his final actions on Saturday to the program he led, and lied to, for five years while still collecting money from them were low and classless. He did some nice things, but overall, he should be ashamed of himself.