Rick Barnes to Jeremy Pruitt: Tennessee Vols 10 notable 2010s coaching hires

Butch Jones did not leave Tennessee football on good terms, and for good reason. He may have had two nine-win seasons, but he inherited a program in much better shape than Derek Dooley or his successor did. And he left it on fire.

At the time of the hire, though, Jones wasn’t a terrible decision. He had won four championships in six years with two different schools, the Central Michigan Chippewas and the Cincinnati Bearcats. Jones had also proven himself to be a very good recruiter.

And early on, Jones showed all the promise you need from a coach. He was a little basic with his quotes and a very cheesy football coach, but he secured back to back top 5 recruiting class. His pro-style offense run from the spread formation was actually pretty fashionable at the time. And his new traditions of Smokey Grays and Checker Neyland excited fans more than they now admit.

The problem, though, was that Jones was running a ponzi scheme. Everything was on a sugar high, and the Tennessee Vols were the only school to have him beyond a third year. His gigantic flaws began to show midway through the fourth year and throughout his entire final year, in which they went 4-8 and 0-8 in the SEC, their worst season ever.

Still, while the hire was truly awful in hindsight, it wasn’t horrible up front. But we have it down here because Dave Hart still made some mistakes. For starters, he should have been aware of the reports from Cincinnati about Jones being a snake-oil salesman. Also, while he succeeded at two schools, he inherited both of those programs after Brian Kelly built them up.

Finally, Hart had more qualified people to take the job who had built up programs that they didn’t inherit. One of them was James Franklin right down the road, and another was Gary Patterson of the TCU Horned Frogs. Those things put this hire down on the list.