Tennessee football: Anonymous coach hints Butch Jones better than Jeremy Pruitt

An anonymous quote has an interesting implication for the Tennessee football Vols.

It looks like Butch Jones still has some people defending the job he did as head coach of the Tennessee football program. Shockingly, some of those defenders appear to be coaching in the SEC as we speak.

In an article by Athlon that quoted anonymous coaches in the SEC about all 14 schools in the league, Jones came up multiple times when discussing UT. Most people were positive on Jeremy Pruitt and what he was doing on Rocky Top.

Some of the talking points included Tennessee football’s improvement as a program, its experience at quarterback and on the offensive and defensive fronts and the difficulties it has competing with other SEC powerhouses. However, here’s one alarming quote by one coach.

"“Butch Jones won nine games in Year Three, and Jeremy lost to Georgia State last season.”"

The implication of that is clear. Whomever said such a thing must clearly believe that Jones’ 9-4 record and top 25 finish in his third year on the job should be compared to what Pruitt did in the season-opener of his second year on the job.

Honestly, how could anyone draw that comparison? Somebody is clearly doing PR for Jones with that quote. Of course, they left out that Pruitt won his final six games to finish 8-5 and actually beat Will Muschamp, who went 4-0 against Jones. Meanwhile, Jones went 7-6 in his second season, losing to a bad Muschamp team in the process, back when he was with the Florida Gators.

Anyway, that’s just a very odd thing to say. That person may not be aware of the fact that the Vols were underdogs in nine of their 12 games Pruitt’s first year on the job but finished 5-7. It’s also worth noting that they were underdogs in their first 15 SEC games under Pruitt. These things show the mess Jones left him. Oh, and he took over a program that was 4-8.

Other coaches were much more fair. Some even compared Pruitt to Jones in ways that cast Pruitt in a positive light, most notably the fact that while Jones was a good recruiter, Pruitt has been better at evaluating talent. There were also genuine concerns raised about the program that clearly came from a place of objectivity.

However, somebody has an axe to grind on behalf of Tennessee football’s former coach and clearly wanted to air that out in these quotes. It was just a weird thing to say, and nobody objectively could believe it has any legitimacy at this point.