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The Misguided Tao of Butch Jones

“Every house begins with a solid foundation. We are laying that foundation brick by brick.”

Butch Jones’ original catchphrase was actually his bedrock philosophy during his five years at Tennessee.

Jones was always making a sales-pitch, and it was always marketed toward recruits. He felt that if he simply kept stockpiling bricks, Tennessee would eventually become the Big Bad Wolf and it would blow other teams' houses down.

So an energized Jones came to Rocky Top and went to work.

He tirelessly restocked the roster with four Top 15 classes, accumulating plenty of NFL players and blue-chip “stars.” A surge of talent not seen since the Phillip Fulmer era descended on Knoxville, but championships didn't follow.

Instead, after roughly five years, the House that Jones built was ultimately condemned.

The Vols are now searching for a new head coach again because the devil was in the details, and whether by sins of omission or commission, Jones & Co., simply never developed many of the talented players he signed once they got to Knoxville.

Jones thought he simply need to just sign good players and the win would come. He was wrong, and that’s how process leads to nowhere.

By valuing recruiting over roster development, Tennessee has gone from being ranked in the Top 10 to a potential winless SEC season in just over a calendar year.

Its next coach cannot afford a similar philosophical mistake. The Vols don't need another salesman.

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Tennessee’s next coach — Jon Gruden, Dan Mullen or whoever — won’t inherit a roster in dire straights like Jones did in 2012, but the program still lacks SEC depth due negligence.

From Jones’ inaugural signing class in 2013 to date, 36 signees ultimately left the program.

His guys. Players Jones signed.

A few were dismissed, but most simply transferred. The ballyhooed class of 2014 had 15 of 32 players leave the team.

The 2015 class saw nine players exit the program.

This attrition, coupled with the lack of player development, truly torpedoed Jones’ tenure. Josh Dobbs, Derek Barnett and Alvin Kamara could only mask the roster deficiencies for so long, but the constant turnover sapped Tennessee of valuable depth in a competitive conference — issues that came to a head during the second half sputter in 2016 and its freefall this year.

In Year 5 at Kentucky and Missouri, Tennessee fielded gameday rosters with roughly 65 scholarship players. Injuries were a critical problem, for sure, but the Vols had plenty of heathy players just standing on the sidelines because they’d been buried or effectively processed over.

Jones understood that recruiting is the lifeblood of every school.

Every team looks to recruit better players than the ones they already have. It makes practices better. It creates competition.

But the great programs recognize you still have to value and develop the players you already have, too.

What is the Seinfeld bit about reservations?

Getting players wasn't an issue for Jones. He knew how to market Tennessee football. Keeping them in town and developing them was the problem.

Jones lured seven 5-star prospects to Tennessee. Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara were great at times, but both were misused. Josh Malone had a big junior season, yet to date, Drew Richmond, Kahlil McKenzie, Kyle Phillips and Jonathan Kongbo have all been vastly underdeveloped.

And those are the "best players" Jones recruited. If they weren't developed properly...

The sad irony in Jones’ philosophy of over-emphasizing recruiting is that he mismanaged that in the end, too.

Misevaluations and poor numbers have left Tennessee’s roster on shakier ground than it should be entering next season.

The Vols signed nine receivers the last two years, while inking just six offensive lineman. Without knowing the 2018 class yet, Tennessee could have just six scholarship lineman available for spring practice.

During Jones’ tenure, the Vols struck out on JUCO prospects. They turned their nose at legacies like Chase Hayden, Jalen McCleskey and Cedrick Wilson III — three guys making key plays elsewhere.

After doing an excellent job initially at keeping homegrown talent in the state, Tennessee’s staff simply decided the Volunteer State didn’t actually produce very many good players.

They fancied the Sunshine State more, inkling 12 players from Florida the last two classes.

They signed 11 total from Tennessee.

Every program has misevaluations, but Tennessee's misses have been particularly glaring — especially in state. There's a reason why so many folks are pinning for Austin Thomas to return to the program.

In 2016, the Vols signed just 3 of the Top 20 players in the Volunteer State. Last year, they let Tee Higgins, Amari Rodgers and Jacob Phillips get away.

The Vols didn’t even want guys like Tyrel Dodson (starting MLB at Texas A&M) or Emanuel Hall (starting WR for Mizzou). They didn’t think offensive linemen Paul Adams (Mizzou) or Sadarius Hutcherson (South Carolina) were good enough. All four of those players have contributed in wins over their homestate school in the last 18 months.

Add it all up and it’s not hard to see why Jones’ Tennessee tenure unraveled. Once his top-flight recruiting fell off, his "solid foundation" no longer actually had a base.

The corny calendar slogans and close losses frustrated a proud fan base, but a lack of player development and inconsistent recruiting actually triggered all the problems.

There's likely no "Five Star Hearts" or "Champions of Life" excuses if Jones managed the roster better.

Jones deserves credit for restocking Tennessee with plenty of bricks, but he was rightly fired for too many code violations. The infrastructure is there for Tennessee’s next head coach, but John Currie has to find a guy who values the nuts the bolts as much bricks.

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