Butch Jones: No backflips over Tennessee’s recruiting success
There were no backflips after Tennessee’s fantastic 2015 recruiting year, head coach Butch Jones said, adding that 2014 was an overachievement from a team that didn’t bring back anyone on the offensive and defensive lines.
“Contrary to reports, there were no back flips, and there were no somersaults, but I think in the world of college football, you’re judged by wins and losses, but also you’re judged by does your team overachieve or under achieve. And I thought last year’s football team, team 118 overachieved.”
He added that overachievements have also been seen in the classroom, where he saw only 12 players manage an average of a 3.0 GPA to 52 (Now, let’s not talk about what classes they were taking!).
Tennessee- unlike a lot of SEC schools is settled at quarterback with Josh Dobbs, who threw for over 1,200 yards and 9 TDs in 2014. “Well, it makes it easier in terms of he’s proven himself. We understand what we’re getting with Josh, and we always talk about consistency and performance. And we know what we’re getting with Josh day in and day out, week in and week out.”
Nike also teamed up with Tennessee this year (as they did with Michigan), and there was some controversy about gray being one of the team’s colors. Jones said: “The exciting thing is with the smoky gray uniforms, they actually sent a crew up into the Smoky Mountains, and that’s where the color gray came from. When you look at our orange uniforms and our white uniforms, it respects the tradition of Tennessee, which that’s what we wanted to do.”
A lot of the SEC Media Day media staff have asked questions about cost of attendance at school, which means that players are going to be re-paid the full cost of attending a college. But Jones doesn’t seen it that way: “I know cost of attendance has been a big topic, and that’s a federal government formula. We do not dictate that. We don’t have any control of that, and I know there’s been numerous questions, how has that affected you in recruiting? And really at the end of the day, a young man, I believe, is going to pick a school because that’s where he wants to go to school. He wants to be a part of that institution. He likes the academics there, and he has a rapport and a great relationship with the coaches, and he wants to be a part of something special. So as coaches, we have no input, we have no say in any cost of attendance issues or formulas that they have.”
He also noted in the case of Alabama as a “constant” team to play on the schedule, that it was “now we just have to get back to making those games relevant again.” Tennessee has lost the last eight games in a row to the Crimson Tide. Things were already pretty spicy between the Neyland Stadium crowd and Lane Kiffin, who is now the offensive co-ordinator of the Crimson Tide. Alabama came away with a resounding 34-20 victory.