'The culture is a disaster:' Jones, Vols trending the wrong way

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Four years ago this week, Butch Jones arrived at Tennessee bubbling with optimism as he greeted the challenge of repairing and resurrecting a storied-but-beaten-down football program.

“We’ll be working to be champions each and every day,” Jones told reporters in December 2012. “We will be a champion in everything we do.”

That rings painfully familiar to Tennessee supporters. It turns out Jones’ recently ridiculed message — that the Volunteers’ senior class had won the “championship of life” — was consistent with things he had said from the very beginning.

The marked difference in reception is related, clearly, to the current climate. Fans were left deeply disappointed this fall that the Vols had fallen short of the stated goal of reaching the SEC Championship Game and at least competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Even those inside the football building had acknowledged in past seasons that, given a veteran nucleus and improving talent, 2016 was the year Jones’ tenure had been building toward.

Yet once those goals were gone for the team, Jones had failed to connect with fans in that moment of frustration.

“You talk about the time and place to say something like that - and that is not what our fans wanted to hear,” one Tennessee administrative source told 247Sports, referring to the “champions of life” comment. “That will never go away. That soundbite will never go away.”

Jones evidently failed to adequately prepare his team that week, as well. Those same angry fans reached a fury a few days later as they watched Vanderbilt dominate Tennessee late, outscoring the Volunteers 21-3 in the second half, for a 45-34 victory.

“I don’t know why,” one Vols staffer told 247Sports, “but it meant more to them. It’s like they didn’t understand what was out there.”

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Even with a brutal four-game stretch of Florida, at Georgia, at Texas A&M and Alabama in the middle of the fall, the sense was that a 10-2 season would get the Volunteers into the SEC title game with an outside shot at a playoff berth.

That would’ve been correct, as it turns out, but the team squandered the Eastern Division at South Carolina and then blew a shot at the Sugar Bowl at Vanderbilt.

The South Carolina loss came after a bye week.

“I have no explanation for that one,” one UT source said. “We just weren’t going to win that game no matter what.”

The Vols did end an 11-game losing streak to division rival Florida, and they did beat Georgia with a Hail Mary. But make no mistake that in a year perceived both internally and externally as a “prove-it” season, Jones’ Vols proved they were not ready for title contention.

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Reported facts from the 2016 season, however, seem to back those saying there were internal issues that undermined ultimate success:

- Injuries riddled the team, particularly on the defensive side, but sources told us that philosophical squabbles between defensive assistants also undermined performance.
- Receiver Preston Williams, citing a lack of targets, decided to transfer midseason, before playing No. 1 - - -- Alabama in one of the biggest home games in years at Neyland Stadium.
- Running back Jalen Hurd, one of the highest-rated recruits Jones has signed, decided to leave the team midseason, saying he would transfer to play a different position.
- Defensive lineman Jonathan Kongbo, sources said, all but refused to play tackle, leaving less talented players to fill the spots when players were injured.
- Multiple players were suspended or dismissed for drug-related issues, a source said — though that isn’t uncommon in major programs. (And the Vols did avoid arrests, one UT official pointed out.)
- Sensing the vibe put off by the veterans, sources indicated that some freshmen, including ones getting reps, were lackadaisical in their effort to learn. A coach said one freshman, who played a lot of snaps, was unable to recognize basic scheme principles because of a lack of work ethic.

“The culture is a disaster,” said someone who works in the football building.

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