Hadn't seen this article linked anywhere... Butch Jones / Daniel Helm saga

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There has been speculation about why the four players would leave UT after just one season. The speculation came up again after Jones was fired. When local talk-show host Tony Basilio addressed the topic last week, he received an email from Steve Helm, who further discussed the matter in a phone interview.

Helm said his son wouldn’t comment on the subject, that he had moved on and loved playing at Duke for coach David Cutcliffe, Tennessee’s former offensive coordinator. But Daniel also was fond of UT, as his father explained in his email to Cheek three years ago.

“When my son, Daniel Helm, left UT, we said nothing to anyone as we knew as long as Butch was winning nobody would care or listen,” Helm’s email read. “Daniel also loved the team and the school and didn’t want to cause trouble.”

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Trouble came screaming Helm’s way in a team meeting the day after Florida beat Tennessee 10-9 in his freshman season.

On one play, the freshman tight end was blindsided by a Florida defender. Jones highlighted that in a team meeting during which he repeatedly berated Helm, using slang terms for female genitalia to describe Helm’s play. Steve said Jones told his son that if he had been blindsided like that, “he would have taken out the player’s knees.”

“What angered Daniel the most was that he later blocked that same defender, driving him downfield and out of bounds,” Steve said. “But Jones didn’t show that play.”

As Jones continued to assail Helm in the meeting, the player wrote a prayer in his notebook to help defuse his anger, admitting to this father that he wanted to hit Jones.

Steve knew then his son had to leave Tennessee. Two months later, Helm was headed for Duke, where he sat out the 2015 season before becoming eligible.

You can only wonder how many other players who transferred from UT did so because of Jones. Former Tennessee running back Marlin Lane was asked about Jones’ treatment of players last week in a “4th And Truth” podcast.

“I have seen a lot of (abuse),” Lane said. “Whether it was physical or mental.

“I haven’t seen him with my own eyesight physically abuse somebody. I saw him say some things to players when they couldn’t defend themselves.”

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Steve Helm remembers when Daniel met with Jones in his office on his recruiting visit. He said Jones pulled out a “well worn Bible” and quoted what he said was his favorite verse.

“Daniel wasn’t so naïeve to think that just because someone quoted the Bible, he was a great Christian,” Helm said. “But he thought he was going to play for a guy with integrity.

“And it was nowhere to be found.”

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Nothing earth shattering there, just thought it was interesting to get a bit of a behind the scene glimpse into the train wreck that was Butch Jones...

I guess you could say maybe the kid was a little overly sensitive, but by multiple accounts now, the treatment was excessive. I guess the thing that stands out to me is how often would Butch Jones have "taken out someone's knees" as a trumpet player? How did he have the gall to call an actual athlete a pussy...