Butch Jones agrees to coach Volunteers, ends Tennessee football’s long coaching search

Danny Sheridan, noted oddsmaker and bagman truther, is a bit of a weird guy. He clearly isn’t shy about saying crazy things, but it’s a reasonable assumption that most of that is an act for stirring up callers with Paul Finebaum. However, it may not be an act after all, as Sheridan emailed Tennessee AD Dave Hart not once, but twice, to give him unsolicited advice on the Vols’ recently concluded coaching search.

Those suggestions? Walking NCAA violation Butch Davis and chronic flight risk/motorcycle enthusiast Bobby Petrino. Hart ended up hiring Cincinnati’s Butch Jones, but I may not be the only one dreaming of a press conference where an athletic director gives significant ups to Danny Sheridan for the bang-on personnel suggestion.

If item No. 9 on Derek Dooley’s “Top 10 reasons to embrace (or fear) professional transitions)” list is firing a lawyer shot (a shot for lawyers) at fellow lawyer Clay Travis (they’re both lawyers), good Lord, I can’t imagine what Nos. 1 or 2 will be. Dooley’s kicking ass and eating lawyer food, and he’s all out of lawyer food, y’all.

Look through SB Nation’s many excellent college football blogs to find your team’s community.

Tennessee has new football coaches. Those coaches came to Knoxville from elsewhere. They did not do so with orange ties already on their necks. So they needed aftermarket orange ties (ht Wes Rucker).

The five most MS Paint neckties on Butch Jones’ new Vols staff, via the official school announcement:

Martin is currently the receivers coach at USC. He was in Tennessee on Monday to interview with new Volunteers coach Butch Jones, who was introduced as Tennessee’s new coach on Friday.

Martin led the Vols to its first national championship in 1998. Tennessee went 13-0 and beat Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl. In that season, Martin completed 57 percent of his passes for 2,442 yards and 21 touchdowns. He also threw eight interceptions and had seven rushing touchdowns.

The former Vols star quarterback has been a frequent subject of questions for Jones:

Martin began his coaching career in 2009 at New Mexico as a quarterbacks coach. He then moved on to Kentucky for two years as a receivers coach before joining the USC staff in the same capacity in 2012.

Peyton Manning tried to help seal the deal for the Colorado Buffaloes and bring hot coaching prospect Butch Jones, 50-27 at Cincinnati and Central Michigan, to join him in the Rocky Mountains.

Little did Manning know his alma mater was also courting Jones at the time:

First, a sampling of the local reaction to Butch Jones’ hire by Tennessee:

Now let’s get to it!

Butch Jones was Tennessee’s fourth choice--at best, fourth--for its position of head football coach. Jones is a Big East coach with no SEC coaching experience whose most ignominious loss at Cincinnati came to the man Tennessee just fired: Derek Dooley, who coached the Vols in a 45-23 defeat of the Bearcats on September 10, 2011.

That is correct: Tennessee just hired a man who has not beaten a single ranked team.

If you’re a college football coach who would prefer not to drop your Twitter follower count to zero by starting up a new account for your new job, you wind up with a situation like this (which must be really, really awesome for the 10,000 people who were already following Butch Jones, almost all of whom were probably Cincinnati fans):

That last tweet is really something. Slap a Power T on it! Go Bearvols!

Jones will be introduced at a 2:30 p.m. ET press conference.

Tennessee has dealt with four high-profile rejections, including ones by Louisville’s Charlie Strong, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, North Carolina’s Larry Fedora and America’s Jon Gruden.

Tennessee appears to have found out this week that, at least in the minds of specific football coaches, it currently ranks behind Louisville, North Carolina and Oklahoma State. Based on reports, the Vols were turned down four times, by Charlie Strong, Larry Fedora and Mike Gundy, plus Jon Gruden. Things got low.

But that’s okay. After a coaching search reboot that stirred up Bobby Petrino and Phillip Fulmer rumors, they might’ve finally landed their guy:

Update: Football Scoop reports Jones has an offer.

Tennessee’s long and publicly maligned coaching search could finally be coming to a close with two final names: Cincinnati’s Butch Jones and Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.

Cincy will reportedly have a players meeting early Friday.

Cincinnati is 23-14 in Jones’ three years as head coach. The Bearcats were 4-8 in his first season and finished seventh in the Big East, but have won the conference title the last two years.

1. Residence in Knoxville, the Akron of the Smokies.

2. Orange matches traffic cones stuck in your truck grill.

Tennessee has reportedly now been turned down by Larry Fedora and Mike Gundy, in addition to Charlie Strong and Jon Gruden. Four big swings, and four whiffs. It’s gotten so bad, Volunteers players are literally volunteering.

You know, Gene Chizik is available. But Joker Phillips is not.

North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora turned down the Tennessee job, according to a report Thursday morning. Fedora is the latest in a string of rejections that Tennessee has endured during its coaching search.

The Volunteers recently set their sights on Louisville head coach Charlie Strong, but Strong decided to stay with the Cardinals after mulling an offer. The Volunteers also showed interest in ESPN analyst Jon Gruden and Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy.

With only a name or two left on the current Tennessee list as best we know it, a number of proactive Vols players have overthrown the athletic department and begun distributing power amongst themselves. That’s not what actually happened, but at least they’re having more fun with it than most Vols fans are.

Also, Moore has some requests, for the good of the institution:

Update: Pete Thamel says is choosing Louisville. The only option left, based on reports, would be UNC’s Larry Fedora, who interviewed with the Vols Tuesday night.

If Strong turns down the Vols, their only current candidate appears to be UNC coach Larry Fedora, whom SB Nation reported they interviewed Tuesday night.

Jordan Fieulleteau, a wide receiver from nearby Wakefield High School in Raleigh, say he called Fedora to ask about his status as the Tar Heels head coach. Fieulleteau said Fedora told him it was just a rumor he was leaving for Tennessee and that he was staying put. He apparently came away from the conversation confident Fedora would be sticking around.

After leading Louisville to a 10-2 season that is sending Louisville to the Sugar Bowl, Charlie Strong was going to sign a new contract somewhere. The only question was which of the high profile SEC jobs would throw the most money at him first. For the past three days, rumors have swirled that Strong was at or near the top of the wish list to replace Derek Dooley at Tennessee along with Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy and perhaps North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora.

Reports now indicate that Charlie Strong is negotiating a new contract with Louisville that could remove him from contention from the Tennessee job for good. Adam Himmelsbach of the Louisville Courier-Journal first reported this morning that officials from the University of Louisville were working with a local law firm to hammer out a new contract for Strong. Later, ESPN’s Brett McMurphy reported that Strong and the school were negotiating an extension to his contract despite that the fact that Strong “had a UT offer”.

Update: Jimmy Hyams says no Mike Gundy for Tennessee.

This obviously has ramifications for multiple schools. Rocky Top Talk compared the resumes of all three coaches, while Tar Heel Blog lays out what this means for UNC.

Update: One recruit says Larry Fedora’s made it clear UNC won’t lose its head coach.

North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora is a serious candidate to become the next head coach at the University of Tennessee, as multiple sources have confirmed the first-year Tar Heels head coach interviewed with the Volunteers in New York City late Tuesday.

Louisville head coach Charlie Strong is the front-runner for the open position at Tennessee, according to ESPN and Nashville’s News Channel 5. Larry Fedora and Mike Gundy are the two other names that have been reported as final candidates. Strong reportedly interviewed with the Vols on Friday before giving an awkward press conference at Louisville.

Tennessee finished their season 5-7, with a 1-7 record in the SEC in Derek Dooley’s third season as head coach. Dooley was fired on Nov. 18 after a loss to Vanderbilt and was replaced on an interim basis by Jim Chaney, who coached the Vols to their only SEC win of the season. Dooley never finished with a winning season while at Tennessee. The Volunteers appeared in the Music City Bowl in Dooley’s initial season in 2010.

Update: Andrew Carter reports there’s been no contact between Larry Fedora and Tennessee.

The Volunteers are looking to replace Derek Dooley, who was fired Nov. 18. The Vols went 5-7 this season under Dooley. In his three seasons leading Tennessee, the Volunteers were 15-21 with a 4-19 record in the SEC. In the last two years, the Vols were just 1-14 against SEC opponents.

Fresh off the announcement that it has escaped the Big East and will head to the ACC, Louisville certainly has a lot of recruiting momentum. Playing in a major conference is an important tool in recruiting, especially when going up against schools like Ohio State, as the Cardinals are for hometown receiver James Quick.

But the news that Louisville head coach Charlie Strong, who rebuilt the program after the damage done by Steve Kragthorpe, interviewed with Tennessee over the weekend could put a damper on things.