I know Butch Jones’ job security is basically on life support. But if there was anything Tennessee’s head coach could point to possibly save his job, it was recruiting. He can’t even do that anymore after five-star OT Cade Mays tweeted his decommitment on Tuesday morning:
5-star OT Cade Mays decommits from Tennessee, and Butch Jones’ only argument for staying is rapidly fading
Jones could always point to recruiting. After this rocky season, he can’t do that anymore.
US Army All-American game
Mays is the No. 2 OT in the nation and an elite prospect.
What’s worse? He’s a Knoxville native and a Tennessee legacy. If there was ever a rock-solid commit to Tennessee, it would be Mays.
If you’re playing along at home, that’s the fourth decommit for Tennessee since Oct. 1. Tennessee is a tougher place to recruit to for a variety of reasons. The main one is location and proximity to top talent:
Alabama is two hours closer and in the same time zone. Auburn is roughly the same distance from Memphis. Ole Miss is about an hour. The Razorbacks are 90 minutes closer than the Vols. Mississippi State is less than half the distance away, as is Vanderbilt. Missouri and Kentucky are roughly the same distance as the Vols. It is so unfortunate for Tennessee that eight programs within its own conference are as close or much closer to a huge talent base in the Volunteer State.
Other Tennessee recruits are already seeing the blood in the water. Vols WR pledge Shocky Jacques-Louis told SB Nation in October that his commitment is not as firm as it once was:
“To be honest, I’m still committed to Tennessee, but I am definitely looking at other options due to, uh, certain situations at Tennessee,” Jacques-Louis said.
“The situation” is head coach Butch Jones being squarely on the hot seat after a 3-3 start to the season. Jones is 14-21 in SEC play as Tennessee’s head coach.
“Coach [Butch] Jones, I love him to death, but I’d be a fool to go there and he’ll just end up missing, ya know?”
Jones had Tennessee’s recruiting at a high level relative to where the program probably should be. He is no longer doing that. Jones already probably needed to win out to even have a minor chance at keeping his job with decision makers treating it essentially as an open job already.
At this point, there just aren’t any other things you could say to positively spin Jones’ job security.
