The CheckerBoard

100% agree. Even if people think he SHOULDN'T be the coach, the point is moot. He's going to be our coach. We owe it to him to and UT to support him.

Guys I couldn't agree more. I am a life-long fan of the Big Orange and we have a new, fiery coach! Jones is now the coach of my beloved Vols, so until he gives me a reason otherwise, I am all in with the new coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. GO BIG ORANGE!

hahahaha +1

This guy wanted this job, unlike the others we were after. regardless of if he was your choice or not he is our coach and deserves all of us ut fans to get behind him and show him why he did in fact want this job.

Absolutely! I'm sick and tired of the negativity and hate. If you listen to most on this board, there are only about 4 coaches that they'd be happy with. We made a run at Gruden - he make 4 mil a year for 4 months work with little pressure; Gundy - lifelong Cowboy, was never leaving; Fisher - already at a top program with fertile recruiting grounds. You can easily argue that Butch Jones experience and success are greater that Strong and Fedora. We get caught up in Urban Meyer and Nick Saban and lose touch with reality. Let's take a look at the other SEC coaches before they were hired into SEC:

Dan Mullen - no head coaching experience before MSU
Hugh Freeze - 30-7, coach of the year, conference championship (Sun Belt)
Les Miles - 28-21 at Okie St, 3 bowls, 1 coach of the year
Nick Saban - elite
Brett Bielema - top tier
Gus Malzahn - 1 year of HC experience, conference championship (SunBelt)
Mark Richt - no HC experience
James Franklin - no HC experience
Steve Spurrier - 20-13-1, coach of the year (ACC)
Will Muschamp - no HC experience
Mark Stoops - no HC experience

Butch Jones - 50-27, 4 conference championships (MAC, Big East), coach of the year

Their offense led the Big East. Their defense was 2nd, #1 in pass effeciency. He's recruited nationally and pulled kids from Florida and Memphis. He really wants the opportunity. He is qualified.

Would he have been my 1st choice, Probably not, but he deserves some respect.

Great, great summary to paint the correct picture of what we're getting! +1 to you sir

Well said. I don't see 6 wins on our schedule next year. I wanted Strong and I only saw 7 at best with him as coach next year simply because he was going to recruit THIS YEAR better than anyone we could've hired. Good luck Butch. I really do wish you the best.

The vocal part of the fanbase as a whole was always going to be split on this hire IMO, unless we somehow did get the one who we do not speak of. Even then many would have been still concerned.

The staff that our coach puts together can go a very long way in calming the fanbase...I get a feeling that for the most part we will be happy with this soon to be staff.

who were you gonna hire? The road is full of successful Coordinators who failed as head coaches. I think Alburn just fired one. And so did So Miss

I kinda feel like the kid who made out his Christmas list and had that one special present he really wanted. A shiney new red bike with all the bells and whistles. Christmas morning comes along and I jump outta bed & run to the tree. I see a bike right there. Already I'm thinking of what I can do on this great piece of machinery. In my mind I'm jumping hills, riding trails, and doing wheelies down the street. Now that I'm right beside it, I see that Santa saw fit to bring me a shiney red bike with training wheels. WHAT?? How can this be? What was Santa thinking? All the while I just need to get on the bike and ride it a little and I soon realize that I can just take the training wheels off. Now I have the bike I was wanting in the first place. So I'm going to let our new coach get his staff in place, see how this recruiting class finishes out, and wait to see how he gets this team ready. I hope by game time I'll be looking at the bike that I always wanted and not the one with training wheels!!
GBO!!

I do think that's the first time I've seen butch and bj used in the same sentence :)