Butch Jones Told A Recruit To ‘Find A Place To Go’ After He Was Fired By Tennessee

The Butch Jones era at the University of Tennessee came to an end on Sunday afternoon. Jones was fired one day after the Volunteers got blown out by Missouri, 50-17, marking the end of a tumultuous era in Knoxville. In just under five years at the helm, Jones accrued a 34-27 record with a 14-24 mark in SEC play, and the Vols never finished higher than second in the division under his direction.

Now that Jones is out of the picture, it is up to Brady Hoke to handle things in the interim while the university hires a new coach. One of the jobs of an interim head coach is to keep the recruiting class together, and the Volunteers have a good one: It is ranked 14th nationally and fourth in the SEC by 247Sports.

There’s just one issue: Jones apparently wants to burn it all down as he’s leaving. That’s according to a quote that three-star defensive back Tanner Ingle gave to the Orlando Sentinel on Sunday afternoon about the message Jones gave him in the immediate aftermath of his firing.
Ingle claims that Jones told him to decommit from the program and go elsewhere.

“I spoke with Coach Jones about 30 minutes ago,” the Orlando Dr. Phillips defensive back said about 12:30 Sunday afternoon. “He said he didn’t really expect that to happen, but it did so he told me to find a place to go, quickly … and that if he gets anything he will contact me.”

Ingle mentioned that he is still committed to Tennessee, but that his recruitment is open and he plans on taking his official visits elsewhere. He also said that he would like to see who the Volunteers hire before making a final decision, namely if they are going to honor his commitment.

The fact that Jones told a recruit to leave the program is kind of stunning. A coach going elsewhere and offering some kids they recruited the chance to play for them isn’t uncommon — James Franklin, for example, had seven of the players he recruited to Vanderbilt in 2014 flip to Penn State at one point or another after he left Nashville for Happy Valley — but telling a recruit to just straight up leave and go anywhere else is a new one.

Plus it’s not like Tennessee split with Jones the second things went south. He’s seemingly been on the hot seat for a few years, and whenever things had gotten hairy prior to Sunday, the school has stood by him. It kept him around this season during a stretch of four losses in five weeks — the one week where they did not lose was a bye — to drop the program to 3-5 on the year. Obviously we don’t know all of the dynamics that were at play and whether Jones clashed with the athletic department or anything, but still, the school could have fired him sooner and did not.

Maybe we should not be surprised by this, though, as Wes Rucker of 247Sports straight up called that this would happen.

It’s generally pretty easy to get another job if you’re fired from a head coaching gig, but if this is how Jones is handling his break up with Tennessee, it has the potential to be as big of a black mark on his resume as his final season in Knoxville.