3. Elite recruiter, but a weak in-game tactician.
Jones is a fantastic recruiter. It has given him ample opportunities to succeed as a college football head coach. If he could get Antonio Brown and J.J. Watt to Central Michigan, imagine what he could do at an SEC blue-blood like Tennessee that can recruit nationally?
Jones has left an indelible mark at Tennessee in terms of recruitment. On paper, this should be one of the best teams in the Power 5. There are NFL playmakers on both sides of the ball, especially on defense.
That being said, Jones is not getting the most out of the players he has compiled in Knoxville. These are all of his players in 2016. Jones has had four recruiting classes to make Tennessee championship-caliber. With the right coach in place, Tennessee should have been elite by the end of 2015.
There is enough talent in-state and in the region to make Tennessee great in three years time. It is year four in Knoxville for Jones and this team still hasn’t broken through into the upper echelon of the Power 5 hierarchy. The guy can recruit, but his in-game coaching tactics have been partly why Tennessee doesn’t win all the games it should under Jones.