One of the biggest recruiting misses in Tennessee Vols history happened under Butch Jones' watch. 

But the miss wasn't really Jones' fault. In fact, Jones was the only reason the Vols had a realistic shot. Instead, it was Derek Dooley's fault that Tennessee missed on five-star safety Vonn Bell, a future first-team All-American who is entering his ninth year in the NFL in 2024. 

In early 2013, just two months after Jones took over for Dooley as Tennessee's head coach, Bell committed to Ohio State. Vols fans likely remember that February Wednesday quite well (back before the early signing period was a thing). 

Rumblings early in the day suggested that Tennessee, thanks to Jones and his staff, had made up enough ground (in a recruitment that Dooley completely botched) and would be the program securing a commitment from Bell. 

“We all thought he was going to Tennessee,” said then Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Bob Shoop to The Athletic several years later. 

From The Athletic: In fact, that morning some recruiting sites had reported that Bell was choosing Tennessee.

“I do remember being nervous just because there was a lot of work that had been put into Vonn’s recruitment,” (Mark) Pantoni (Ohio State recruiting staffer) said. “I felt like we had a chance to get him based on stuff that he and his parents had told us leading up to signing day. The thing we were concerned about was when they went silent that day, and then the Tennessee smoke started coming out.”

Tennessee finished second to Ohio State and Bell went on to win a national championship with the Buckeyes. 

Jones recently spoke to The Athletic about missing out on Bell and gave some behind the scenes details. 

“He was one of the top safeties in our state,” said Jones to The Athletic. “So we tried to make up lost time, lost ground so to speak, and we felt we had a decent opportunity to land him.”

Former Vols linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen, now a linebackers coach at North Carolina, was the first to realize that Tennessee probably wasn't going to land Bell. 

From The Athletic: On the day of Bell’s commitment, which was televised nationally, Jones gathered his entire staff to watch the announcement live. When Bell pulled out a Tennessee hat from his bag, linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen had an uneasy feeling.

“He was saying, ‘This isn’t good. They always tell you when they’re coming, If you’re getting ’em, they’re telling you they’re coming. If you’re not getting ’em, you never know,'” Jones said. 

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Bell took the Tennessee cap off and pulled out an Ohio State hat. He signed with the Buckeyes and eventually became a second-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He now plays for the Carolina Panthers.

“I called a staff meeting right after that occurred and we talked about never forgetting how we felt and about closing in the future and how this would propel us for many years to come,” Jones said. “And it did.”

Jones told The Athletic that the feeling of missing on Bell is something he still carries with him to this day as the head coach at Arkansas State. 

Did Urban Meyer leak that Vonn Bell was going to Tennessee? 

When word got out that Bell was going to commit to Tennessee, rumblings that proved to be false, speculation among Vols fans was that Urban Meyer, then the head coach at Ohio State, leaked that news to the recruiting sites. 

Why would he do that? 

Just to be petty, probably. It's a very Urban Meyer-like thing to do and it's a believable theory. 

It's even more believable when you consider that The Athletic noted in 2022 that Meyer might have been the only person that knew where Bell was going to commit. 

From The Athletic: Meyer, it turns out, was on the short list of people who knew what Bell was going to do. In fact, the list might have ended at Bell and Meyer.

Everett Withers, Ohio State’s defensive coordinator and safeties coach who had invested more time and energy into Bell’s recruitment than any other before or since, was confident but not certain. Mark Mariakis, Bell’s head coach at Ridgeville High School in Rossville, Ga., had only an inkling. Bell’s mother, Vanessa, claims she didn’t know what her son was going to do.

Butch Jones doesn't have the best reputation in East Tennessee, despite a couple of nine-win seasons. And there were some recruits the Vols missed on during his time that they probably should've landed (Trevor Lawrence, Amari Rodgers, and Tee Higgins, who were Vols fans growing up, are on that list). But missing on Bell wasn't Jones' fault. You can place the blame squarely on Derek Dooley for that recruiting miss. 

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