NFL superstar details the bizarre voicemail Butch Jones once left him
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones once left one of his former players a bizarre voicemail
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones is a polarizing figure in college football — especially in Knoxville.
Jones found more success at Tennessee than both of his predecessors — Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley — but he didn't fully utilize the talent that he brought to Rocky Top.
Tennessee's 2015 and 2016 teams had College Football Playoff talent, but the Vols finished with just nine wins in each of those seasons (in Jones' defense, Tennessee dealt with a number of key injuries).
Prior to arriving at Tennessee in late 2012, Jones was the head coach at Cincinnati for three seasons. During that time, Jones coached future Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, a two-time Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowler.
(An interesting note is that Kelce originally committed to Cincinnati as a quarterback, but now LSU head coach Brian Kelly, who was the Bearcats' head coach at Cincy before Jones took over, moved him to tight end.)
Kelce and his older brother Jason, an offensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles who also played at Cincinnati, recently discussed on their "New Heights" podcast the strangest voicemail they've ever received.
The younger Kelce said he used to have a voicemail from Jones that was memorable.
Jones was apparently looking for Kelce and left an angry voicemail telling him to be in his office in two hours and that if Kelce screwed up again he was done.
That impression of Jones is pretty spot on. I can definitely hear Jones saying "at least you're consistent" to a player (go to the 2:50 mark of this video of Jones' post-game presser after losing to Missouri in 2017 to hear him say those words to a reporter).
Kelce didn't provide any context on why Jones left him the voicemail. But we do know that Kelce was suspended for the entire 2010 season at Cincinnati (Jones' first season as the Bearcats' head coach), so it's not a total surprise that two had some run-ins.
