On one level, University of Tennessee football coach Butch Jones is just like the rest of us. He isn't perfect. If he was, the Volunteers wouldn't have squandered double-digit leads in losses to Oklahoma, Florida and Arkanas last season.
But that doesn't mean his coaching actions since taking over as the Big Orange boss prior to the 2013 season should in any way be compared to the dumpster fire that is Baylor University football at the moment.
Yes, there are some general similarities as UT's legal eagles continue to prepare for a courtroom showdown over a Title IX civil suit that's almost exclusively focused on the campus culture regarding the football program. Yes, those include alleged sexual assaults and an obvious feeling from certain groups that, to quote the lawsuit, a "hostile sexual environment" has long existed on the Knoxville campus.
And should the school ultimately lose that suit, there will be a lot of explaining to do by the entire administration. Not just Jones, athletic director Dave Hart and those who have gone before them over the past two decades, but the entire administration, at least from chancellor Jimmy Cheek downward.
But if Jones was quite wise to say, "I'm not into comparisons," when asked about the similarities between Baylor and UT, he could also have been forgiven if he'd added, "I suspended every one of these players as soon as soon as charges were made against them. What more could I have done given the facts I was working with?"
And whatever has gone on behind the scenes in Knoxville, however much better the women involved in the Title IX lawsuit believe things could or should be on the UT campus, Jones has done so much more to run a quality program than Art Briles - his fired Baylor counterpart - ever did.
This isn't to say the lawsuit has no merits. Or that the UT coaching staff hasn't made a few mistakes in recruiting and possibly in disciplining. As a parent of two young daughters, I'm certain I've made mistakes almost every day in how my wife and I raise them and discipline them. Everyone who's ever attempted to coach or teach or parent a child surely would say the same.
But given the facts as we know them today, the only past or current issue in collegiate sports that somewhat mirrors Baylor's actions is the Penn State cover-up of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's child molestation cases.
If you think that is a harsh comparison, listen to this quote from the mother of one of former Baylor Bear Tevin Elliot's sexual assault victims: "My daughter's life is ruined. I know God has a plan for her and she is going to get through this, but probation (for Elliot, who wound up with a 20-year sentence) is not an option. It is not fair for you to get probation, because this is not my daughter anymore."
Another woman said Elliot's sexual assault of her "(made me) feel like I was nothing. And when you feel like nothing, it makes you think that there is nothing for you left to love."
Read any quote from the victim of any child molestation case similar to Sandusky's and see if those quotes aren't almost identical. A ruined life. A child that's not the child I raised anymore. Feel like nothing. Nothing left to love.
Not all scars are created equal. The mental ones never really seem to disappear.
Yet Briles and others ignored six earlier stories of sexual assault by Elliot before he was finally brought to justice. Just win, baby. Just win.
To this point, the only remotely similar incident involving Jones - and it could be a job-terminating incident, if proven true - is former Vol Drae Bowles' claim that the coach called him a "traitor" for reportedly encouraging the alleged rape victim in the A.J. Johnson-Michael Williams case to go the authorities.
If Bowles is telling the truth, Jones justifiably could find himself being far more closely compared to Briles. But Jones continues to vehemently deny it, and until he's proven false, his job security shouldn't be in question. They may not be perfect, but UT and Jones don't appear to be anything close to the moral and ethical trash heap that is Baylor football at this moment.
"We've tried to do everything the right way from everyone in our organization," Jones said Tuesday.
If nothing else, on that point alone - that UT has tried to do everything the right way - there is no comparison between the Vols and Baylor under Briles.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.