KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Eleven minutes into a packed press conference at the Ray and Lucy Hand Digital Center on Tennessee’s campus, university athletic director Dave Hart issued an emphatic statement. “I trust Butch Jones implicitly,” Hart said. “I know who he is. I know the kind of person he is. I trust him.”
Why, on a random Thursday in February, was Hart vouching for Tennessee’s head football coach? New allegations contained in a high-profile lawsuit brought against the university have cast Jones, his program and Tennessee's athletic department in an unfavorable light. On Feb. 9 six unidentified women filed a Title IX lawsuit in a U.