Tag: Butch Jones

Butch Jones was hired as Arkansas State’s head coach on Dec. 12.

Jones served in an off-field role at Alabama from 2018-20, working closely with head coach Nick Saban.

Prior to arriving at Alabama, Jones served as head coach at Tennessee. He compiled a 34-27 record from 2013-17 and was 3-0 in bowl games.

Jones joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days” to discuss being hired at Arkansas State, his time at Alabama and Tennessee.

The first-year Arkansas State head coach mentioned he had three very good and productive years at Alabama with Saban.

“I had a great job, had a great role and a great responsibility there, so I wasn’t just looking to leave for any job,” Jones said. “Those three years also afforded me the luxury to kind of look at around the country, researching different type of jobs, different type of situations and the one situation and one job that kept coming to, at the top of the list, was always Arkansas State.

“It is a program that I started to follow, and obviously when I got the call from Terry Mohajir and the administration, it was a great opportunity and it all worked out. I had a checklist. I wanted to make sure, that first of all, there was total alignment with the administration. So much of being successful is a collegiate football program is the alignment of the administration. This administration is really, really incredible from top to bottom.”

During Jones’ time at Alabama, he was able to study and observe various coaches, helping him create a list of candidates for his staff when the time came for his next head coaching position.

“The three years at Alabama, I was able to sit back and really evaluate coaches around the country – offense, defense and special teams – and schematically what they ran, style of play, so those three years I compiled a very long depth chart,” Jones said.

During Jones’ time at Tennessee, his offense featured inside-zone and gap principles in a smash-mouth spread scheme.

Jones’ offense at Tennessee was a numbers game, having a hat on a hat, scheming towards one blocker for every defender, while creating one-on-one matchups for skill set players.

After Jones’ time at Alabama, working alongside the likes of Steve Sarkisian, who features RPOs, slants, perimeter screens, slugo’s and attacking tight box coverage in his offense, the first-year Arkansas State head coach mentioned he will continue to add to his offensive scheme.

“I think you are constantly evolving,” Jones said. “You are constantly adapting and growing to the game of football.”

“I go back to my three years at Alabama, working with different offensive coordinators, you continue and sit back, and watch and evolve,” Jones continued. “Our offense will definitely evolve, and a lot of the things we did at Alabama — in terms of personnel groupings — RPOs and play passes, and then going back to a lot of the things we did at Tennessee, too.

“The exciting thing when you take over a job, you are implementing schemes in offense, defense and special teams. You adapt and the terminology may change, but the philosophies don’t really change, and the one thing that is constant, that will never change, is our style of play. The toughness on every play, playing through the echo of the whistle on every down, that will never change. The intangibles, the playing intangibles, won’t change, schematically there will be tweaks. The other thing is having a system that’s flexible to meet the skill sets of your players. It’s all about players’ success and how can we create value for them, so again, we’ll be able to adjust and adapt as we get into spring football based on the skill set of our players, as well.”

Former Tennessee head coach Bill Battle (1970-76) is currently serving as a Special Assistant to the President at Alabama after being the Crimson Tide’s Director of Athletics from 2013-17.

Both Battle and Jones will always be part of the University of Tennessee’s football history.

Jones mentioned he had an opportunity to spend time with Battle while at Alabama and also reflect on being a head coach at Tennessee.

“I am very grateful for our time there,” Jones said of serving as the Vols’ head coach. “That is where our kids grew up. It ended unfortunately and I am very disappointed for everyone that we didn’t win an SEC championship.

“I am very, very grateful, to all of our players, our former players, and what they meant — and those relationships – still keep in touch with a lot of those guys. Also the relationships that were forged and I still have in Knoxville and the University of Tennessee. Those are lifetime friends that will continue to be friends, just grateful for my time, disappointed that we didn’t win a championship, however we did accomplish a lot of very, very good things.”

Jones said his ability to have success at Tennessee, but not winning a championship, has caused him to be the most driven he has ever been throughout his coaching career.

The entire show with Jones can be listened to here or below.

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