Tennessee Vols: I Like What I’m Hearing From Butch Jones

Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones has dealt with plenty of criticism during the off-season.

I’ve been as critical as anyone of the words and phrases that Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones chooses to use.

And I’m not alone in those criticisms. Fans, local beat writers and folks from the national media have also been critical of Jones when he’s used phrases like “champions of life” or “five star heart”. It’s become such a big thing that there have been times when I was away from covering the team and received notifications on my phone that Jones had made another head shaking comment.

There’s no doubt the phrases and slogans are corny. But Jones isn’t alone in using them. I’ve been around a countless number of coaches in my life and I’ve heard these kinds of motivational phrases on numerous occasions.

But here’s the thing about football in the south — we like some personality from our coaches. It’s why people love Steve Spurrier and Les Miles. And it’s why Derek Dooley was at least entertaining during press conferences when he was tanking at Tennessee. Wins and losses are obviously a big part of being a popular coach, but that’s not the only thing that matters.

Football in the south is a religion. Coaches become like family. And who would you rather sit beside at Thanksgiving dinner? Spurrier or Miles who are going to keep you and everyone else entertained? Or the coach that’s talking about “the process” or beginning every sentence with “it starts with….”?

There’s something interesting about coaches, and life in general: if you like someone, you tend to give them a pass when they don’t live up to expectations. You’re a little more forgiving.

Jones hasn’t connected with the fans, or media, in the way that Spurrier and other coaches with unique personalities have.

But I do believe Jones has that side to him — he’s just too calculated in what he says to the media.

Fortunately, I feel like we’re starting to see a little more candidness from Jones in the last couple of months.

Jones was asked by a local media member on Sunday about his usage of slogans at Tennessee, to which he offered a candid response. Jones responded that plenty of football coaches uses slogans, but then offered “for some reason I think at Tennessee it’s all blown out of proportion because that’s the one topic to talk about”. He added that he uses slogans and catchphrases at “times when you need to focus your football team”.

I get what Jones is saying, and I know he’s right. It’s just that Jones seems to repeat the slogans during media sessions way more often than other coaches. At the end of the day, it’s a quirk of his that’s entirely inconsequential.

What I want to start hearing and seeing from Jones, however, is some of the personality he uses to win over recruits. I think we’ve seen a bit of that as well in the last couple of weeks.

See that is really all fans want from their coach. We get 12 regular season games a year — that means there’s at least 40 weeks a year where we have topics other than a game talk about. And face it, we’re going to talk about college football for 52 weeks a year.

This may sound dumb, but I promise you it’s true, if Jones gives us fun little anecdotes like this, it will be much easier to forget about “five star heart” or whatever else is said.

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As Jones continues to evolve as a coach, I think you’ll see him become more comfortable sharing little moments like the one above. Assuming he guides the Vols to a SEC East title soon, I think fans will finally come to embrace the man with the flattop from Michigan.