Hlas: Butch Jones puts passion in fashion in Tennessee

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - It's fitting Butch Jones often wears Tennessee orange on the sideline, because the Volunteers' head football coach burns brightly.

Nearly every football coach is intense in one way or another, but Jones seems consumed. He never talks about his team or his program. It's always this football team, our football

program. As if saying the word 'football” with emphasis gives something a sacred status, makes it a great and noble thing.

'I love the word ‘passion.' I think everything you do in life is all about passion,” Jones said at Wednesday's TaxSlayer Bowl press conference in the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center.

'When you get an opportunity like I've been blessed with at the University of Tennessee, it makes you appreciate that much more.

'You have to approach every day as ‘I want to be the best at everything that we do.' I've said we're building the best football family in America.”

I was at Tennessee's practice Monday, and was subjected to what the Volunteer players face at every practice. Jones freely uses a wireless microphone that works all too well. He uses it to constantly spout words of motivation, humor, and occasional dissatisfaction. None of the words are said softly.

'He has a mike,” said Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs. 'He's running around and he's definitely getting into guys and firing guys up. Coach Jones always brings energy to practice, always gets us going.”

Tennessee football has been un-Tennessee for the last several seasons. This was one of the nation's premier programs from 1985 through 2007. There were 11 seasons of 10 or more wins. There were five Southeastern Conference championships, five SEC division crowns, and the 1998 national-title.

But Phillip Fulmer's 17-year coaching run ended in 2008 after a 5-7 season. Lane Kiffin was in Knoxville for one year, when the Vols went 7-6 in 2009, then suddenly bolted for USC. Three seasons of Derek Dooley produced 6-7, 5-7 and 5-7. Enter Jones, who had come off 10-3 and 9-3 seasons and two shares of Big East titles at Cincinnati.

Jones' first Tennessee team was 5-7, and this year's is a modest 6-6, but his team is markedly better now than when he showed up. More importantly, he has recruited ferociously, getting the Vols in the top 5 of the 2014 recruiting rankings of Scout and Rivals.

He basically has torn down the old and is slapping up something new and a lot more fiery. He played 23 true freshmen this season, and you'll see many of them Friday when the Vols play Iowa here.

Tennesseeans have responded to what it's seen and heard from Jones, and were all for the school giving him a raise last month to $3.6 million a year with a contract extension through 2020. Unlike Kiffin and Dooley, Volunteer fans don't want to lose this guy. They have bought what he intensely sells.

I asked Jones where the passion comes from, and he gave me a 4-minute answer that was, well, passionate.

'I grew up in a small town, Saugatuck, Michigan. I had 62 individuals in my graduating class. My father was the chief of police and my mother was the hospital administrator. They taught me at a very early age of what it takes from a work ethic.

'It's a resort community, and so I was a dishwasher at the local restaurant downtown at the age of 14.

'I wanted to quit, and my mom and dad would not allow me to quit. I had to pay for my college education. I was a walk-on (on the football team at Division II Ferris State in Big Rapids, Mich.)”

Jones' path to big-school coaching isn't unusual, but it does show the only silver spoons he knew were the ones he washed in that Saugatuck restaurant. After being a graduate assistant at Rutgers for three years, he went to Division III Wilkes University to be the football team's offensive coordinator, and more.

'I was the intramurals director and men's tennis coach, and I don't know a thing about tennis,” Jones said. 'I drove the van.

'I knew I had to jump-start my career. I quit that to go back to my alma mater, Ferris State, and took a 9-month (coaching) position with a wife, a kid, $17,000 a year, and no benefits.

'These are all things that people don't see. They see right now, but they don't see the struggles.”

Eventually, Jones spent seven years as an assistant coach at Central Michigan and two at West Virginia. It was here at that this bowl game eight years ago when Central Michigan interviewed and hired him to be its head coach. Three years there, three years at Cincinnati, and now he's the man at Tennessee.

'The University of Tennessee is a very unique place,” Jones said. 'It's bounded by passion. We're the state institution. Everything runs through Knoxville. We have a great fan base, very, very supportive. They've opened their arms to this entire football team. The entire country will see the passion of Vol Nation come Friday at the game.”

Dobbs, the starting QB who majors in aerospace engineering, has been called 'Urkel” by Jones.

'That was pretty funny,” Dobbs said. 'He was trying to get under my skin, but I don't wear glasses, so I didn't really see the correlation.”

The player admits to thinking that hiding Jones' microphone would be a good gag.

'Sometimes we've tried,” said Dobbs, 'but he always has it stowed away.

'You can hear it all around Knoxville. His voice just echoes through town.”

That sounds like quite an exaggeration, given that Knoxville has 183,000 people. But watch Jones work the sideline tomorrow and you just might believe it's true.

Here's a link to a video showing how wound up Jones can get on a sideline.

Here is a more-subdued take, courtesty of Tennessee.