New Tennessee head coach Butch Jones
By Brett Hudson
Tennessee’s new football coach, Butch Jones, is seen walking down a smoky tunnel, his outline just barely protruding through the smoke. Dramatic music turns up and Jones says the following:
“They said this job isn’t what it used to be. They saw adversity. I saw tradition. They saw weakness. I saw promise. They said we need to put this program back on top. I said, when can I start?”
The video released recently by Tennessee football (which can be seen by clicking here) features an intensity that is a large part of Jones’ Brick by Brick mentality towards bringing Tennessee back to the top of the college football world, with each brick representing an individual player.
“They are responsible in taking responsibility for their own self-determination to get better,” Jones said.
And they have done just that, as Jones seemed ecstatic to report that in the first six weeks of his tenure, Tennessee players lost 250 pounds of fat and regained 230 pounds in muscle.
The sharp transformation has Jones looking up for his future with the Volunteers.
“August camp will be critical as we build an identity for Team 117,” Jones said.
Things get brutal, quickly, for the Volunteers after August camp, however. The Volunteers will make back-to-back road trips to the Oregon Ducks and the Florida Gators for their third and fourth games before taking on Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama all in back-to-back-to-back games in October.
“You have to take it one game at a time, I know that sounds like coachspeak,” Jones said. “You coach it one day at a time, one game at a time. It’s going to be a tremendous opportunity.”
