Coming off his 100th win as a head coach, Butch Jones, head football coach at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, spoke Monday for the fourth consecutive year at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
“We came in here, and we were selling a vision,” he said. “We were selling our principles, our values, what we were going to stand for, how we were going to build it.”
Jones, who took the reins at A-State in 2021, said his first year there showed him the importance of building a program at ASU. That work gradually paid off as the Red Wolves went from a 3-9 season in 2022 to a bowl game in 2023 and a 5-3 record across eight games so far this season.
“When you hire a coach, you hire a brand,” he said, “and our brand has always been discipline, details, a connected football team. Play really hard and discipline, and you win through execution, and you out-culture your teams that you play, our opponents.”
At a time when athletics are more and more defined by the short-term thinking fostered by the transfer portal and NIL dollars, Jones takes a long view, focusing on the diligent work needed to build a quality team.
His program began building its recruitment pool at the high school level with a focus on promoting the school’s facilities and athlete development and making sure “when they left our program, they were better because they were a part of Arkansas State.”
He also works to teach football through one-on-one meetings with players and emphasizes the connection between his athletes as integral to the team’s success.
“In today’s portal world, NIL deals, there’s more divided locker rooms than there’s ever been, but there’s one thing that has kind of stood the test of time,” he said. “How you can tell if an organization or any athletics team like each other is the power of how they embrace each other.”
Another factor that has changed the nature of the game for coaches is nonconference scheduling and how some other schools pay to have games on days that will raise morale among fans and players.
“I think if you really look at the top 25, look at the collectives and the NIL and look at their nonconference scheduling, and you’ll be amazed at how those two go hand in hand in today’s world of collegiate athletics, particularly in football,” Jones said.
Having coached at Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Tennessee, Jones said he chose ASU because he enjoys living in Jonesboro, and he credited increased community support with helping turn the Red Wolves around, as well.
“Centennial Bank Stadium is who we are as a community,” he said, “so if we don’t show up, we don’t support, that sort of shows who we are. If we show up and we have great support, that is a great barometer of our community, and it’s my job to make sure we put a product on that field that everybody wants to see.”
Photos by Ryan Parker
READ ALSO: Colt McCoy to Speak at Next Little Rock Touchdown Club Meeting
