Apr 20, 2013; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers running back Rajion Neal (20) autographs a head coach Butch Jones poster before the spring Orange and White game at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
We’ve all seen athletes send a controversial tweet that sets Twitter on fire for a few hours.
Even though the tweet is often quickly deleted, it’s never erased from memory. Most often the tweet typically lives on through retweets and screen captures.
With that in mind, Tennessee Volunteers head football coach Butch Jones is making social media training a priority with his football team.
Jones said on Wednesday, during his media session at SEC Media Days, that the Vols have “a character education program that’s very extensive”. Butch went on to say:
"One bad tweet can change everyone’s opinion of you. Basically the common rule we use is if you can put it in an email to your mother, your grandmother, your significant-other, whoever is important in your life, if you can send that in an email to them, then you can push send. We always talk about the one second rule — in one second your life can change."
It’s not surprising that Jones places such an emphasis on social media training. First off, Jones has made it very well known that developing high character players is his first priority at Tennessee. Teaching players what’s appropriate, and more importantly what’s not appropriate, to tweet or share on Facebook is a very important component in achieving that goal.
The second reason it’s not surprising is that Jones is an avid Twitter user. Butch gets that the recruiting game is an ever-changing beast that can pass you by. Tennessee has one of the most impressive Twitter presences in all of college football and Jones wants to protect that brand by all means necessary.
Butch Jones put it best at the end of his media session on Wednesday:
"It [social media] can be a positive, if you allow it to be a positive,just like it can be a negative. But we monitor that and we take great pride in that. That’s part of being part of these player’s lives, mentoring them outside the realm of football and life in general"
Sometimes it amazes me just how much Butch Jones “gets it”.
For more on the Vols make sure to follow along on Twitter @AllforTennessee and @vols_zach