Butch Jones and his staff treat players like family at Tennessee. That’s one reason why the Vols are beginning to bring in top-tier talent once again. PHOTO: Phil Sears-USA TODAY Sports
In the growing world of college athletics, it’s easy to get swept up in attention-grabbing headlines and forget about the players behind the multibillion dollar business that is college football. Too often fans forget their favorite college football teams are comprised of 19, 20, and 21 year-olds that are “amateurs” under NCAA rules and go unpaid for their play on the field.
At the University of Tennessee, however, head football coach Butch Jones and his staff are more interested in fostering a family atmosphere for his team. And it’s paying off on the field.
For the two-plus years Butch Jones has been the head coach for the Vols, he has worked on creating a close-knit family environment for his team, and he has preached that perspective to recruits since he took over as well.
At the beginning of his second season on Rocky Top, Butch Jones told Dargan Southard and Troy Provost-Heron of The Daily Beacon that building a family atmosphere for the Vols was of the utmost importance.
"We have to get stability and continuity in our football program. That’s what we are building here, and that’s what we now have. That’s what we have for the future. When you look at that, you see the advantages of having continuity and stability. You see a top-five ranked recruiting class. You see a program making tremendous strides in the classroom, on the field, off the field, the culture, the environment that’s in place, and that all comes with stability. That comes with having the same language each and every day. They are not learning new people because at the end of the day, every great family, every great organization is bonded upon trust. We talk about trust is earned over time, and when you have continuity and stability you are able to build that trust, and what we have within our football family is that trust and that love that’s critical in terms of developing and implementing your program."
And that message has not fallen on deaf ears.
Members of Tennessee’s 2014 recruiting class, one that ranked No. 7 in the country according to 247Sports, stated that the family environment at Tennessee was pivotal in their decision to become Vols. Several members of the 2014 class were dubbed “the legacy class” because they are sons and nephews of former Vol athletes, and they were crucial in founding that atmosphere this past season.
And the family roots are running even deeper with each passing month.
This January, Tennessee welcomed 10 early enrollees in their 2015 recruiting class, and they all said the way Butch Jones and his staff built relationships with them was monumental in their choice to flock to Tennessee.
Quarterback Quinten Dormady of Beorn, Texas lived nearly 17 hours away from Knoxville in high school, but his new school is quickly becoming a home away from home for him. In an interview with 247Sports’s Wes Rucker, Dormady stated that Tennessee is “a family place,” adding that “being 17 hours away from home, you want to feel like you’re at home, being that far away from your parents and your siblings. I think the family part of it was the key.”
Instead of treating players like a means to an end or another cog in the mammoth machine that is the NCAA, Tennessee’s coaches prefer to form deeper relationships with players, treating them as individuals and simply as people.
In an article on WVLT’s website, early enrollees such as defensive tackle Shy Tuttle, defensive ends Andrew Butcher and Kyle Phillips, and linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. all said in one way or another that the relationships they formed with Tennessee’s coaches and how they were treated by Jones and his staff were some of the biggest keys in their commitments.
The family atmosphere for the Vols isn’t just a gimmick or false advertisement; the family-like environment appeals to recruits and current Tennessee players. Jones’s approach to how he treats his players is garnering obvious success both on and off the field.
In his first two full seasons as Tennessee’s head coach, Butch Jones and his staff have used their recruiting tactics to haul in the No. 7 recruiting class in 2014 and currently sit at No. 3 in the 2015 class rankings. Not only that, but he and his staff made sure his players were focusing in the classroom as well, improving Tennessee’s four-year Academic Progress Score total to a 932, earning the highest annual score in program history in 2012-13 with a 962. Those scores saved the Vols from potential postseason bans and other punishments as well.
Players want to feel like they belong and are wanted on a collegiate football team. Coaches who treat players like family are the types of coaches that players want to learn under. Tennessee has a head coach who is doing just that. Darrin Kirkland Jr., a former 4-star linebacker and current Tennessee early enrollee, seems to agree.
“Coach Jones has made it an incredible atmosphere here, a very family environment,” Kirkland told WVLT Sports, “I am just happy to be here.”