Arkansas State hires Butch Jones

Butch Jones is a head coach once again, The Alabama assistant has been hired by Arkansas State as the successor to Blake Anderson.

This will mark Jones's fourth head coaching job. His first opportunity came with Central Michigan in 2007, where he had served many years as an assistant before a brief sting at West Virginia. Jones was hired to replace Brian Kelly and led the Chippewas to a 27-13 record with two MAC Championships.

In 2009, Jones was again hired to replace Kelly-- this time at Cincinnati. After a rough first season, the Bearcats went 10-3 in Jones's second season and won the Big East Championship. A 9-3 season the following year would lead Jones to his third head coaching job at Tennessee.

Jones had three winning seasons in five years at Tennessee, but that wasn't good enough to compete in the SEC. He couldn't win conference games despite accumulating a 34-27 overall record and was fired in 2017. The Volunteers went 14-24 in conference during his tenure.

Jones has been an assistant coach at Alabama since then and credits his time in Tuscaloosa for him getting the Arkansas State job. He's had success at small schools before, and he's out to prove he's still got it.