Late last month, reports surfaced that Nick Saban has been in contact with Butch Jones about a job on his Alabama football staff. A handful of days later, there’s been confirmation of the interest.
As Alabama held the first of its two Pro Days Wednesday in Tuscaloosa, Jones was in attendance and wearing an Alabama pullover. While Saban confirmed that he has an interest in adding Jones, he also stated that the hiring has not yet been finalized, at least to his knowledge.
“I don’t know where that is,” Saban said by way of al.com when asked about Jones’ status with the program. “We have issues that we need to go through to be able to hire somebody from another school. I haven’t gotten a report on where that is right now. We are interested in him being a part of our staff.”
Meeting of the minds here at @AlabamaFTBL Pro Day.
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Jones, of course, was the head coach at rival Tennessee for nearly five seasons before he was summarily dismissed in mid-November of last year. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Cincinnati (2010-12) and Central Michigan (2007-09); his last job that didn’t involve being a head coach or position coach came as a graduate assistant at Rutgers from 1990-92.
The job with the Vols, which ended with, among other things, a 14-24 mark in conference play, was Jones’ first of any kind in the SEC. Included in that conference record was a 0-5 mark against the Crimson Tide in which the Volunteers were outscored by a combined score of 192-61.
Per his UT contract, Jones will be paid just over $8 million in the form of a buyout, minus whatever he was to make at future jobs through February of 2021.