University of Tennessee Athletics
Bowl Trip A Walk Down Memory Lane
December 31, 2014 | Football
By Brian Rice
JACKSONVILLE, Tenn.
UTSports.com
While the game is a reward for his players and a big step in his building of the football program at the University of Tennessee, it also has been a trip that has given Jones a moment of perspective on his life and coaching career.
It is a career that has come full-circle in the most obscure of places - The Sawgrass Marriott Resort. A location that has served as a headquarters for the Volunteers this week, but also a place that served as the beginning for Jones' career as a head coach.
The perspective begins much earlier, however. The dedication and work ethic needed to have a successful coaching career began decades before. And it all began with passion.
"I love the word passion," Jones said. "I think anything you do in life is all about passion. I grew up in a small town, Saugatuck, Michigan, I had 62 individuals in my graduating class. My father was the chief of police and my mother was a hospital administrator. They taught me at a very early age of what it takes as far as work ethic."
The first lesson is one that Jones refers to often. Today's society has made it very easy to quit, with many people bailing on an endeavor just before it reaches its goal. His goal at the time was not to be the best dishwasher he could be, but he still could not walk away from the job and it paid off at the start of his college career.
"It was a resort community and so I was a dishwasher at the local restaurant downtown at the age of 14," Jones said. "I wanted to quit, but my mom and dad would not allow me to quit. I had to play for my college education, I was a walk-on, so I feel like that work ethic was instilled by my parents early on."
It continued to the start of his professional career. Jones was the offensive coordinator at Division III Wilkes University, a position that came with a couple of other titles, namely intramural director and men's tennis coach. Sensing his career had plateaued, Jones took a leap of faith and returned to his alma mater, Ferris State, to take the next step in his coaching career.
"I took a nine-moth position with a wife and two kids for $17,000 and no benefits," Jones recalled. "These are all the things that people don't see. They don't see the struggles that your family has."
He worked his way up at Central Michigan as a position coach and offensive coordinator, before getting his first big break at West Virginia as wide receivers coach under Rich Rodriguez in 2005. It was a bowl trip to Jacksonville following the 2006 season with the Mountaineers that brought Jones to the villas at the Sawgrass Marriott, a place that would change his life.
"I'm staying one villa down from where I stayed when we came with West Virginia," Jones said. "That's where Central Michigan came here and interviewed me to be their head football coach. Then, that evening in the villa, they offered me the job."
After three seasons at CMU and three more at Cincinnati, Jones got the call to come to Tennessee, and now is back, literally, where his head coaching career began.
"It's kind of been a stroll back down memory lane," he said. "When you start from ground zero and work your way up to an opportunity like I've been blessed with at the University of Tennessee, it makes you appreciate it that much more."
His second season at Tennessee has been his best, but it has not been without its bumps. But from those bumps have come growth, opportunities to grow as a football team and to help his players grow as young men. That grown is what it is all about.
"It has been the most challenging year in coaching," he said. "But also the most rewarding year I've had in coaching."
