📡 Butch Jones opens up about Nick Saban's influence - 247Sports

[Bama News]

Butch Jones opens up about Nick Saban's influence

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247sports.com

Butch Jones turned his three year stint at Alabama into a new head coaching job at Arkansas State. His three years as an analyst and assistant were capped off with a national championship this year.

However, Jones said he owed a lot to head coach Nick Saban and learned quite a bit from the greatest coach of all time. The new Arkansas State leader even went as far to say that he never had a better time than he did at any other coaching stop.

Jones joined ESPNU Radio on Wednesday to discuss Saban and his time at Alabama.

“It’s really had to narrow that down to one or two things,” Jones said. “I think it's a cumulative effect. The big thing is, people use the term loosely, the process and following the process but understanding the true definition of how you coach and how you teach the process and what it means. His balance overall as a head coach and all the things that are associated with that job and how he goes about his business...and how he manages. He does an incredible job of balancing everything that’s associated with being a head coach from the alumni, the donors, the media, to player development, to the former players, the coaching staff, support staff, you name it….

“Those three years were remarkable. Last year was one of the best years I've ever had in this profession of being a part of a national championship team. But really getting to know him as a coach and an even better person.”

Saban discussed Jones back in December upon the news of the former accepting the new head coaching job.

"Butch has done a phenomenal job here for us in the several years that he has been here," Saban said back in December. "He’s very well-liked by the players, really well-organized, and has been very helpful to me personally. He’s going to stay involved to whatever degree he can. So, we are extremely pleased and happy for him and his family to get this opportunity.

“I think it’s a good job and something certainly he’s worked a long time to try to get another opportunity to be a head coach, so we’re extremely pleased and happy that this thing worked out for him the way that it did. And Butch is so professional about everything that he does that it hasn’t affected our preparation to this point. I don’t think he’d ever allow that to happen. I think he’ll contribute whatever way that he can.”

Currently, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, Arkansas State’s 2021 class ranks No. 106 overall and No. 7 in the Sun Belt conference.

As a head coach, Jones is 84-54 overall, including a 34-27 record at Tennessee from 2013-17. Jones was 27-13 at Central Michigan and 23-14 at Cincinnati in his previous stops.