Former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones will be moving up north again.
According to a report from Maryland’s 247Sports affiliate site, Jones has accepted a position on the Terrapins’ staff under new head coach Mike Locksley. Jones had been an offensive analyst under Nick Saban at Alabama, but he’s set to follow Locksley up to Maryland after the two served together with the Tide this past year.
Jones is expected to be Maryland’s associate head coach and tight ends coach. Jones last coached tight ends for Central Michigan in 1998. He’s been a head coach for Central Michigan, Cincinnati, and Tennessee prior to joining Alabama as an analyst/intern.
As Tennessee’s head coach, Jones earned a 34-27 record but was just 14-24 in SEC play and was fired with two games remaining in the 2017 season. UT owed Jones $8.3 million in a buyout of his contract, and any job he took after that would help mitigate his buyout.
Jones’ position as analyst at Alabama was only paying him $35,000 annually, meaning Tennessee was still paying him a huge chunk of his buyout while he was on Saban’s staff. It’s unclear how much Jones’ salary will be at Maryland, but it’s expected it will at least be a six-digit annual salary. Last year, Chris Beatty served as Maryland’s associate head coach and made $400,000 annually. Dave Bucar was Maryland’s tight ends coach, and he made $140,000 annually.
Locksley and Jones coached together for one season at Alabama, and Locksley must’ve enjoyed Jones’ company enough to want to bring him aboard at Maryland with him. Locksley also hasn’t had success as a head coach in the past, going just 3-31 in three full years as a head coach at New Mexico and a year as an interim head coach at Maryland.
Though he failed at Tennessee, Jones has nearly a decade’s worth of head coaching experience, and he’s recruited the northeast and midwest before.
