It was an iconic moment in Arkansas State football history. The Red Wolves were on the brutalizing end of a 73-0 annihilation to the Oklahoma Sooners. As the game was winding down, and the team was being assessed a 15-yard penalty, Arkansas State head coach was caught by the ESPN cameras sinking to one knee, a hand over his mouth, clearly emotional and drained by the disappointing experience. Safety and team leader Justin Parks put a hand on his coach’s shoulder in support.
The response – to Jones’ display of emotion and to the results of the game – was largely negative. Many viewed the image of a crestfallen Jones symbolic of an Arkansas State tenure marked by too few wins and too many humiliating losses. National voices like Barrett Sallee, showing a sudden and previously unrevealed compassion for Arkansas State, took a few moments of his golden podium time to express his dismay with Jones’ performance.
Locally, fans were understandably dismayed, and Jones’ harshest critics were vindicated: The play calling was boring and predictable. The defense seemed more lost than ever. The team looked slow and unprepared. Jones may be a great recruiter (two top Sun Belt classes in a row), but he’s not a master of the Xs and Os.
Much of the criticism was seeded at the very start of Jones’ tenure. Butch Jones’ stint at Tennessee was torched by the Volunteers media – and he was a specific target of popular SEC Media wonk Paul Finebaum, who called Jones a “carnival barker.” His bizarre hatred for Jones was clearly personal.
Many Arkansas State fans seemed to adopt Finebaum’s toxic feelings for Jones even before Jones donned the scarlet and black. Even more telling of the SEC’s influence, it seemed that everyone had an opinion about Jones’ hiring – that it was a mistake, even though Jones’ time with Tennessee was marked by three winning seasons in the tough SEC East, underscored by three bowl victories. Nobody seemed to take in account his successful stints at Central Michigan and Cincinnati either. All that mattered was that he didn’t beat Alabama as Tennessee head coach, and that Finebaum hated him.
Winning five games his first two seasons didn’t help at all. Players who were popular with fans (but perhaps not so much with Coach Jones) began to leave the program (some for SBC West rivals). Voices from outside the program looked at the Red Wolves’ results in recent years and immediately assumed that the program’s dip in success was directly related to Jones’ arrival.
The truth was that Arkansas State had fallen behind its Sun Belt opposition in recruiting FBS speed and size. Jones made a decision to take a crockpot mentality to rebuilding the roster – through good old fashioned high school recruiting. Though Jones would use the transfer portal to fill important gaps (including quarterback, safety and offensive line), Jones and his staff committed themselves to locating raw talent with the measurable tangents up to Jones’ standard.
By year three, fans (and apparently not fans) wanted to see some Ws. A 73-0 loss to Oklahoma to open the season seemed to make it obvious that those Ws were not on the horizon – at least to most of our eyes. Though the loss had emotionally drained Jones, what he saw from his team convinced him that his process was working.
“When we got back (to Jonesboro), the leaders of our team called for a team lift, and the team went down at 9:00 at night to the weight room to lift,” recalled Jones. “That’s when I knew our culture changed.”
“Culture” is a popular word for Jones. He’s a constant studier of body language. He relentlessly monitors the mood of the sideline. He once claimed to record the number of high-fives the team exchanged. Though he was disappointed with each loss, he seemed more dismayed by the team’s locker room demeanor. He wanted to see fight. More than anything, he wanted to see belief. His leaders calling for a “team lift” was a sign that belief was growing.
Belief growing or not, the Red Wolves followed the 77-0 loss to Oklahoma with an equally dispiriting 37-3 defeat to hated rival Memphis. Message board pundits believed the end was nigh for Jones in Jonesboro. Fans saw the immediate successes from GJ Kinne of Texas State and Clay Helton of Georgia Southern and decided that Jones’ slow-cook approach was antiquated for today’s quick fix portal methods. Finebaum was right about Jones!
Week Three’s game against Stony Brook – a FCS team who would finish the season 0-10 – bore key moments of revelation. Jones had seemed overly focused on providing a seasoned game manager to serve as team quarterback, turning first to James Blackman (Florida State) and later to journeyman JT Shrout (Tennnessee/Colorado). Both had experience and credentials, but neither seemed to have enough flint to spark the team. For Stony Brook, with Shrout nursing an ankle injury, Jones started one of his own young recruits – Jaxon Dailey, a highly-rated lefty with some personality.
While Dailey led the team to its first touchdown of the season, the Red Wolves didn’t see a score through the air until true freshman quarterback Jaylen Raynor entered the huddle, when he found Courtney Jackson in the end zone. Raynor, with his quickness and his silky soft passes, ignited the spark – and what the light revealed was more belief.
Jones turned to his youth. Entering Saturday’s season-closing game with Marshall, Jones will have fielded 86 different players 71% of which are in their first or second year in the program, including 21 true-freshmen. Players who were once just guys with stars next to their names began making significant contributions – Javante Mackey (LB), Miller McCrumby (TE), Keyron Crawford (DE), Ja’Quez Cross (RB), Cedric Hawkins (RB) and Elijah Zollioffer (OL) to name only a few.
But it was Raynor with his fast wheels (340 rushing yards, 5 ground TDs on the season so far) and remarkably mature passing efficiency (21st nationally) that was building belief among the fickle fan base. The Red Wolves would win its first conference game of the season at home against Southern Miss, powered by five total touchdowns (3 passing, 2 rushing) from Raynor. The Red Wolves had their quarterback, and suddenly games were fun to watch again.
More wins came, but those victories were delivered largely by players not directly behind center. (Jones is prone to calling this “complimentary football.”) The Red Wolves defense held the Cajuns powerful run game to just 64 yards. Arkansas State’s run game delivered seven touchdowns from three different running backs in the big win over Texas State. Once again, it was the acrobatic play of wide receiver Corey Rucker who inspired the win over ULM. The offensive line, once the weakest aspect of Arkansas State’s program, had become a durable and effective unit under Butch Jones.
Against Texas State, the belief built by Butch Jones exploded like magma violently freeing itself from Earth’s crust. Arkansas State became the first team in 11 years to record a rushing TD, a punt return TD, a pick six, and a scoop and score in a game. There seemed no end – or shortage of methods – to the Red Wolves punishment of the Bobcats. After surrendering an opening scoring drive to the Bobcats, everything for Arkansas State clicked. Texas State just happened to be on the same field at the same time.
Have we seen the redemption of Butch Jones? Las Vegas predicted 4.5 wins for the Red Wolves this season, and the team currently rests at six. A big knock on Jones’ offense was that it was too infatuated with interior running. Now the gaps are open – the run game has gone from ineffective to serviceable to a feature component of Red Wolves scoring. The defense isn’t exactly shutting down opposing offenses, but its making big plays behind one of the strongest linebacker groups in the SBC. And it’s all being fueled by Jones’ young recruits.
Let’s not split our palms congratulating ourselves for A-State’s return to relevance. The Red Wolves are winning games they’re supposed to win. Teams like Louisiana and Texas State are not without skills, but they’re not exactly signature victories. Losses to Coastal Carolina and South Alabama prove that there is much work left. Until Butch Jones closes escrow on Memphis or puts the hammer down on Troy and JMU, Red Wolves football is still in rebuild.
Jones will likely never earn a word of praise from the Finebaum’s and Sallee’s of the world. One does not simply leave Tennessee without being torched. It’s the high cost of doing college football business. But it’s time for Arkansas to see what Butch Jones is accomplishing at Arkansas State. The turnaround isn’t incredible because the turnaround is part of the plan.
Belief is the plan.
Howlraiser 