Not long ago, Butch Jones had his equipment manager kick a coed out of Nippert Stadium. The woman was running the stadium steps during football practice, when Jones noticed her T-shirt bore the word “Indiana’’.
“You’re on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. You wear Bearcat stuff,’’ Jones explained. The equipment manager directed the young lady to the campus bookstore.
The new football coach walks through a shopping mall, to see how many people are wearing UC gear. He cases sporting goods stores, to see what’s on the shelves.
He puts dishes of red licorice and Hershey’s kisses on the coffee table in his office, because “kids love candy.’’ When players come in and make like its Halloween, it gives Butch Jones time to ask them about their lives.
“I want people to feel my passion for being here,’’ Jones says.
He is the guy who’s following The Guy. This isn’t often a wise career move. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows The Guy. As Jones himself says, “I had 25 coaches say, ‘Do you realize what you’re walking into?’
“I told ‘em, ‘Yeah, I do. And I love it’.’’
He’s not much like Brian Kelly. BK: Slick, smooth CEO. BJ: Hands-on, corny next door neighbor. Kelly disliked recruiting. It didn’t challenge his intellect. Jones enjoys it. It involves him with people. Kelly was a people person because he had to be.
Athletics, like politics, is a people job. Jones is a people person because he likes people.
In his own way, Butch Jones is as charismatic as Brian Kelly was. It’s a grassroots charisma, though, and not as immediately apparent. He’s going to need it.
Jones arrives at a time when expectations for UC football are greater than its financial resources, and when anything less than a third consecutive Big East title will be seen by some as a letdown.
It doesn’t help that Jones is riding the tail wind of Kelly’s hurricane. All BK did in three years was change entirely the image of UC football. There’s no turning back now.
“Filled seats,’’ Jones says. I ask him what he wants to see at Nippert Stadium Saturday night, for the Bearcats spring game. Ohio State will get close to 80,000 that afternoon, for its spring game; last week, Alabama got more than that. Jones wants 35,000 at Nippert.
That’s not going to happen, I say.
“It’ll happen one day,’’ Jones says. “That’s my vision.’’
He calls himself “an ATD guy.’’ Attention To Detail. Another difference from his predecessor. “Sweeping the corners,’’ Jones calls it. “The small details are why you win, because the small details become big details.’’
He called every recruit that signed elsewhere, every single one, to find out why each didn’t choose UC. He changed the look of the stationery on which he and his coaches write hand-written notes to recruits. “What’s going to separate us?’’ Jones asks. “A recruit has five letters in front of him. What makes ours stand out?’’
I told him about the Xavier basketball media guide. Former coach Sean Miller suggested the guide be wider than it is tall, so it would stand alone in a pile of media guides a recruit might receive. “Love it,’’ Jones says. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.’’
He has a notepad on his bedroom dresser and a tape recorder in his car. Ideas float like butterflies, errantly through his head. He needs them caught. Into his tape recorder two nights ago, Jones said, “Our receivers gotta block a little more on the perimeter.’’ He relayed that to them in a meeting Wednesday morning.
He likes corny, coach-ly sayings. His players will Live the Bearcat Way. (The tougher the standards, the deeper the pride!) His players will engage in PHT: Pride, History and Tradition. They will make Power Point presentations on what’s unique about UC football. “Fifth,’’ Jones said to them, Wednesday.
Fifth? “The fifth oldest college football team in the country,’’ he says. Details.
He has brought in speakers: Mike Singletary, Solomon Wilcots, Merrill Hoge. He’s working on Tony Dungy and Anthony Munoz. Hoge was in Wednesday. He talked about attention to detail and “body position’’ which Jones calls “the most undercoached thing in all of sports.’’
And so on. This is a different way of coaching the game than what transpired in the last three years.
Starting Saturday, we’ll see how different.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100421/COL03/304210045/1064/SPT0101/Butch+Jones+stands+out
“You’re on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. You wear Bearcat stuff,’’ Jones explained. The equipment manager directed the young lady to the campus bookstore.
The new football coach walks through a shopping mall, to see how many people are wearing UC gear. He cases sporting goods stores, to see what’s on the shelves.
He puts dishes of red licorice and Hershey’s kisses on the coffee table in his office, because “kids love candy.’’ When players come in and make like its Halloween, it gives Butch Jones time to ask them about their lives.
“I want people to feel my passion for being here,’’ Jones says.
He is the guy who’s following The Guy. This isn’t often a wise career move. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows The Guy. As Jones himself says, “I had 25 coaches say, ‘Do you realize what you’re walking into?’
“I told ‘em, ‘Yeah, I do. And I love it’.’’
He’s not much like Brian Kelly. BK: Slick, smooth CEO. BJ: Hands-on, corny next door neighbor. Kelly disliked recruiting. It didn’t challenge his intellect. Jones enjoys it. It involves him with people. Kelly was a people person because he had to be.
Athletics, like politics, is a people job. Jones is a people person because he likes people.
In his own way, Butch Jones is as charismatic as Brian Kelly was. It’s a grassroots charisma, though, and not as immediately apparent. He’s going to need it.
Jones arrives at a time when expectations for UC football are greater than its financial resources, and when anything less than a third consecutive Big East title will be seen by some as a letdown.
It doesn’t help that Jones is riding the tail wind of Kelly’s hurricane. All BK did in three years was change entirely the image of UC football. There’s no turning back now.
“Filled seats,’’ Jones says. I ask him what he wants to see at Nippert Stadium Saturday night, for the Bearcats spring game. Ohio State will get close to 80,000 that afternoon, for its spring game; last week, Alabama got more than that. Jones wants 35,000 at Nippert.
That’s not going to happen, I say.
“It’ll happen one day,’’ Jones says. “That’s my vision.’’
He calls himself “an ATD guy.’’ Attention To Detail. Another difference from his predecessor. “Sweeping the corners,’’ Jones calls it. “The small details are why you win, because the small details become big details.’’
He called every recruit that signed elsewhere, every single one, to find out why each didn’t choose UC. He changed the look of the stationery on which he and his coaches write hand-written notes to recruits. “What’s going to separate us?’’ Jones asks. “A recruit has five letters in front of him. What makes ours stand out?’’
I told him about the Xavier basketball media guide. Former coach Sean Miller suggested the guide be wider than it is tall, so it would stand alone in a pile of media guides a recruit might receive. “Love it,’’ Jones says. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.’’
He has a notepad on his bedroom dresser and a tape recorder in his car. Ideas float like butterflies, errantly through his head. He needs them caught. Into his tape recorder two nights ago, Jones said, “Our receivers gotta block a little more on the perimeter.’’ He relayed that to them in a meeting Wednesday morning.
He likes corny, coach-ly sayings. His players will Live the Bearcat Way. (The tougher the standards, the deeper the pride!) His players will engage in PHT: Pride, History and Tradition. They will make Power Point presentations on what’s unique about UC football. “Fifth,’’ Jones said to them, Wednesday.
Fifth? “The fifth oldest college football team in the country,’’ he says. Details.
He has brought in speakers: Mike Singletary, Solomon Wilcots, Merrill Hoge. He’s working on Tony Dungy and Anthony Munoz. Hoge was in Wednesday. He talked about attention to detail and “body position’’ which Jones calls “the most undercoached thing in all of sports.’’
And so on. This is a different way of coaching the game than what transpired in the last three years.
Starting Saturday, we’ll see how different.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100421/COL03/304210045/1064/SPT0101/Butch+Jones+stands+out
