Former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones is facing criticism this week for a conservative decision he made just before halftime in Arkansas State’s loss to Memphis last weekend.

With Arkansas State trailing by four points and less than a minute remaining in the first half, Jones had his quarterback take a knee instead of trying to push the ball down the field and get into field goal range. Some fans were upset with the decision because Memphis got the ball first after halftime, and they felt Arkansas State needed points there to stay in the game.

Butch Jones goes on a rant that no one asked for

No one asked Jones about the decision during his weekly press conference. But at the end of the press conference, after all the questions had been asked, Jones brought it up himself and went on a four-minute rant about why he made the call, essentially educating everyone in attendance (if you’re a Vols fan, you know all about getting “educated” by Jones). 

Here’s the full transcript of his rant: 

I was seeing if you were going to ask a question. I’m going to circle back. I think I need to do this. It’s kind of comical. I’ve never had to address this situation, but I’m going to address it. 38 seconds to go in the half. We’re down 21-17. We’ve got the ball on the 25 yard line, and Memphis has one timeout. Why would you put your team in harm’s way? What good can come of it? By the  analytics, you’ve got a 7 percent chance for success, so a 93 percent chance it can go wrong. It’s all about managing the game. It’s not playing Madden, where you go to the bitter end. There’s consequences for your miscues. There’s consequences for your actions. Everything is deeply planned out. Probably, if we would have run the ball, nobody would have even said anything. But they see a victory formation and they wonder what’s going on. So you have a first-time starting quarterback. You’re right where you need to be of being in control of the game. He’s just coming off a couple of interceptions. Why would you put him in harm’s way? And then you’re very limited at running back right now, so why would you run the football and risk a turnover? Get out of the half. You like exactly where you’re at. 

Probably the hardest thing as an offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama is managing that situation with Coach (Nick) Saban, and he was the master of it. And he always talked about never putting your defense in harm’s way and getting out of the half. There’s a risk/reward there. It’s really the first time I’ve ever even had to address this because it’s comical that we would even be talking about it. But I think it’s important that people know the rationale behind it and why we did it. There’s an art to managing a game, and it’s done throughout the course of the week. Every situation, it’s done through analytics. It’s done through a book. It’s done through kind of a gut feel. And probably you don’t remember this, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I tried doing that at App State, and it almost cost us a bowl championship. 43 seconds to go in the half. They had one timeout left. We had the ball on our own 25, and I elected to try to score points and was greedy. And what happened is they forced a three and out. We punted the ball. [They ran] two plays, and they kicked a field goal to end the half. And I said, “Never again. Shame on me.” It doesn’t go for what I believe in. It’s not been how I’ve been raised by Coach Saban and the other places we’ve been. I put my team in harm’s way. Now, the situation may dictate something else with the feel of the game, but I’ll never put our team in harm’s way. And you could say, “Well, coach, you’re not having confidence in your team.” No, I’m taking the emotion out of it, and I’m managing the game, and I’m trying to get the game to the fourth quarter because I believe in our players, I believe in our conditioning, I believe in all of those things. I even called the greatest of all time to ask him about it. So again, I can’t believe I’m talking about it, but I think I have to because it’s nonsense. But I think it’s important that people understand that there’s rationale and there’s reasoning behind everything that we do, it’s not my first time doing this, so I thought I would address it. 

On one hand, I completely understand where Jones was coming from. Arkansas State was still in the game at that point. He didn’t want to make a silly mistake on the opponent’s side of the field and give Memphis easy points before halftime. I really don’t think it was that crazy of a decision to take a knee and go into halftime down only four.

On the flip side, I don’t understand why Jones even felt the need to bring it up. Coaches are going to face criticism for calls they make. It’s part of the gig. And look, sometimes they’re going to make the right call and it’s not going to work out. Sometimes they’re going to make a bad call and it does work out. No one bats 1.000 with coaching decisions. I don’t care if you’re Jeremy Pruitt or Bill Parcells – sometimes it just doesn’t work out. So I don’t understand why Jones felt like he had to defend his decision so passionately for four minutes, especially when no one asked.

Tennessee fans know all about Butch Jones’ conservative approach

There were several times when Jones was the head coach at Tennessee that his conservative approach cost the Vols.

In 2014 against Florida, Tennessee kicked three field goals instead of trying to score touchdowns, and they lost 10-9. In 2015, on the Vols’ first possession against Oklahoma on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with Jalen Hurd at running back (who was the size of a linebacker), Jones elected to kick the field goal instead of trying to score the touchdown. That’s a game Tennessee should have put away early, but they lost in overtime because they were a little too conservative.

And then there was the famous loss to Florida in the Swamp in 2017 when Tennessee went up 26-14 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Instead of going for two to stretch the lead to 14, Jones kicked the extra point. 

Florida then scored twice and won the game.

It’s who Butch has always been.

And it’s part of what’s held him back during his coaching career. 

I’ve always believed that the most aggressive team is the team that’s usually going to win the game. You have to be smart, of course, and there are times when it’s wise to be conservative. But more often than not, the team that’s the aggressor and executes is the team that’s going to win.

Jones, though, still didn’t need to take four minutes to give an answer that no one asked for.