Jones stands strong in defense of UT

SANDESTIN, Fla. --- Butch Jones took a stand for his football program, as well as his university here Tuesday at the opening day of the Southeastern Conference’s annual spring meetings.

With some fans and media across the country attempting to correlate the heinous scandal at Baylor University, which has seen football coach Art Briles fired and athletics director Ian McCaw resign, with the federal Title IX lawsuit being confronted at the University of Tennessee, Jones emphasized his belief and support in how UT has handled matters.

“I’m not into comparisons. All I can speak on is the University of Tennessee. I feel strongly, as everyone in our organization, we’ve done the right things,” Jones said. “Proud of the culture that we’ve built. We’ve tried to do everything the right way from everyone in our organization.

“So I feel very strongly with what we have at the University of Tennessee, what we’ve built and what we’ll continue to grow and build upon as well.”

Baylor on Monday hired Jim Grobe as its interim head football coach in the wake of Briles’ dismissal, prompted after a damning report from the third-party Pepper Hamilton Law Firm. That outside report deemed that Baylor had either covered up or ignored complaints of sexual assault and that the football program, particularly, had an unhealthy culture.

UT was hit with the federal lawsuit earlier this year and could spend the next 18 to 24 months battling the allegations from more than a half-dozen current or former Tennessee students.

But Jones displayed a tough disciplinary approach through his first three seasons on Rocky Top. He has steadfastly and immediately suspended any player accused of wrongdoing, even at times when the legal system has elected not to press charges.

The topic is of note this week as the SEC administrators and coaches discuss potentially more expansive behavioral punishment topics, including how much culpability should rest with the head coaches of football programs.

Asked if he had ever utilized a private investigator to research a recruit or recruits, Jones flatly said “No” but also talked at length about the various methods Tennessee’s staff has utilized to learn about potential prospects and signees

“Well everything is about giving a young man an opportunity. Every circumstance, every situation is different,” Jones said. “We try to do our background checks, we try to be as thorough as possible with social media and Google. There are also some things that hamper you in terms of the background, being minors and age laws that go into that. So there’s a lot of things that we’re not able to do. We try to do our due diligence with every individual that we welcome into our football program.

“I think it’s a challenge in and of itself. Make no mistake about it, the first thing in our recruiting profile is character and we try to research that to the best of our ability. Then make a decision: do they fit your program? Do you have the players in your program that can help him along the way as well? I think there’s a lot of extenuating circumstances.”

FREEZE UNFROZEN

Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said he finally was able to speak about the NCAA’s findings against the Rebels’ program, which last week were released to be 13 violations --- nine since Freeze arrived in 2012 and four from the previous staff.

Freeze reiterated that he took ownership in the mistakes and that he believed Ole Miss had responded in kind with self-imposed penalties and sanctions, including reduced scholarship numbers and curtailing recruiting activities on campus and limiting some coaches’ off-campus travel.

Near the end of his session, Freeze --- who reiterated he could not speak on the Laremy Tunsil case that sprouted last month when Tunsil told reporters he was paid by an Ole Miss coach --- was asked to clarify, “You did state that your coaches have not paid players?”

Freeze responded, “I don’t believe and have zero knowledge that any of our coaches paid players.”

Freeze said of the four “serious,” Level I violations found on his watch that three of the four did not involve a staff member. He said he disputed the inclusion of a staff member in the fourth incident; “we share a different view; I know the facts.”

Further, Freeze did not blame media but said rival fans were unaccustomed to Ole Miss “being relevant. … We’ve rocked the narrative of college football a bit.”

SABAN UNLOADS

Alabama coach Nick Saban, almost unprompted, filibustered for several minutes on the evils of satellite camps, which this summer is the most pervasive topic in all college football.

Saban said satellite camps are one step closer to the things that the NCAA complains about, such as the AAU influence on young athletes. He said at Alabama camps (as is at any on-campus camp), coaches instruct and things are monitored according to the NCAA rulebook by the school’s compliance officer.

“We know a guy has paid to attend our camp. Who’s making sure he paid at a satellite camp?,” Saban quizzed.

BIG TEN-SEC GRIDIRON CHALLENGE?

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said he would like to see the SEC adopt a conference-sanctioned challenge series with another conference, mentioning the Big Ten a couple of times as well as the ACC.

Where does the Vols’ head man fall in this thinking?

“You know with the schedule, it’s challenging. Our schedule is tied up, I believe, all the way through 2020-2021, so making the schedule is a challenge in and of itself,” Jones said. “I’d be very curious to see how that would work just because of us growing our schedule, we don’t have any open dates. Who are you moving and obviously with the structure of the SEC in conference play.

“But make no mistake about it: we haven’t hid from non-conference opponents. I believe in our first three years, two out of our three years have been the toughest non-conference schedule in the country. We lived it. We’ve proven that we don’t back down from any challenge outside of our conference.”

The Vols played Oregon in 2013 and Oklahoma in both 2014-15. They face-off against Virginia Tech Sept. 10 at Bristol Motor Speedway in the ‘Battle at Bristol’ in their ‘Power-5’ non-conference game for 2016.