KNOXVILLE – Tennessee’s 2016 football season fell short of expectations and nudged coach Butch Jones closer to the hot seat that became sizzling in 2017, but this surely was not what Brady Hoke envisioned when he accepted the job as the Volunteers’ defensive line coach in February.
On Monday, Hoke addressed the media as interim head coach.
“I think, number one, we lost a good man,” Hoke said of Jones. “That I will say.”
Hoke declined to share the details of the Sunday team meeting where Jones informed the players that he had been fired.
“That’s a football team deal,” Hoke said.