KNOXVILLE – In his first four years as Tennessee’s head football coach, there were only four changes to Butch Jones’ coaching staff.
In this offseason alone, there were five changes, not including the promotion of Larry Scott to offensive coordinator or the hiring of longtime NFL strength coach Rock Gullickson to the same position with the Volunteers.
“It hasn’t been a typical offseason,” Jones unsurprisingly said to open his Monday news conference kicking off the fifth spring practice of his Tennessee tenure.
Jones has valued stability and continuity in a program that had been hindered by too much coaching turnover, but Tennessee also needed a shakeup after falling short of expectations in 2016.
For all Jones has done to improve the Vols, the past two seasons have been about what they didn’t do and the games they didn’t win, and now Jones is entering a pivotal season with a much-changed staff.