Butch Jones is a college football head coach again. His Alabama internship is up as Arkansas State announced Jones as its new head coach on Saturday.

“Butch Jones’ outstanding record of success at both the G5 and P5 levels is evident, and we’re excited to having him leading our football program into the future,” Arkansas State Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Terry Mohajir said in the school announcement. “He is the only coach over the last 12 years to lead Tennessee to back-to-back nine-win seasons, and he led Cincinnati and Central Michigan to four conference championships over a six-year period.

“Butch has also worked with one of the most-well-respected coaches in history in Nick Saban the last three years at Alabama. Our candidate pool was fantastic, but following extensive and positive conversations with Butch, while also looking at his winning history, coaching and leadership abilities and vision for our program, we became confident he was the clear choice to be our next head coach.”

Jones replaces Blake Anderson who resigned to take the Utah State job.

“It is truly an honor and privilege to be the head football coach at Arkansas State University,” said Jones. “It is a position that I take great pride in, and I look forward to connecting with our student-athletes to build upon the strong tradition of excellence both on and off the field of play. I am extremely grateful to Terry Mohajir, Dr. (Kelly) Damphousse and Dr. (Chuck) Welch for trusting me to be the caretaker of Arkansas State football.”

Jones has been in coaching since 1987 when he started as an intern with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has an 84-54 record as a head coach in stops at Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Tennessee.

He was the head coach at Tennessee for four-plus seasons from 2013-17. The Volunteers went 34-27 in four-plus seasons under Jones. After going 5-7 in Jones’ first season, UT went on a streak of three-straight bowl appearances and wins, going 25-14 from 2014-16 with victories in the TaxSlayer, Outback and Music City bowl games. Jones was fired during Tennessee’s 2017 struggles when the Vols were 4-6 overall and 0-6 in conference play.

After his termination from Tennessee, Jones joined Nick Saban’s staff in an analyst/intern role. His UA title for the 2020 season was Special Assistant to the Head Coach.