University of Tennessee Athletics
Relationship Bonds Jones, DeBord
February 18, 2015 | Football
By Brian Rice KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
UTSports.com
But the bond they began was over football that night, one that built over the years and continues as DeBord begins his tenure as the offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee.
Jones came to that initial meeting with DeBord in the winter of 1997 at Saline High School, just south of Ann Arbor. Jones, who was then coaching at Ferris State in Michigan, came to watch a friend's son play basketball while in the area on a recruiting trip. DeBord's son happened to play on the same team. They struck up a conversation and suddenly it was football rather than basketball on their minds.
"I got introduced to Butch, and only Butch and I would do this, but we walked to the top of the bleachers and we started talking football," DeBord recalled. "Automatically right in talking football, and that started the relationship."
After the chance meeting, the two stayed in touch, which led to Jones being brought in to assist with the summer camps at Michigan. With the chance to work with him in his natural environment, DeBord saw that Jones was about more than just talking football. It also laid the groundwork for the next move in Jones' coaching career.
"We started building a friendship, and I also saw the passion he had for coaching and football," DeBord said. "When I went to Central Michigan, I knew right away who my top offensive coach was going to be, and that was going to be Butch, and that's without having worked with him."
DeBord took over at Central Michigan after three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Michigan, one of the most successful three-year periods in Wolverine history. UM was 32-5 from 1997-99 with a national championship in 1997 and a 3-0 record in bowl games.
Jones was already on the CMU staff for two seasons when DeBord took over, but was in line for a move up with his new boss who saw the challenges the program would face.
"I told him `I know we are going to struggle here for a while,'" DeBord recalled of his first conversation with Jones at CMU. "'The first year I don't think I will name you coordinator even though you'll have the responsibilities and everything like that, because we are going to be bad.'
"So after that, I just saw his passion, his organization, and his relationship with players and I said, you're the offensive coordinator and he and I worked together putting together game day, game plans, and everything."
It was in developing those game plans that Jones developed the up-tempo style that still defines his offense today.
"As far as offense is concerned, we were a tempo team," DeBord said of the offense he and Jones ran at CMU. "We put that in. Why we did that is because we looked for advantages to win. That was one of the advantages we felt like we needed to be a winning football team. So we started with that."
As Jones' boss, DeBord helped his assistant grow and develop as a coach through feedback and evaluations. Now that the roles are reversed, he knows it will be Jones that is the one doing the evaluation. Something that, as it turns out, is nothing new.
"I only called one assistant into my office and I called Butch in," DeBord recalled. "I said `Alright, evaluate me.' He evaluated me and I still have that on my laptop and I looked at it a couple weeks ago and started laughing but it was all good. He was honest. That's how much I always have respected and valued him, when you ask somebody that, your assistant you ask that, again that's trusting somebody."
DeBord left Central Michigan to return to Michigan and Jones moved to West Virginia, then back to CMU as head coach. As each made various stops over the next 10 years, they maintained a close relationship. One that brought them back together at Tennessee.
"We talked, I wouldn't say weekly, but it wasn't probably more than two weeks went by that we would talk," DeBord said. "We talked all the time. He would always call me and ask me questions and then I would turn around and call and ask him questions. It has always been a great relationship."
