University of Tennessee Athletics
Jones Addresses Tenn. State Troopers
February 26, 2015 | Football
Trooper By His Side
Look just behind Butch Jones as he enters a stadium on a fall Saturday and one of the faces you will always see is Trooper Eric Miller.
Miller has served as security for Jones since he took the job at UT in December 2012 and travels with Jones and the Volunteers on road trips and public events.
"Eric Miller is an individual that has the highest of high integrity," Jones said. "He has great passion for his job and great leadership characteristics and leadership skills. He is an individual that I rely on a lot, not just from a security standpoint, but from a mentoring standpoint and being someone that I can bounce ideas off of. We have a tremendous working relationship, but also a personal relationship."
Miller echoed Jones' comments, saying the respect that Jones has for his profession has helped grow their relationship.
"With his family background in law enforcement, it is easy for him to understand what we stand for," Miller said. "Over the years I've gotten to know him, we've become close professionally and on the personal side of things."
Jones feels that Miller is a good example for the players in his program to follow.
"The giving of his time in our football program is a large undertaking, it's a commitment," Jones said. "When you think of commitment, you think of Eric Miller. He wants to be the best that he can possibly be. He takes his job, he takes his position very, very seriously, and it gets back to that culture that has been established within him."
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee head coach Butch Jones spoke to a group Wednesday night that relies on its training and teamwork to execute its job with precision and excellence every day.
But this group was not his Volunteer football team or another campus organization. Jones was the featured speaker at the 2015 Tennessee State Highway Patrol Trooper of the Year Banquet.
Jones, who grew up in a law enforcement family was honored to speak at the event, to give back to a group that he admires for more than just the critical job that each and every trooper performs every day.
"It was a great experience," Jones said. "It was an event that I've looked forward to for many months for a number of reasons, first and foremost because of the respect that I have for law enforcement with my family background. I know what they go through on a daily basis."
The timing of the speech was particularly important to Jones, who takes on an offseason research project each year in an effort to improve all areas of his coaching style. His project this offseason has been studying cultures within organizations. He found a perfect model for the culture at UT in the Highway Patrol.
"There are so many parallels between the Tennessee Highway Patrol and us building our football program at the University of Tennessee," Jones said. "Every individual has to understand that they represent that culture and they have to own that culture.
"You don't need to look any further than right here in this state at the Highway Patrol, from the top down to the troopers that represent that brand on a daily basis and the things that they have to do to go through on a daily basis. They're the true heroes. They put their life on the line every day to protect all of us in this state. To be able to be a part of that was very special and brought back a lot of childhood memories for me."
Jones' father Lyle was the chief of police in Saugatuck, Michigan for nearly 30 years and a park there was dedicated in his honor last summer. Growing up with that background has given him a special relationship with individuals in all types of law enforcement. Jones always visits with and takes pictures with officers assigned to assist the team on road trips and speaking engagements.
"I have the utmost respect for what they do on a daily basis," Jones said. "It's the little things that they do that nobody sees. All the small things add up to big things. Nobody sees the small things that they do, but those become the big things that everyone wants."
Those things are also the very same things that Jones and the coaching staff emphasize on the football field with the Volunteers.
"They have to make split-second decisions," Jones said. "They have to rely on their training, they have to rely on their instincts, they have to show great patience and great poise. It's also about teamwork. They have to be able to communicate, read body language and have great working relationships with all of their peers."
Trooper Eric Miller is by Jones' side for home and away football games as part of his duties with the THP and accompanied him to the event.
"He can relate a lot between his team and the law enforcement side of things," Miller said. "We are based on a set of core values: integrity, pride, honor duty and respect. Coach spoke a lot about those key components and how he tries to instill those in his players on a daily basis and let them know that there is a bigger picture in life than just football."
The night also brought back plenty of memories for Jones, right down to the radio operators and dispatchers that were also honored at the event.
"Law enforcement is a way of life, just like football, and to this day when I go home, my mom has her police scanner on," Jones said. "She can't be in the house without it. All those great memories and life lessons I was able to witness first-hand with my father and my uncle in the Michigan State Police. Those values, those leaderships styles, guide me each and every day running the football program at the University of Tennessee."
