Q & A with football coach Butch Jones
Butch Jones has seen quite a bit in third season as football coach.
Now he is seeing his first-place Chippewas prepare for the Mid-American Conference Championship game at 8 tonight at Ford Field.
Despite a busy week of practice, Jones took time to look back at the regular season and ahead at the approaching championship game in a conversation with senior reporter Dave Jones.
Dave Jones: How’s preparation for the game going?
Butch Jones: I think the preparation has gone extremely well — it’s basically been kind of a short week for us, so it’s been very fast. But I think our kids have been very focused and I think they know what’s at stake Friday night.
DJ: And even though you guys were picked in the preseason to be in this game and win it, was there any doubt that you guys would make it?
BJ: No, there was no doubt at all. I think that’s a tribute to everyone in our football program. We’ve had the bullseye on our chest each and every week and I think this is the first time in a number of years that a team that was picked to win it has actually ended up in the championship game. And I think people need to understand that we, obviously, don’t sneak up on anyone — everyone always plays their best against us. There’s a little bit more of being the hunted than being the hunter and our kids have responded to date, thus far, very well with one more challenge ahead of us.
DJ: Going back to last season, you missed out on the chance at three championships in a row. Does that just add to the resolve to get back there?
BJ: You know, I think you can never take winning for granted. And sometimes, I think people think it comes easy, and it doesn’t. Our kids were hurt, but they were focused and they were hungry and we started this journey back in January, when we came together as a football team after the bowl game. And every man to a man pledged to each other that they were going to work as hard as they possibly could and, now, that hard work is playing off and now we have to finish it. But for this team to be going back to be playing for a third championship in four years is very special, and I think it takes a very special group of individuals and we’re very excited about the opportunity that we have.
DJ: You’ve had some triumphs on the field this season – some obvious ones. Has there been anything that you feel has gone unnoticed?
BJ: Well, I think all the sacrifices and all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes, with the guys playing hurt and the guys playing injured. People see the product on Saturday or on game day, but they don’t see the progression through the course for the week or the course of the season. I see a team that has really held each other accountable — they’ve taken a responsibility for their actions and their work ethic has been second to none. I think all those things that go into winning on the field on game day — all those little things — have become very special.
DJ: But what has been the hardest part about this season? You’ve mentioned a number of things – the sacrifices, the injuries, the bullseye on your backs since the start of the season. What’s been the most difficult?
BJ: I think it’s been a long season, and it takes resolve and it takes resiliency to be up emotionally for each and every week because you know you’re going to get everyone’s best shot. And even when you go play the Michigan States, the Boston Colleges and the Arizonas, they’re not going to take you lightly and you know what you’re going to get.
And I think our schedule this year, with four out of the five of our games being on the road in October, I think our non-conference schedule in the type of caliber of opponent we’ve had to play and just being up emotionally to play each week, people have doubted this football team. You can go back to Northern Illinois — “they have nothing to play for ... they’re not emotionally up.” And then we come out and take care of business and it’s been a business-like approach each week.
