Rutgers interviewed Butch Jones for head coaching position, per multiple reports

Almost five weeks since Chris Ash was fired by athletic director Pat Hobbs and the search for his replacement began, the first reported interview took place on Friday. As first reported by 247 Sports’ Scarlet Nation and an additional report shortly after by James Kratch of NJ Advance Media, former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones interviewed with Hobbs in Chicago on Friday, a day before Rutgers plays against Illinois in Champaign, roughly a two hour drive away. BOG member and athletic committee chair Greg Brown lives in the Chicago area, making it possible he took part in the interview due to his expected involvement in the search process.

Jones is currently working as an offensive analyst at Alabama. He has 11 years of head coaching experience with stints at Central Michigan and Cincinnati, where Jones won two conference titles at each school, as well as going 3-0 in bowls games at Tennessee. He accumulated an overall record of 84-54 at those three programs.

Our Nick Kosko previously wrote about the pros and cons of Jones’s potential candidacy here.

While Greg Schiano appears to be the favorite to land the job, Jones is an intriguing candidate based on his his lengthy experience as a head coach, including his time in the SEC. We’ve included Jones in our coaching candidates stock watch report each week so far. For now, at least we know the coaching search is starting to progress and as more information becomes available, we will continue follow this process.