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Butch Jones fired at Tennessee: Most head-scratching quotes as Vols football coach

Mike Wilson
Knoxville

If anything defined Butch Jones' five-season tenure as the football coach at Tennessee, it was quotes that made you scratch your head and walk away bewildered.

Tennessee Head Coach Butch Jones reacts during the game during the Tennessee Volunteers vs. Georgia Bulldogs game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday, September 30, 2017.

From championship of life to leadership rep to five-star hearts, we take a look back at the most "say what?" moments of Jones' time with the Vols:

Championship of life

The list has to start with the one that drew the most national attention, which was warranted. 

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After Tennessee was eliminated from the SEC East Division race in 2016, Jones declared his players had already won the most important championship — "the championship of life." 

“These individuals mean a lot to me personally, and they mean a lot to our football program," Jones said. "When we talked about winning championships, they’re a champion. They’ve won the biggest championship — and that’s the championship of life."

Five-star heart

Jones followed up "championship of life" with a new doozy, declaring that Tennessee isn't out recruiting players with five-star status from recruiting services. Instead, Jones declared that the Vols are looking for players with a "five-star heart" the day after signing day.

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“We’ve spoken about the competitive nature, and I think that’s really, really big in today’s world,” Jones said. "Everyone gets into the whole two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star thing. The only five-star that we even concern ourselves with is a five-star heart."

Tennessee coach Butch Jones speaks to recruit Cam Johnson before the Tennessee vs. Ohio game this past season.

Leadership rep

As the Vols' struggles continued in 2017, Jones didn't slow down the wacky comments. 

The Vols left the bye week with all positions up for grabs, Jones claimed, and he was  discussing the way reps were split between Jarrett Guarantano and Quinten Dormady. 

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"You don’t have to get a physical rep to get a rep," Jones said. "You can get a leadership rep by having all the wideouts standing around you and going over your progression.”

Coaches talk about mental reps often, but "leadership rep" is a new one.

That darn helmet

Tennessee had helmets during the 2017 season. They kept popping off players, especially Guarantano. But a helmet also proved a cause of injury, Jones said, in response to a question asking if defensive lineman Shy Tuttle was hurt by a teammate.

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"Football is an emotional game. It is a competitive game," Jones said. "The injury was caused not by a teammate. He landed on a helmet and that's the truth. And I think we have to understand, what do we want out of our media? This place, with the drama."

It was a baffling comment, as Jones started the answer sounding like he was going to say something happened. Then he pointed to a player falling on a helmet and then questioned the media asking about it in the first place.

It was odd and that's the truth.

Brick by brick

Early in Jones' tenure, he got the ball rolling on buzzphrases when he introduced "brick by brick." Jones explained that he saw people outside his office laying bricks one day and was inspired by the work it took to lay the foundation. He paralleled it with the work it takes to build a football program.

“Every brick is symbolic of every person within our football program," Jones said. "That’s why we still give bricks out when we start training camp with a brick-by-brick mentality."