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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The identifying color around here is not exactly a guarded secret. If you're from East Tennessee, you are somewhat-to-overtly obsessive about Pantone 151; if you're not, you loathe it to the point of nausea.

Orange is perpetually abundant on the University of Tennessee campus, and these days that's especially true. Traffic cones and barricades are a similar hue to the one that defines the school, and a number of them line the streets and adjacent construction sites.

Things are a mess. It's difficult to get around the various building projects. It doesn't particularly appear pleasing. So that's the downside.

The positive: There's a plan. Despite the setbacks and inconveniences, there's the promise that one day things will be improved.

You're smart. You probably already know where this is going. Butch Jones, hired Dec. 7 as the school's fourth football coach in five years, inherited a similar mess. But he is insistent that he has a plan and things will soon be restored, just as the campus construction continues around him. Pardon the dust. Tennessee football, the once-proud program, is under construction.

"There's renewed optimism. There's a vision," Jones told me earlier this month, sitting in his recently completed football office that seems as if it's been pulled from the pages of an IKEA catalog. "You're going to get consistency. You're going to get continuity. It's a chance to represent one of those most storied football programs in the country.

"I understand I'm the caretaker of Tennessee football. I'm fortunate to be here."

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Speaking informally with some people at Tennessee, no one is in the business of bashing the most recent regime. But it's clear there has been a departure in attitude, something that was noticeable even during Jones' first days.

It's a matter of connection, really. And it's a matter of connecting in a variety of ways to a variety of people. It's the willingness to create a bridge to fans, alums with money, players, recruits, peers, former players and media members.

Some head coaches get that and manage it well. Some do not. From the conversations I have had, and listening to him personally, Jones seems up for making those connections. The previous coach, Derek Dooley, often was not, at least not beyond necessity. Those close to the program indicated Dooley was mostly disinterested in doing anything other than coaching football, even though the modern job requirements extend well beyond that. (Some coaches, especially younger ones, do everything but coach, it seems.)

That isn't necessarily Dooley's fault if that's who he is; it does, however, become the burden of the person who hired him. That's among the reasons why Dave Hart is now the AD and Mike Hamilton is not. There was so much effort to "find the opposite" with Hamilton's hires, from the vanilla-but-methodical Phillip Fulmer to the flamboyant-but-boyish Lane Kiffin to the professional-but-controlling Dooley.

Those failures brought Hart to his first big hire at Tennessee. Hart arrived from Alabama in September 2011, with the pronounced dip already well under way. By the time he let Dooley go with one week left in the 2012 season, the Volunteers were guaranteed their fifth losing season in eight years after 16 consecutive winning seasons (13 under Fulmer).

"We've struggled. We've had five, six tough years," Hart told me last week, also reminding me that the school, in addition to three ADs and four football coaches, has had seven presidents since 2000. "We've had way too much transition. We've got to establish stability."

He sought that in Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, but Gundy remained. He sought it in Louisville's Charlie Strong, but he stayed. Hart saw it in Jones, too. While Hart might have given chase to others, he hinted that Jones was never far off that pace.

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Genuine is a word a number of different people used with me when describing Lyle Allen "Butch" Jones, the son of a small-town police chief in Michigan.

"That's part of his DNA," Hart said. "He's not faking it. The guy is like that every day of his life. He's got a lot of positive energy and it's contagious."

That's the same way I found him when he was kind enough to take a few minutes with me on signing day, even though our conversation was interrupted three times so he could briefly talk on the phone with 2014 prospects.

Jones is a balance of presence and approachability, a leader who is OK with letting you into his world. That's rarer than you might think, regardless of vocation. Don't get me wrong -- there's no question that he's pushing a product. And he has yet to coach a game in Knoxville. But there are the earmarks of someone who "gets it" when it comes to managing the program, just the same as I've seen traveling the country in the past 11 months.

I got the sense that, at minimum, the 45-year-old Jones very much believes in the past and future of what he's selling -- even if the present isn't so grand.

Those inside any college football program in the country will tell you that, for better or worse, the head coach sets the day-to-day tone. This is the one Jones is entrenching, and confidence plays a huge role.

"He's won everywhere he's ever been," Hart said.

Jones followed Brian Kelly with three bowl trips in three seasons and a 27-13 record at Central Michigan. Jones followed Brian Kelly (again) with two bowl trips in three seasons and a 23-14 record at Cincinnati.

No Brian Kelly this time, and that's more than just a joke. Kelly, successful, left to take other jobs; Dooley, unsuccessful, was fired. It's a different sort of program that Jones is manning. It's one coming off three consecutive losing seasons, including two straight without a bowl appearance. Attendance at Neyland Stadium, a lauded riverside cathedral of the sport, is as low as it's been since the 1970s.

"I think that was attractive to Butch," Hart said of the challenge, the mess. "That's the kind of competitor he is. There's no question in my mind he wanted to be here."

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After being hired, the first connection Jones prioritized was the one to players -- present, past and future. He first met with the current players. Every new coach does that. His second move, in his first week, was to put together an impromptu letterman's gathering. Jones wanted to meet those who had built the tradition he would attempt to re-establish.

Seventy former players assembled on two days' notice, Jones said. Seventy more came weeks later to a similar reception in Nashville. "They are the program," Jones said, mentioning ambassadors Eric Berry and Peyton Manning by name. He even went outside for a Vols connection, hiring former cornerback Terry Fair as a defensive assistant. Fair had been doing a local sports-talk radio show.

Jones says he'll continue to narrow the gap between the generations of Volunteers. And then there were the future players, the recruits. Jones and his staff moved to firm existing commitments while working to open new doors, such as the one of Atlanta quarterback Josh Dobbs. Looking for an intelligent, mobile leader, Jones and his assistants were able to sway Dobbs, an Elite 11 participant, from Arizona State to Tennessee in the final month of the recruiting process.


The Volunteers secured 12 new signees (21 total in the class), including eight -- Dobbs being one of them -- who were previously committed to other schools.

"Persistence" is the word Jones used to describe those flips. And it's one he applies generally to recruiting, whether it's the approach to the 2014 class that includes Berry's talented twin brothers or locating good fits for the classes beyond that.

"You've got to work to build those relationships every single day. We're going to recruit every single day," Jones said. "We have a great product, a great brand. ... Who wouldn't want to come to Tennessee? That's the way we look at it now."

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It's still several months until Jones' first game on the sideline, Aug. 31 against Austin Peay. It gets a bit tougher from there: Bobby Petrino and Western Kentucky, at Oregon and Florida in consecutive weeks, Georgia two weeks later, South Carolina two weeks after that.

Jones said he understands there are expectations placed on you in everything you do at Tennessee, but the first half of the schedule is as tough as it gets in college football. Those counting on an immediate turnaround either haven't examined the schedule, or they're entirely delusional.

A bowl bid. Avoiding a fourth consecutive losing season. Those would be foundational moves for Jones' first season. And even if 2013 resembles the past three years -- and it could, with the team's top offensive talent and the bulk of the defensive front gone -- recall that Jones went 4-8 in his first year at Cincy before a 10-win season in 2011 and a nine-win season in 2012.

"I think the reality is we've still got some holes to fill," Hart said when asked about reasonable expectations for 2013. "I think these kids will play hard for Butch Jones. But we've got Oregon and Florida and, by the end of the season, we could again play five of the top 10 or 12 teams.

"That's OK. The kids will want to compete. We have to learn how to win again. We do. What that takes is pulling a couple of those upsets. We were close to that. We've got to turn the corner."

In the meantime, in the weeks leading up to his first spring practices, Jones is building chemistry and camaraderie through something he calls the "VOLympics." There was something similar in place at Cincinnati. Captains, elected by their peers, draft teammates into 10 groups. Each team wins and loses points based on classroom performance, on-the-field performance, community service and other team-building events.

It's one of those deals in which the point deductions, the punishments, are meted out to the whole team and not just the violating individual.

Proper construction takes time. The timetable is often fluid, too. You never know what could set you back, or catch you up. But it's a matter of holding to the plan. We'll check back to chart progress. For now, there's at least an air of positivity.

"We're trying to get Tennessee back to its rightful place," Hart said. "We still have a hill to climb. We'll get there. We'll plant that flag. Butch is the right person. I have no doubt in my mind about that."


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Travis Haney
ESPN Insider
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• Joined ESPN as Insider's national college football writer in April 2012
• Previously wrote for The Oklahoman and The Post and Courier
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