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Video: Butch Jones praises Tennessee seniors before final game at Neyland Stadium
By Jason Hall
Published:
Tennessee coach Butch Jones spoke highly of his senior players during his press conference Wednesday. The Vols will play their final game at Neyland Stadium Saturday and will honor the departing players during a Senior Day ceremony prior to the game.
“Resolve, resiliency, been through a lot, very high character individuals, college graduates,” Jones said when asked about the senior class. “You look at what they’ve been able to do and accomplish. So much of it is leaving with rings and these individuals right now have a couple of bowl championships and those things are very very important.
“The experiences they’ve had and they’ve made a lasting impression on Tennessee football. We always talk about ‘is Tennessee football better because you were a part of it?’ How have you impacted the football program? All of these individuals have impacted the program in a very very positive manner.”
Notable seniors include starting quarterback Joshua Dobbs, cornerback Cameron Sutton and linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, all of whom were signees in Jones’ 2013 national recruiting class, his first after being hired in December 2012.
“I kind of had a goal when I look back at that first recruiting class,” Jones said. “I said, ‘if we can find our quarterback of the future’ — this was four years ago — ‘that this was a class that we’d do well in.’ And I just felt we needed to find the future, the consistency at quarterback and if we could find a couple of impactful players to impact our program, not only on the field but off the field, it would be a successful recruiting class and we were able to do that.”
Jason covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.
