Arkansas State University Coach Butch Jones said Tuesday he's been following the Sun Belt Conference closely dating back to his 2013 arrival at Tennessee.
During his time in charge of the Volunteers (2013-17) and later as an assistant at Alabama (2018-20), he scouted players from the same regions as the Sun Belt programs, which meant he also he recruited against and became familiar with his counterparts in that conference, too. Jones' teams also faced a Sun Belt opponent five times, including a pair of games against the Red Wolves -- first at Tennessee in 2014 and later with Alabama in 2018.