TAMPA — Tennessee coach Butch Jones was just a teenager from Saugatuck, Mich., when his career in football began with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the late 1980s. He started out doing the team's laundry during training camp at the University of Tampa, a job the lifelong Bucs fan had spent a long time trying to procure.
Nearly 30 years later, Jones is back at the University of Tampa, where his Volunteers are spending the week practicing for their Outback Bowl matchup with Northwestern on New Year's Day. And though Jones' career has taken him to all corners of the college football map since he last worked in Tampa, the third-year Tennessee coach can't help but look at his old stomping grounds and be grateful.