Arkansas State Football

Butch Jones, who coached Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Tennessee before joining Nick Saban's staff at Alabama, has agreed to become Arkansas State's next head coach.

"It is truly an honor and privilege to be the head football coach at Arkansas State University," Jones said in a statement, per ESPN's Chris Low.

"It is a position that I take great pride in, and I look forward to connecting with our student-athletes to build upon the strong tradition of excellence both on and off the field of play."

Jones, 52, has gone 84-54 lifetime. Five of his 11 teams finished in the Top 25 of the Coaches Poll, and four won conference titles.

The former Ferris State football player coached CMU for three seasons, finishing his tenure with an 11-2 mark in 2009. He moved on to Cincinnati in 2010 and left the program after the team won back-to-back Big East titles.

Tennessee then came calling in 2013, and Jones took over the Volunteers' program. The Vols won three bowl games and finished No. 22 in the AP poll in 2015 and 2016. However, the 2017 Vols started the year with a 4-6 mark (0-6 SEC), leading to Jones' dismissal.

Jones then left for Alabama and worked for Saban as an assistant for two years before earning a new title as the special assistant to the head coach in 2020.

Jones will lead an Arkansas State program that went 4-7 this season (2-6 Sun Belt). The Red Wolves had posted nine straight winning seasons beforehand.

Jones is replacing Blake Anderson, who left to become Utah State's head coach.

Arkansas State head football coach Blake Anderson announced Tuesday on Twitter that his wife, Wendy Anderson, died Monday night at the age of 49:

According to Chris Bumbaca of USA Today, Wendy Anderson was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. She went into remission, but it returned last year and she did not respond to treatment.

Arkansas State had announced Monday that Blake Anderson was taking a leave of absence from the program to be with his ailing wife.

In Anderson's place, assistant head coach and defensive coordinator David Duggan is serving as the Red Wolves' interim head coach.

The 50-year-old Anderson has been the head coach at Arkansas State since 2014 and has led the Red Wolves to a winning record in each of his five seasons at the helm. It isn't yet known if he will be on the sidelines when Arkansas State opens its season against SMU on Aug. 31.

Blake Anderson noted that he and Wendy were together for 27 years. Wendy is survived by her husband, as well as the couple's three children, Coleton, Callie and Cason.