According to a report from Jack Allen of KATV, former Tennessee football and current Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones said ‘Where are the fans?’ as he ran out of the tunnel ahead of his team’s kickoff with Southern Miss.
The Red Wolves’ home field, Centennial Bank Stadium, has a listed capacity of 30,382. However, based off of Allen’s photo, the lower level was sparse and the top section of the stands was almost completely empty.
Jones has led Arkansas State to a 5-4 (4-1 Sun Belt) start to the season, heading into the clash against Southern Miss. While his team was blown out by Arkansas, it did take a then No. 14-ranked Iowa State down to the wire, losing just 24-16. His team also fell to former UT running backs coach Jerry Mack’s Kennesaw State program.
The Red Wolves were riding a four-game win streak into Saturday, though. Arkansas State had beaten Texas State, South Alabama, Georgia Southern and Troy in this stretch. This made the game against Southern Miss a potential battle for the Sun Belt West title as the Golden Eagles sat at 4-0 in conference play.
Southern Miss holds a 20-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Here’s a look at the turnout at kickoff.
Butch Jones threw up his hands when he came out of the tunnel and said “Where are the fans?” pic.twitter.com/LKFFv6MKVh
— Jack Allen KATV (@JackAllenTV) November 8, 2025
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Jones played his college ball at Ferris State, where he played running back, wide receiver and defensive back. During this time, he was also an intern for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After graduation, he went to Rutgers as a graduate assistant.
He would later serve as offensive coordinator at Wilkes before returning to Ferris State. Eventually, he landed a job at Central Michigan, bouncing from coaching tight ends, to wide receivers, to running backs, before landing the offensive coordinator gig, then going back to coaching running backs. The following year, he went to West Virginia as the wide receivers coach.
In 2007, he got his first head coaching job as the head man at Western Michigan. Then, he hopped to Cincinnati from 2010-12.
That stretch landed him the head coaching job at Tennessee in 2013. He seemingly had things rolling in the 2016 season after wins over Florida and Georgia, but then it all came crashing down. After a 4-6 start to the 2017 season, he was fired.
Jones served as an analyst under Nick Saban at Alabama from 2018-20, before landing the head coaching job at Arkansas State in 2021. With the Red Wolves, he owns a 24-35 record.
