Butch Jones Says Tennessee Recruiting Players with '5-Star Heart'

Tennessee head coach Butch Jones doesn't just want to identify talented prospects on the recruiting trail. He also wants players who play with heart.

"We’ve spoken about the competitive nature, and I think that’s really, really big in today’s world," Jones said at Nissan Stadium on Thursday afternoon during the program's recruiting party, per Wes Rucker of 247Sports. "Everyone gets into the whole 2-star, 3-star, 4-star, 5-star thing. The only 5-star that we even concern ourselves with is a 5-star heart. We want 5-star hearts and 5-star competitors."

As for the actual rankings, Tennessee landed only one 5-star recruit—offensive tackle Trey Jones—and put together the 16th-ranked recruiting class in the country, according to Scout.com. Tennessee landed just four players in the ranking site's top 100, four 4-star recruits and 22 3-star prospects.

But Jones didn't seem concerned with how a ranking site might evaluate his class.

"We’ve got a lot of hungry younger players that are very, very competitive," Jones said. "There may not be a quote, unquote star, but I think we have more depth than we’ve ever had. We’ll be more competitive than we’ve ever been. We’ve had the best offseason so far that we’ve had since we’ve been here."

Certainly, any coach would be complimentary of an incoming class. And Tennessee put together a strong group. But it's also possible that Jones is reacting to the fact that six SEC programs—Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M, Florida and Auburn—put together recruiting classes that ranked higher than the Volunteers'. Perhaps Jones isn't just praising his incoming group but also seeking to reassure fans that Tennessee can still stack up with the rest of the conference.

Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated was inclined to believe Jones was doing a bit of damage control:

Tennessee has gone 30-21 in four seasons under Jones and won four straight bowl games, but it has yet to win a conference title or come close to the College Football Playoff. The program is heading in the right direction under Jones, but his comments may be indicative of a fanbase that expects more from the program in the coming years.

Still, Jones seems pleased with the type of players he's brought into the program and the philosophy of bringing aboard competitive players.

"We’re evaluating their competitive makeup—you know, do they want to compete with everything that you do," Jones said. "We always talk about in our football program: 'don’t compare, just compete.'"