Athlon Sports ranks Arkansas State's Butch Jones among Sun Belt's top head coaches entering 2026
Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones continues to gain national recognition for the turnaround he has engineered in Jonesboro.
Athlon Sports ranked Jones as the fourth-best head coach in the Sun Belt Conference entering the 2026 season, placing him among the league’s elite as the Red Wolves look to contend for a conference championship.
Jones trails only James Madison’s Billy Napier, Troy’s Gerad Parker and former Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson, who enters his first season at Louisiana Tech after previously leading the Red Wolves from 2014-20.
The ranking comes after Jones guided Arkansas State to its third consecutive bowl appearance in 2025, a remarkable turnaround from the early stages of his tenure.
When Jones arrived in Jonesboro in 2021, he inherited a program that had fallen from the top of the Sun Belt standings. His first two seasons were difficult, with the Red Wolves posting a combined 5-19 record in 2021 and 2022 as the coaching staff worked to rebuild the roster and establish a new culture.
The results over the past three seasons have been dramatically different.
Arkansas State has compiled a 21-18 record since the start of the 2023 season while earning bowl berths in each of those three years. After opening the 2025 season with a 1-4 record, the Red Wolves closed by winning six of their final eight games, positioning themselves as one of the favorites in the Sun Belt West entering this fall.
Athlon Sports noted that turnaround when explaining Jones’ placement among the conference’s top coaches.
“Jones’ tenure at Arkansas State got off to a shaky start with a 5-19 record through his first two years in charge,” the publication wrote. “However, the Red Wolves have turned a corner over the last three seasons.”
Before arriving at Arkansas State, Jones had already established himself as one of college football’s most successful Group of Five coaches.
He posted a 27-13 record at Central Michigan from 2007-09 before leading Cincinnati to a 23-14 mark from 2010-12, including back-to-back Big East championships and consecutive 10-win seasons.
His success at Cincinnati led to the head coaching position at Tennessee, where he compiled a 34-27 record from 2013-17 while leading the Volunteers to three consecutive bowl victories.
Now entering his sixth season at Arkansas State, Jones appears to have the Red Wolves positioned to challenge for the program’s first Sun Belt Championship Game appearance.
The only former Arkansas State coach ranked ahead of Jones is Anderson, who returns to the Sun Belt after spending four seasons at Utah State.
Anderson compiled a 51-37 record during seven seasons with the Red Wolves, leading the program to four bowl appearances and capturing the 2015 Sun Belt championship. After leaving Jonesboro, he guided Utah State to a Mountain West Conference title in 2021 before accepting the Louisiana Tech position following the 2025 season.
With Anderson returning to the conference, one of the league’s most intriguing storylines will be his reunion with Arkansas State. The Bulldogs and Red Wolves now compete in the Sun Belt West, setting the stage for annual meetings between the former Arkansas State coach and the program he once led.
Athlon ranked Louisiana’s Michael Desormeaux fifth, followed by Marshall’s Tony Gibson, Appalachian State’s Dowell Loggains, South Alabama’s Major Applewhite, Georgia Southern’s Clay Helton and Old Dominion’s Ricky Rahne to round out the top 10.
The rankings reflect how competitive the Sun Belt has become.
Nearly every program in the conference is led by a coach with Power Four experience, conference championships or proven success at multiple stops, making the league one of the deepest in the Group of Five from a coaching standpoint.
For Jones, the recognition serves as another milestone in Arkansas State’s climb back into conference contention.
The Red Wolves are no longer viewed as a rebuilding program.
Instead, they enter the 2026 season with expectations of competing for a Sun Belt championship, and Athlon Sports believes Jones is one of the primary reasons why.