Arkansas State head football coach Butch Jones spoke with the media Wednesday morning during Sun Belt Media Day in New Orleans to give his thoughts on the upcoming season and more.

One of the first things Jones addressed was the addition of four new teams to the Sun Belt Conference. James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss will play their inaugural seasons in the Sun Belt Conference this year, and Jones gave his thoughts on what those additions mean.

“I think when you look at a conference you look at it from top to bottom. Everything is about competitive balance,” said Jones. “I think that’s what separates the Sun Belt Conference now.”

Jones spoke about what he is looking forward to the most in his second year as the Red Wolves’ head coach.

“In terms of our team we’re looking forward to year two and making marked improvements to all areas of our program,” said Jones. “When I talk about all areas of our program I’m talking about the physical development, the speed development, the attitude development, the team chemistry, the work ethic and preparation, and just an overall mindset in our football program.”

Jones said that he feels like the team will enter fall camp following a good offseason.

“To date I feel like we’ve had a very good offseason and a productive summer with our players,” said Jones. “It still goes back, though, to learning how to win and not just wanting to win, but deserving to win each and every day. The mindset that involves, and really just understanding what winning football looks like. Not only on days of competition, but throughout the course of the week and the overall discipline it takes to play winning football.”

Jones said he feels the team has done a good job of working towards those goals.

“We’ve taken tremendous strides in these areas, and we have to continue to grow and develop over a long football season,” said Jones. “It’s going to be a model of consistency and consistency and performance each and every day.”

Jones said that he is looking for leaders to step up during the upcoming season.

“Leadership is going to paramount in our program,” said Jones. “If you’ve had an opportunity to look at our roster 70 percent of our scholarship players are entering either their first or second year of college football.”

Jones also said he feels that he and his staff have improved the overall talent level of the team over the offseason.

“In terms of our overall talent level we feel we’ve been able to improve our overall talent level through our recruiting class of incoming freshmen, but also the transfer portal as well,” said Jones. “We’ve been able to add 14 individuals from the transfer portal into our program.”

Jones said that leadership was a big area of criteria for the transfer portal players.

“Not only bringing a level of competition and depth into our program, we also needed leadership,” said Jones. “One of the big criteria in the transfer portal is what could they bring to the table in terms of leadership and overall locker room growth and development. We’ve added some powerful individuals that have helped change the culture and develop the mindset with our principles and our values.”

He also spoke about some of the transfer portal additions that have helped in those regards.

“One of those individuals is Eddie Smith, who was with us at Alabama, then was at the University of Illinois. He is a Safety for us,” said Jones. “Jordan Carmouche is a transfer linebacker from the University of Houston, and then Champ Flemings, a transfer from Oregon State just to name a few.”

Jones also gave his thoughts on new additions to the coaching staff.

“We’re excited about our new additions to our coaching staff,” said Jones. “Maquase Lovings coaches our running backs, Jay Simpson our defensive backs, Vinson Reynolds our defensive line, and Jake Schoonover our special teams coordinator and safety’s. Then we had two coaching changes positionally speaking, where Andy Kwon will coach the offensive line and Matt Limegrover will now coach the tight ends.”

Jones also spoke about the criteria he wanted for his assistant coaches.

“We wanted great teachers, effective communicators, and good people,” said Jones. “We also wanted great experience. We wanted to bring individuals in that have recruited and coached at the highest levels, and we feel we’ve been able to do that with those four additions. All have brought energy, enthusiasm, and have developed strong relationships with our players.”

Jones also mentioned Strength and Conditioning coach Jeff Jones, while using James Blackman’s progress as an example of the job the S&C staff have done.

“The other individual that has been paramount in the growth and development of our program, and I’ll just James (Blackman) as an example. He just came back from the Dexa Scan, which is a full body assessment, and over a short period of time James has added 12 pounds of muscle to his muscle mass, and that’s a direct product of our sports performance staff and Jeff Jones,” said Jones. “They do an exceptional job. That’s in its purest form when you come in and you watch your players excited to come into the building excited to get better, excited about getting into the weight room, and that starts with Jeff Jones and his staff.”