The Tennessee football program hasn’t had a great week from a public perception standpoint. That’s not arguable.

Tennessee football coach Butch Jones

Vols coach Butch Jones clearly wants to argue about what he sees at the reality that Tennessee doesn’t have a problem from a program-culture standpoint, though.

Jones said moments before Tennessee’s basketball game against LSU on Saturday there’s “no culture” problem in Knoxville despite a series of allegations — but no convictions to this point — regarding women in recent headlines.

“We’ve worked very hard to build our culture,” Jones said. “We’ll continue to be very proud of what we have here. You just look at the academic excellence, the graduation rates, the community service, winning on the field, winning off the field. There’s no culture problem.

“Everything, every day, you’re building your culture. We’ve had over 50 speakers, guest speakers, the Fourth-and-1 program. We’re one of the very schools in the country to have a year-round personal growth and development program. Most people do it just in the offseason.”

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Jones offered no specifics when asked specifically about Wednesday’s arrest of junior defensive tackle Alexis Johnson despite Johnson’s lawyer claiming that the alleged victim would not be pursuing criminal charges.

All Jones offered was that “nothing” had changed with Johnson’s situation, meaning the January enrollee from Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College was still suspended from all team activities.

“It’s ongoing, a legal process,” Jones said. “We take all accusations seriously, and nothing has changed.”

Tennessee junior defensive tackle Alexis Johnson, who enrolled in January but is currently suspended from the program

Jones spoke only in generalities, saying again that Tennessee would continued doing what it has done to develop young men on and off the football field.

“Can we continue to improve? Yeah, just like any team, company or organization,” Jones said. “But we’ve come (a long way). Our players have done a great job, and we have great people here at Tennessee.

“We always are looking to get better, but like I said, we try to be proactive, we’ll continue to be proactive with guest speakers and continuing to educate our players.”

Jones said the Vols have had a “very good offseason,” and that he expected that to continue heading into spring practice and beyond.

“The people that know us, they know our football program, they understand what’s going on here with all the positivity. They understand that. We just have to continue to work and grow and get better and let it galvanize us closer as a football team and a football program. But people who understand what we’re all about, they understand that we have a good culture in place.

“We’ve had a very good offseason. Our players have worked exceptionally hard.”

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