Butch Jones sees his upcoming offensive coordinator as a “great opportunity to improve upon what we’re building here at Tennessee,” the Vols coach said Sunday night.

Speaking to Football Scoop Radio on ESPN 104.5 in Baton Rouge, La., Jones said Tennessee’s ideal candidate it someone with a play-calling background, experience coaching multiple positions and someone who fill enhance —Â not overhaul — what the Vols have been building the past two years on the offensive end.

Tennessee’s offensive coordinator position became available late last week, when Mike Bajakian —Â the only OC that Jones has had in his eight seasons as a head coach — accepted the quarterbacks coaching job with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“It’s an opportunity to get better,” Jones told the show. “I’m very excited for the opportunity that Coach Jake has, but for us, it’s being able to bring an individual who can elevate everyone on our staff. But everything is about fit. The outside world wants to look at resumes and, you know, who’s the hottest thing going, and there’s some great offensive coordinators out there. But for us, everything is about a fit within our staff.

“Obviously we want an individual that’s been a coordinator before, that’s called plays in meaningful games, in meaningful situations. But also [we’re looking for] an individual that maybe can bring some knowledge by coaching multiple positions, because it’s all about getting better as a staff. Even though you have a coordinator, everything we do is about staff involvement. When we present the game plan on game days, that’s hours and hours of work behind the scenes by our offensive staff. We have tremendous coaches. Obviously the family environment is a big fit, as well, and then obviously the recruiting aspect of it, the development of quarterback play, creativeness, energy.

“But for us, we’re not looking for a major overhaul offensively. We’re just looking to enhance our system. Going into Year Three now and playing the inordinate amount of freshmen that we had to play last year, now they understand the system, and the thing we can’t do is go backwards and spend our time installing a new offensive system. We have to be able to enhance it, and continue to grow and elevate it. That’s so we can spend more time on the fundamentals, the fine details of what it takes to play winning football.”

Jones also said he’s received “great” input from a wide cast of characters —Â including Vols Hall of Fame coach Phillip Fulmer, Vols quarterback and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and former NFL head coach and Vols graduate assistant Jon Gruden —Â throughout the decision-making process.

Interestingly, Jones also included Mike DeBord’s name when asked for any mentors in the coaching business he still leans on from time to time. DeBord, a longtime major college and NFL assistant who has been an administrator at Michigan the past two seasons, arrived in Knoxville on Friday and spend at least two days in the Tennessee complex speaking with Jones about the offensive coordinator position.

GoVols247 has reported several times the past three days that DeBord is, at the very least, one of the leading candidates on Jones’ list.

The GoVols247 staff will continue to follow this developing situation and post VIP and free updates on The CheckerBoard.

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Contact Wes Rucker BY EMAIL at wesrucker247@gmail.com, or ON TWITTER or ON FACEBOOK