CHICAGO — The Rutgers football coaching search has kicked into gear.

Former Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Tennessee head coach Butch Jones, currently serving as an offensive analyst at Alabama, became the first candidate interviewed for the Scarlet Knights’ vacancy here on Friday, a person with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance Media.

The interview comes a day before Rutgers’ Big Ten road game at Illinois on Saturday. Jones is the first known candidate to interview for the job. The interview was first reported by Scarlet Nation.

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Jones, 51, is a Michigan native who served as a graduate assistant at Rutgers from 1990-92. He has since spent the bulk of his college coaching career in the Midwest and Southeast. Jones has a 84-54 record as a head coach and has won four conference titles - two in the MAC at Central Michigan and two in the Big East at Cincinnati. He inherited both programs from now-Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly.

Jones did not have as much success at Tennessee, where he was fired with two games to go in the 2017 season at 4-6 after back-to-back disappointing second-place finishes in the SEC East. He was 34-27 during his time with the Volunteers. Jones has served as an offensive analyst at Alabama for the last two seasons.

Jones plucked current Tennessee quarterback and former Bergen Catholic star Jarrett Guarantano out of New Jersey during his time in Knoxville, but one rival Big Ten coach expressed skepticism to NJ Advance Media that he would be able to productively recruit the tri-state area if he were to be hired as Rutgers’ next head coach.

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James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.