Chris Jones (born September 25, 1967) is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Edmonton Elks The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL). He was previously the head coach and general manager of the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

for three seasons, after serving as the head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos for two seasons. Jones previously served as the defensive coordinator for the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canad ...

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

and

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

before becoming a head coach. Jones won four Grey Cup rings with four teams between 2002 and 2015.

College career

Born in

South Pittsburg, Tennessee South Pittsburg is a city in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN– GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,106 at the 2020 census. South Pittsburg is home to the National Cornbread Fes ...

, Jones played college football for the

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...

as a walk-on, and received little playing time. Instead, he began focusing on a coaching career.

Coaching career

NCAA career

Jones began his coaching career at North Jackson High School in Stevenson, Alabama, helping the team win a state championship in 1993. He began coaching NCAA football at

Tennessee Tech University Tennessee Technological University, commonly referred to as Tennessee Tech, is a Public university, public research university in Cookeville, Tennessee, United States. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, and before that as ...

in 1995, where he served as a graduate assistant under head coach

Jim Ragland James Donald Ragland (November 12, 1940 – May 16, 2006) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Tennessee Technological University Tennessee Technological University, commonly referred to as Tennessee Tech, ...

. After serving one season as a graduate assistant at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

, he joined the

University of Tennessee at Martin The University of Tennessee at Martin (UT Martin or UTM) is a public university in Martin, Tennessee. It is one of the five campuses of the University of Tennessee system. UTM is the only public university in West Tennessee outside of Memphi ...

coaching staff as a defensive line coach in 1998. He returned to Tennessee Tech in 1999 as a defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.

Early CFL career

Jones moved to the CFL in 2002, after being an assistant coach for Arena League Las Vegas in the spring and summer, after being named the new defensive line coach of the

helping Montreal win the

90th Grey Cup The 90th Grey Cup was the 2002 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Montreal Alouettes on November 24 at Commonwealth Stadium, in Edmonton, Alberta. The Alouettes defeated the Eskimos 25–16 in th ...

. He remained there until 2007. In 2008, he was named defensive coordinator of the

, which won the

96th Grey Cup The 96th Grey Cup was held in Montreal, Quebec at Olympic Stadium on November 23, 2008. The East Division champion Montreal Alouettes hosted the West Division champion Calgary Stampeders. The Stampeders won the game 22–14, with quarterback Henry ...

, and was promoted to Assistant Coach in 2010. He later joined the

as Defensive Coordinator and was part of the team that won the

100th Grey Cup The 100th Grey Cup was a Canadian football game between the East Division champion Toronto Argonauts and the West Division champion Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League to decide the Grey Cup champions of the 2012 season. Th ...

Edmonton Eskimos

Jones was named head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos in November 2013. After a 12-6 2014 season, he was nominated for

CFL Coach of the Year The Annis Stukus Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy, which is presented annually by the Edmonton Eskimos Alumni Association to the Coach of the Year, as determined by the members of the Football Reporters of Canada. The Trophy is named aft ...

. Jones was nominated as the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

representative for coach of the year in 2015 after winning 14 of the 18 regular season games. The East representative and winner was former Eskimos assistant coach Rick Campbell. Jones' Eskimos were victorious over the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) (French: Le Rouge et Noir d'Ottawa) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Starting ...

in the

103rd Grey Cup The 103rd Grey Cup was a Canadian football game that was played on November 29, 2015 between the East Division champion Ottawa Redblacks and the West Division champion Edmonton Eskimos to decide the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship f ...

game. Following the season the divisional rival

were given permission by GM

Ed Hervey Edward Hervey (born May 4, 1973) is a former professional Canadian football wide receiver and currently an assistant general manager for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played in the CFL for the Edmonton Eskimos ...

to entering into negotiations to fill their vacant head coaching position.

Saskatchewan Roughriders

On December 7, 2015, a mere week after winning the 2015 Grey Cup, it was announced that Jones would be the new

and head coach of the

. After a disappointing 3-15 season in 2015 Jones took over in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and things got off to a poor start, as the team won only one of their first 11 games. However, down the stretch they would win four of the remaining seven games and finish with a record of 5-13.

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

saw the Riders return to being a competitive team, as the club qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2014. After defeating the

in a crossover playoff game the Riders were bested by the

who would go on to win the

105th Grey Cup The 105th Grey Cup was played on November 26, 2017, between the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario. In a re-match of the 100th Grey Cup, the Argonauts won the game 27–24, winning their 17th cham ...

. Following the season the Riders extended Jones' contract through the

2019 CFL season The 2019 CFL season was the 66th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 62nd Canadian Football League season. The regular season began on June 13 and concluded with the playing of the 107th Grey Cup in Calgary on November ...

. Jones and the Riders continued to improve in the 2018 season, accumulating 12 wins, but in the playoffs they were defeated by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. On January 8, 2019 Jones and the Riders agreed to a new two-year contract extension.

Cleveland Browns

On January 15, 2019, one week after signing a contract extension with the Roughriders, Jones resigned from the Roughriders to take a two-year contract with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

as their Senior Defensive Specialist. After one season, Jones was removed from the coaching staff with the hire of new head coach

Kevin Stefanski Kevin Lawrence Stefanski (born May 8, 1982) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He began his NFL career as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Vikings from 2006 to ...

and placed in an office position for the 2020 season.

South Pittsburg High School

In April 2021, Jones was named the head coach of his high school Alma Mater, the South Pittsburg Pirates in Marion County, Tennessee. He notably ended the school's nearly century-old rivalry game with neighboring

Marion County High School Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mario ...

for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, in part due to suspicions that a Marion County fan turned South Pittsburg in for recruiting violations during the 2020 season, resulting in South Pittsburg being placed on probation. Jones resigned from the position on September 13 after coaching only one game, a win against Sequatchie County High School, in order to return to a defensive position with the Toronto Argonauts.

Return to CFL

On September 21, 2021, the

announced they had hired Chris Jones as a defensive consultant. Two months later, on December 21, 2021, it was announced that Jones had returned to Edmonton to become the head coach and general manager of the renamed

Personal life

Jones has a son from his first marriage and two daughters with his second wife.

CFL coaching record

References

External links

CFL coaching record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Chris 1966 births Living people Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches Calgary Stampeders coaches Chattanooga Mocs football players Cleveland Browns coaches Edmonton Elks coaches Las Vegas Gladiators coaches Montreal Alouettes coaches Saskatchewan Roughriders coaches Saskatchewan Roughriders general managers Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles football coaches Tennessee Technological University alumni Toronto Argonauts coaches UT Martin Skyhawks football coaches High school football coaches in Alabama People from South Pittsburg, Tennessee