How Jerry Mack saw a then-walk-on as ‘one of the key pillars’ of KSU football

Milon Jones began playing football when he was 7. He mostly played running back, although one of his Smyrna Spartan coaches made him play right tackle for a while to toughen him up. Jones didn’t know it at the time, but it also helped set him up for a successful college career.

Today Jones is the starting free safety for the Kennesaw State football team. It’s the experience and toughness that he began to accrue many years ago on the Cobb County recreation fields that has helped make the difference.

“I was joking with him one day after a special teams drill and asked him how (long) he’d been playing football,” KSU coach Jerry Mack said. “He said since he was 5 or 6 and I said, ‘I just won a bet with one of the other coaches.’ Because he has such a high, high football IQ you can tell he’s one of those kids that’s always been around football.”

Kennesaw (7-3, 5-1 Conference USA) will host Missouri State (7-3, 5-1) in the Owls’ final home game on Saturday. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+ and may be heard locally on the KSU Owls app.

Jones (5-foot-11, 190 pounds) isn’t the biggest guy but has earned a reputation for being a hard worker and a tough tackler. It shows on paper: Jones has 38 total tackles, ranking him No. 4 on the team, and had seven against No. 2-ranked Indiana.

“By me playing football for so long, I feel like this has helped,” Jones said. “The game has slowed down a lot more because you’ve seen a lot of stuff. It’s helped me become the player I am today.”

Jones graduated from Marietta High School and was sold on Kennesaw from his first visit. Over the last four years he has endured the transition from FCS to FBS football, as well as a coaching staff change. Jones was part of last year’s 2-10 season and has played a key role in this year’s 7-3 team.

“I’ve been here for four years, so I’ve seen Kennesaw at all of its levels,” Jones said. “For me to be able to stay here, sometimes it was an adjustment, but that’s just part of the game today, being able to adjust to a new atmosphere, new management.”

Jones admitted he wasn’t sure what the new regime would be like but liked the energy he saw from Mack when they met for the first time in December. But Mack is pretty sure it took longer to convince Jones that the program was on the right track.

“I think Milon was a little apprehensive about what this new staff was going to bring to the table,” Mack said. “But he didn’t do anything from the first day we got in the building but work. He showed us what he was about by the way he went about his business.”

Mack and the staff were so impressed by Jones, who came to the program as a walk-on, that they awarded him a scholarship.

“I felt like he was going to be one of the key pillars to our football team and it was important to show him how much he was going to be a part of this in doing the right thing,” Mack said.

Saturday will be Senior Day at Kennesaw. Jones will be among those who will suit up for the final game at Fifth Third Stadium. He can’t fathom how fast the time has gone.

“It’s really crazy because everybody says your college years will go by fast,” Jones said. “I remember when I was a freshman and everybody would tell me that, but I felt like I had so much more time. Now that time is actually here. My last time stepping on that field it’s just a crazy feeling.”

Mack said this group of seniors will always be special to him. Not only because of the turn around and the bowl eligibility, but because of their buy-in to what he was trying to do.

“These guys were the first class that I brought in that believed in a vision, because that’s all we had,” Mack said. “These guys have been through a lot of transition in the last few years and they stayed with me, they trusted me and the staff, so I’m just eternally grateful for this group of guys.”