ATHENS — Make him do what he doesn’t want. That seems to be the surest way to success for Georgia’s Jarvis Jones.
Jones didn’t want to play football in high school. He thought of himself as a basketball player — and was an exceptional one indeed — until Carver-Columbus football coach Dell McGee convinced him that more opportunities awaited him in football. He grudgingly complied and became a high school All-American.
After signing with USC and playing in eight games as a freshman, Jones injured his neck, was sidelined for the season and eventually was told he could no longer play football. So Jones found two other doctors who would clear him and transferred to Georgia amid much fanfare.
After arriving at UGA and sitting out a year as a ballyhooed inside linebacker, he understandably was unsure about defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s decision to move him to outside linebacker in preseason camp. But Jones agreed to do it, and two-thirds of the way through his sophomore season, he is a semifinalist for the Dick Butkus Award and a cornerstone player in Georgia’s No. 7-ranked defense.
“That’s just the way he is,” said McGee, who first encountered Jones as a ninth grader. “He’s a beautiful person. He does the right things on and off the field. He really doesn’t like attention. He’s a great teammate and leader and just wants to do whatever he can to help you win.”
He has been doing a lot of the latter for the Bulldogs. In Jacksonville on Saturday, Florida tackle Matt Patchan made the mistake of saying some unflattering things to Jones before the Gators’ first offensive snap. Jones responded by saying he intended to harass Patchan’s quarterback all day long. Four sacks, five tackles and a caused fumble later, Jones had made good on his promise as Georgia notched a 24-20 victory.
The four sacks tied Jones for second-most in a single game in Georgia history and gave him the SEC lead with eight sacks. His nationally televised performance also brought with it a truckload of national and regional weekly awards from the SEC, Walter Camp, Bronko Nagurski, rivals.com and the College Football Performance Award.
“I think a lot of that is just his relentless pursuit to the ball,” Grantham said. “He’s a very relentless player. He really enjoys playing, and he shows it on tape and he plays really hard. That game was a product of him always coming.
“Sometimes guys have a tendency to take plays off. But because he comes so hard so often, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to put him in that position.”
Jones (6-foot-3, 241 pounds) downplays his reluctance to move to outside linebacker. He said that Grantham explained that it was the best way to get Georgia’s 11 best defensive players on the field and promised him that he would utilize him in multiple ways.
Jones started out playing strongside outside linebacker, but spent the past three games playing on the weak side. He’s a defensive end in the Bulldogs’ nickel package, but can occasionally be found in the middle of the field playing what the Bulldogs call the “joker.”
“Coach Grantham does a lot of stuff and tries to move us around and mixes it up a little bit to keep the quarterbacks off count,” Jones said. “Coach Grantham will come up with anything. ... He likes to create stuff and it works.”
Said Grantham: “You know, you don’t have to beat all their guys, just one.”
Jones credits his can-do attitude to the all the adversity he has had to overcome. His was a difficult upbringing on the tough side of Columbus. There was his medical disqualification at USC, then he faced a possible NCAA suspension at Georgia late this summer when his eligibility was reviewed for allegedly receiving impermissible benefits from a Columbus Parks and Recreation official.
“It’s my motivation now,” Jones said. “Every time you get on that field you’ve got to give everything you’ve got because, it’s like they say, you’re only one play away from not playing, and football can be taken away from you.”
That’s what coaches and teammates saw in the year Jones had to sit out, per NCAA transfer rules. He was a scout-team beast.
“He was giving us all kinds of trouble,” quarterback Aaron Murray said. “[Center] Ben [Jones] would be, like, ‘we’re facing the best linebacker we’ll face all year.’ When you’re trying to complete every pass and make every run, he was in there disrupting everything. I was like, ‘man, this kid’s going to be pretty good.’”
Said coach Mark Richt: “Those Tuesdays and Wednesdays were game days for him. He was lighting people up and playing fast and really giving us more than a good look. He was too tough to handle.”
Now that Jones is playing in real games again, the Bulldogs are understandably excited about what the future might hold for him. Though he’ll be eligible for the NFL draft this season, he said he’s not considering early entry.
“He’s got a high ceiling as far as where he can go,” Grantham said. “He’s only played in our system for one year. I think as he gets more comfortable in the way we play and the things he can do, I think he’ll make more plays that we’re all going to be proud of.”
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