The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/111015
football recruiting issue player,��� Hardin said. ���Our goal was just to try to get him the ball, as many ways as possible. We ended up a lot of time just throwing the ball up to him. ���It would amaze me. It didn���t matter if one guy covered him, two guys covered him, three guys covered him, our quarterback threw the ball up to him, and he���d go up and get it and take it away from anybody who was covering him.��� As far as Jones is concerned, when the ball is up for grabs, he���s grabbing it. ���I feel like I���m not just one of those fast guys who can jump real high,��� Jones said. ���I���m one of those physical guys. When a guy tries to man me up off the line, I love getting off the ball. I love getting away from their contact. That���s fun to me. ���Once I���ve passed them, they won���t catch me. When the ball is in the air, there���s nothing else in the world like it. I just go up and grab it.��� He feels the same way about a big-school opportunity, and when Michigan offered him one, he didn���t hesitate. He���d initially committed to Central Michigan, at the urging of a football-savvy relative. That way, he���d have a place to land just in case the top-level schools didn���t come calling, for whatever reason. At the end of October, Jones caught the scholarship offer for which he���d been waiting all along. ���Michigan was saying they were doing their best to get me an offer, but they were unable to at the moment,��� Jones recalled. ���They weren���t sure they were going to be able to get me into the class. They said just keep working during the season, keep developing as a player, send highlight tapes and wait and see what happens. ���On Halloween, it came through. My family and I were very excited. I knew exactly where I wanted to go.��� Although the process required patience, and Jones didn���t see the top schools battling for his services early on, he doesn���t lack confidence. He will enter Ann Arbor with something to prove, but cautions that would have been the case no matter what. ���Going into any program at any school, I���d have to have a little bit of an edge, a chip on my shoulder,��� Jones said. ���You have to compete for a starting position, compete to see playing time on the field. It���s another level ��� everybody���s fast and everybody���s strong. ���My uncle tells me all the time, ���You���ve got to come at it with all you���ve got, if you want to get your time and play.��� I���m going to work really hard this summer, and before I get into camp I plan to be good, before I even get into the program.��� Hardin insists Jones can compete with anyone on the Michigan roster. ���He���s one of the most mature kids, coming out of high school, that I���ve ever coached,��� Hardin said. ���Speedwise, he���s going to be right up there with anyone else playing wide receiver. ���His ability to go up and get the ball will probably be better than anyone there. His route running is excep-