Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/219972
just football but every place, in the classroom and life in general. It made me ask where my life is going, and I realized I needed to tighten the screws a lot more." The growth first had to begin beyond football. "Jarron needed to earn some trust relative to his schoolwork and doing seeing with Jarron. "We knew about his size. We knew about his physical capabilities. It was a matter of him maturing and paying attention to detail. Once he's started to buy into that and understand how important it is, I think he's starting to blossom into the type of player he can be." The evolving maturity was further things the right way off the field," said Kelly, who noted that Jones had actually fared pretty well in part-time action against Navy and Pitt. "That's just part of the entire process of developing within the program. He had to attend to making sure that he was making good decisions in the classroom and taking care of the little things. "I've always seen a direct correlation that when you're doing the right things off the field, it generally starts to show itself on the field, and that's what we're manifested after the BYU game when Jones didn't buy into having "arrived." "It's just one day," Jones shrugged. "I've still got to keep working hard and keep focused. It's a boost because it lets me know what I'm capable of. … There's always room for improvement — and for me, obviously, a lot more room for improvement. It's a steppingstone and lets me build on something. "You have to grow. It's just up to me being the man I want to be and the player I want to be after four years." ✦