Fully healthy, Ernest Jones hopes to take next step in second season

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

Since arriving on South Carolina's campus last January, linebacker Ernest Jones has been praised by his coaches and teammates for his intelligence, a key quality as the sophomore tries to learn the intricacies of the MIKE linebacker position.

"I'm not the fastest linebacker on the earth, but what I do make up for it with is my intelligence," Jones said. "I'm able to put myself in the right position to be where I need to be, so I believe that helps."

Now in his second year in the program, Jones is starting to settle in after a somewhat inauspicious start to his career.

After graduating early from Ware County High School in Waycross, Ga. and enrolling at South Carolina last January, Jones was forced to miss all of his first spring in Columbia with a fracture in his back.

“Playing in the SEC it was kind of different," Jones said. "Coming in from a 5A school playing against guys similar to these guys up here, just learning and playing MIKE backer it was hard at first through the first couple of weeks of fall camp. It kind of got to me because of the injury I got during the spring. But during the season I started picking up on it, I started learning what I needed to do. Towards the end of the season I started picking up more reps in practice and getting in the game and since then it’s been a great experience.”

Jones played in five games last season, taking 97 defensive snaps while also contributing on five special teams units. He collected 16 tackles and a forced fumble, but looks to take his game to another level this season.

The 6-foot-2, 235-pounder will likely serve as senior leading tackler T.J. Brunson's backup at the MIKE, the lone position that Jones is currently working at. But with Brunson out for the spring after having offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia and damaged knee cartilage, Jones is getting a ton of first-team reps.

“Obviously, what it does it give Ernest Jones a chance to go out there and rep with the ones and communicate, which he’s done a really good job of," defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson said at the beginning of camp. "He’s been [doing that] all off season and in the fourth quarter program and today he’s been communicating. I heard him a bunch today. I’m excited about Ernest, and it gives him a chance to get better.”

One key in Jones getting better is the presence of Brunson. Despite the senior's absence from on-field work, Brunson has been irreplaceable in helping Jones learn the position.

"T.J. is very helpful," Jones said. "He's amazing man. Just learning from behind him and just watching from behind him as he continues to grow and me growing with him, it's amazing. You couldn't find anybody [better] to learn under."

The MIKE position - tasked with communicating the details to the rest of the front and knowing where each player is supposed to be - is "not the easiest thing" to learn, Jones admits, and requires extra hours of film work.

But, now healthy and comfortable, it's a task that Jones believes he's prepared to handle.

"You have to be vocal and you have to be a leader," Jones said. "No matter what you're doing you have to take the right steps to be that leader, that guy of the defense, so that everybody else respects you. If no one else on that field respects you, it's kind of pointless being the MIKE linebacker."

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