Brian Kelly Uncertain How Much Jarron Jones Will Play Versus Army
How quickly change can occur.
One week ago at this time, Notre Dame’s fifth-year senior nose guard Jarron Jones was the toast of the town, earning the Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week Award for his monster mash performance (six tackles for loss) in the win against Miami two days before Halloween.
A week later, the ascending figure Jones — projected as the fifth best defensive tackle by NFLDraftScout.com and a potential second-round pick — has garnered attention for a different reason. After taking a season-high 53 snaps against the Hurricanes when junior cohort Daniel Cage suffered a concussion (still being evaluated this week), Jones took a dozen snaps (out of a possible 64) in the 28-27 loss to Navy this past Saturday despite Cage’s absence.
Jones was effective in that limited action over two series when Navy did not score … so why didn’t he play more? When head coach Brian Kelly was asked on Sunday, the explanation seemed odd.
“It really is a whole different animal relative to option,” Kelly said. “He’s got a job to do, and he can’t be the kind of force he was in a traditional offensive set because he’s got to play gap and he has a responsibility. If they choose to run triple option, even if he’s a force and he’s destroying his guy and he’s getting upfield, they are going to pull the ball and work the ball out to the perimeter.
“So you could take a Jarron Jones out of the game, even if he’s being disruptive, and so it really neutralizes players like him and when you play a team like Navy.”
That didn’t quite sound like a plausible reason to have one of your premier defenders out of the game. The natural perception that then developed is because Notre Dame defenders over the years have had a history of suffering knee injuries against Navy or other academy teams because of their penchant for cut blocking, Jones was more vulnerable. With his 6-5 height, straight up power game and previous knee issues (including an MCL tear that sidelined him during the 2015 regular season), he seemed like an ideal candidate to be the next victim.
It would seem the same would apply against Army’s triple option that ranks second nationally in rushing yards per game.
“We’ll find out,” Kelly said. “I think he wants to play a lot this week and we’ve got Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and see what happens. … One guy does not stop the option. Preparation is important. Preparation is important. That’s all I’ll say.”
The inference was that Jones didn’t prepare well for the option last week, and when pressed further, Kelly reiterated his stance.
“You gotta prepare for the option,” Kelly said. “Gotta prepare every day for it.”
Then when asked if Jones asked to see limited action against Navy, Kelly did his verbal impersonation of Dancing With The Stars.
“I think all of our guys get … equal opportunity to prepare during the week, and then we're going to play the guys that prepare to play the option,” he said. “And so each and every week we’ve got a number of guys that … you’ve seen the amount of guys we’re playing on defense.
“They all get reps and they all get a chance to get in there. And it’ll come down to preparation, and if they prepare the way that they need to prepare, they’ll all get a chance to play.”
For his part, Jones tweeted out, “I was built on shaky ground and any day this all could come down.”
During a 3-6 season at Notre Dame, all ground becomes a little shakier.
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