Few players have seen their football stock blow up in the last month the way offensive lineman Dawand Jones has.
Jones, out of Indianapolis Ben Davis, saw his offer list grow substantially in the last month, with schools like Texas, Florida, Auburn, Penn State and Oregon extending scholarship offers. At 6-8 and 350 pounds, there’s a lot to like in Jones – both literally and figuratively – and the rising offensive lineman is now faced with a “problem” that most kids can only dream of … trying to sort through his lengthy list of options to determine which schools he’ll consider.
Jones has two official visits remaining and is still working to figure out which campuses he’ll see. He’s hoping to come to an answer either this week or next.
“I don’t have anything set yet,” Jones said. “I’m trying to take it one at a time, going to talk to my head coach about it. I’m just trying to find right school. I’m trying to do it sometime soon.”
Texas is one of the schools drawing strong consideration, along with programs like Auburn, Penn State and Florida. Jones is in a unique situation in that he’s only taken one official visit so far (to USC in November) but has only two trips remaining. The reason for the misalignment of the numbers is that Jones is also a standout basketball player and he took two hoops official visits to Ball State and Kent State early in the process. Now that he’s focused on football only, he’s faced with the task of trying to settle on his last two visits before making a commitment in the next month.
The Texas Longhorns are still fairly new to the race after Texas OL coach Herb Hand extended an offer in early December, Jones said he’s built up a solid relationship with the UT staff.
Coach Hand and coach (Tom) Herman, they’re good guys,” Jones said. “They also did a good job this year in winning that bowl game (Sugar Bowl over Georgia). I really like those guys.”
The Longhorns signed only two offensive linemen in the early window (Tyler Johnson, Isaiah Hookfin). Texas does have a third o-line commitment in Javonne Shepherd, but he is planning to take another visit or two and UT will have to fight to hang onto his pledge. Hand and the rest of the staff are looking to bring in another lineman or two, and Jones could become a top option if he does decide to give Texas one of his two remaining visits.
At this point, Jones said he’s truly unclear on where he’ll take his last two trips, but he did say Texas is one of the teams receiving very strong consideration.
“I wouldn’t’ say wide open, but they’re up there. I just need to figure it out,” Jones said.
Jones, who holds more than 20 scholarship offers, is ranked as a three-star prospect.
