Sophomore Derrick Jones (19) runs onto the field before the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta Thursday. (DM Photo/Cady Herring)
Sophomore Derrick Jones was one of the biggest surprises of the 2013 Ole Miss Rebels football team. As an unheralded 3-star recruit, Jones switched to cornerback midway through the season and started several games while drawing rave reviews from the coaching staff. Now it appears another position change could be on the horizon for Jones, as he has been splitting his time between wide receiver and cornerback in practice this week.
“He’s just such a good athlete. He’s got great hands and can really run,” co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner said of Jones, who began his career at Ole Miss as a wide receiver. “As offensive coaches we wanted him there all along.”
Head coach Hugh Freeze attributed Jones seeing time at wide receiver to a lack of players at that position rather than him being unhappy with Jones’ play at cornerback.
“He’s a good athlete, and we need some depth at receiver too,” Freeze said. “If you look at the depth chart we really only have three outside guys and we need another guy semi-ready. Can’t say that he can do everything in one week, but he’s a really good athlete.”
Werner also added that the competition at cornerback has limited his playing time.
“When he wasn’t getting a whole lot of reps over on defense it just worked out that we got him, and now we’ll get him in there whenever we can,” Werner said. “Obviously it’ll be tough on him because he’s got to learn the whole scheme, all the signals and everything, but he knew a little bit from before, and he’ll be ready to go. I could see him getting 10-15 snaps.”
Freeze emphasized that even though Jones would see some snaps at wide receiver he would still play on the other side of the ball too.
“He worked with the defense too yesterday,” Freeze said. “He’ll still work in some nickel and dime and some red zone corner stuff, which is not too hard for him to learn, and we’ll steadily start trying to add something to his plate.”
Fellow wide receiver Laquon Treadwell offered his assessment of Jones seeing time at wide receiver.
“Derrick can catch the ball, I’ve seen it from day one,” Treadwell said. “He does it naturally so he should be good.”
Treadwell felt Jones had played well at cornerback, but that wide receiver offered a new opportunity for him.
“He was good there too so I think that’s a good fit for him, but I think he’ll be able to play more and help the team more at the receiver spot since we have so much depth at the corner spot,” Treadwell said.
Earlier in the week Freeze stressed that Jones seeing less time at cornerback wasn’t due to his own play digressing.
“There are certain things he has to continue to improve on, but it’s nothing he’s done wrong. There’s just great competition there,” Freeze said. “I expect him to play a lot of football for us before his time is over.”
-Cody Thomason
