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Front And Center, Marcus Jones
8/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
by Johnny Moore, Blue Devil Weekly
DURHAM, N.C. - Just one year ago, Marcus Jones sat in quarterback meetings at Duke with a large group of other quarterbacks. There were so many quarterbacks, in fact, that Jones spent half of his time as a freshman football player as a wide receiver.
Now heading into his sophomore season, Jones is one of just two scholarship players in the quarterback meetings. During spring practice Jones spent most his time working with starting quarterback Zack Asack as the two prepared for the fall. Then in the middle of the summer, Jones found out that he had been thrust into the starter's role when Asack was suspended for one season due to a plagiarism charge.
“I was in my apartment and got several phone calls from my teammates, worried and wanting to know what was going on and did I know anything,” explained Jones about the day he heard the news on Asack.
“It really shocked me, and I decided to wait until I heard something official. I was not really upset, but bothered by the facts. I wanted to be the starter, but not this way. This wasn't the way that I wanted to get the job.”
Jones had seen his place on the depth chart move rapidly upward from those quarterback meetings as a freshman. Curt Dukes, who had a year of eligibility remaining, graduated and ended his football career with an eye on applying to medical school. Two other quarterbacks transferred out of the program ? senior Mike Schneider, who graduated and moved to Youngstown State to play his final year, and freshman Gene Delle Donne, who transferred to Middle Tennessee State.
“There were a lot of mixed emotions with people leaving, but I can't worry about what happened. I have an opportunity and I need to take advantage of it,” said Jones, who has freshman Thaddeus Lewis as his backup, with running back Clifford Harris listed as the emergency quarterback..
Not a lot of positive things have happened to this football program recently. Jones no doubt heard the moans and groans when the projected starting quarterback became ineligible for the season, suddenly thrusting an unknown into the limelight.
“It gives me a lot of motivation. Even though I had motivation, the doubters give me a lot of motivation to lead this team and to do well as a team,” Jones explained.
As a freshman from Ringgold, Ga., Jones came in and played at both the quarterback and receiver positions. He started four games at wideout, against East Carolina, Virginia Tech, Miami and Clemson. His top receiving game was against Florida State when he pulled in three passes for 29 yards. For the year he caught 11 passes for 90 yards. As a quarterback, the 6-foot-3, 210-pounder attempted seven passes, completing two.
He came out of Southeast Whitfield as one of the top prep stars in the country. He was ranked 19th-best as a dual threat quarterback in the entire nation and received the 2005 male athlete of the year award from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Jones' style is that of the modern day quarterback. He is a total athlete at the signal-caller position, having the ability to stand in the pocket and pass the ball, but always sitting on the threat that he can run the ball and make something happen.
“I think I can do both drop-back and roll-out passing, and I can run and scramble as well as play from the pocket. I really feel that I am a mobile quarterback,” said Jones.
“I'm a lot more relaxed now than I was in the spring when we were battling for the job. I feel like I am doing a lot better now that I am relaxed and knowing that I am the starter. I have a lot of confidence in the offense and know it a lot better after having worked with it this past year.”
As a freshman, Jones spent only about 25 percent of his practice time at the quarterback position, with the majority of his training at wide receiver, giving him a great deal of hands-on knowledge of the receiver position.
“I feel like it has helped me because I know their steps, I know how they are going to run their routes and how they will break to the ball,” he explained. “I think just being a quarterback it is harder to learn what the receivers are going to do. It takes a lot of repetitions. But having played wide receiver it gave me the opportunity to learn a lot more about the position, which makes me a better prepared quarterback.”
Jones also has a very close relationship with the receivers, having been one of them last year.
“I know them pretty well from being around them, which has helped me to know their tendencies,” said Jones. “I don't get upset when they drop balls because I have done it in the past. And I also do throw an occasional bad ball, so it has to be a mutual thing.”
When Jones was a freshman, coach Ted Roof explained that he needed him at wide receiver due to a lack of numbers at that spot, and that he would get some time at quarterback as well. When the season was over, Roof told him he was to concentrate only on the quarterback position.
“I knew right after the season was over that I wanted to be the quarterback and I set my sights on that goal,” said Jones. “I felt like after spring practice that I had a chance to be the starter, but that I was going to have to prove myself in games. I was ready to get the starting job by performing well.”
In just a couple of weeks Jones went from being a rising sophomore fighting for the starting quarterback job, to be the leader of the team as its definite No. 1 quarterback.
“I'm trying to lead by example right now,” said Jones. “I can show leadership qualities right now on the practice field and in the game and hopefully later on I will take more of a vocal leadership role.”
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