Jul
Jones at home with Lions
Courtesy Vancouver Province:
Andrew Jones is going home, in more ways than one.
He was a defensive tackle at McMaster University before the Lions converted him to an offensive lineman.
But with a hamstring injury to Nautyn McKay-Loescher, Jones this week returned to nose tackle, backing up Aaron Hunt, Jeremy Gibbs and Jonathan Williams, and will suit up for the first time in his three years in the CFL on Friday evening at Ivor Wynne Stadium, home to so many of his games as an MU Marauder.
He won’t play on the D-line against the Ticats unless Hunt loses a leg, but he’ll get special-teams duties in front of dozens of old buddies from his school days in Hamilton, as well as family making the commute from Toronto and Mississauga.
“I play the offensive line now, that’s what I do,” said Jones, a 26-year-old drafted in the fourth round, 32nd overall, in 2007.
“But I played on the defensive line for so long, it came back pretty quickly. I think I’ll be all right.
“Plus, going back to Hamilton, it’s going to be a great time, awesome.”
Said defensive lineman Brent Johnson: “He’s looked good. He was a very good defensive lineman at university.”
If you haven’t heard of Jones, who has been with the Lions as long as punter Sean White and O-lineman Jon Hameister-Ries, it’s because he spent 2007 on the practice roster and last season suffered a season-ending knee injury at training camp.
“I had a lot to learn playing offensive line,” Jones said. “I came back early [this season] to get ready.”
Three years of having an offensive lineman’s mentality and now Jones has to get back into a D-lineman’s frame of mind in a matter of days.
The two positions share the word “lineman”, but are as different as the white jerseys worn at practice by the offence and the black donned by the defence.
As Jason Jimenez found out when he arrived three seasons ago and as newcomer Darren Heerspink, the latest left tackle trying to fill Rob Murphy’s big shoes, has discovered in his two games with the Lions, CFL defensive linemen aren’t the slow behemoths they’re used to facing down south; they’re smaller and far fleeter, making the O-line a position that requires speedy feet as much as raw brawn.
In university Jones — now listed at 6-foot-4 and 309 pounds — was a run-stopper, not a pass rusher, thus the Lions made the switch to offence.
“When the Lions told me they were going to draft me as an offensive lineman, I said, ‘I want to play football.’
“It’s there, it’s still there,” he said of his inner defensive lineman.
“I just have to get it all back.”
- Import running back Tyler Ebell was cut Wednesday. He signed earlier this month when returner Ian Smart went down, returning 11 kickoffs for 227 yards and six punts for 47 yards. After two games he was placed on the practice roster prior to last Friday’s debacle against the Calgary Stampeders.
