THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 17, 1995 TAG: 9508170678
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHAPEL HILL, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
The best defensive player in the Atlantic Coast Conference this year does not wear the colors of Florida State.
But to say North Carolina's Marcus Jones is the best defender in the league could be selling him short.
He may be the best in the nation.
Jones is a fast, 6-foot-6, 280-pound senior who is switching from defensive end to tackle this season to be a few steps closer to sacking quarterbacks.
``My motto is to treat everything like a pass rush and if you happen to run into the person with the ball, it's a bonus,'' Jones said Wednesday.
Coach Mack Brown describes Jones as the best defensive player he's had at North Carolina.
``So big, so fast, and he can jump so high,'' Brown drooled.
But, as talented as Jones is on the football field, that is not what makes him so unique on this campus where some athletes can't seem to wait to jump to the pros for rich contracts.
Basketball players Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse stuck around for only two years before making their moves.
Tailback Natrone Means bid an early farewell to the football team a couple of years ago.
Brown says Jones is good enough to be playing on Sundays this year.
``He would have gone in the first or second round,'' Brown said. ``A lot of pro teams would love to have him.''
Brown shakes his head when asked what he had to promise to keep Jones in school.
``It was his idea,'' Brown replied.
``He told me that when we recruited him that we made a deal for four years and he was going to stick to it. That tells you something about him as a person.''
Jones is from Jacksonville, a small military town in eastern North Carolina. He says there are several reasons he stayed in school.
For one, he's not as impressed with himself as others seem to be.
``I have not accomplished any of the goals I set out to do,'' Jones said.
``Each year, I say I am going to do this, do that. But when I sit back and look, I haven't come close to what I think I can do. It would be stupid of me to go to the NFL and think I could play with those guys when I haven't done all I want to do in college.''
Jones shrugged when reminded there were people willing to pay a lot of money to see if he could play with the pros.
``I could have gone for the money, like Rasheed and Stack,'' he acknowledged.
``But there were too many reasons to stay. I want to be the first in my family to graduate from college. That means a lot to my parents. I didn't want to slam the door shut and then wish I had stayed and graduated.''
The NCAA was so impressed with Jones' decision that it made him a spokesman for its stay-in-school campaign.
Jones, who claims to be camera-shy, says the attention he receives is more pleasing to his family than to himself.
``Most of the time that I see magazines with my picture in them is when I am out with my mother,'' Jones said.
``She makes me go out there and get them with her. She's like, `I can't find it. You have got to help me find it.'
``Then, when she sees my picture, she is like, `Look, look, look. This is my baby.' ''
Momma Jones' baby has grown and matured considerably at North Carolina.
``I was so naive when I came here that I called anyone a year older than me `sir.' I was 19 and they were 20, and they'd say, `Oh, gawd, please don't call me sir.'
``I really didn't have a conception of how the world was until I got here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
UNC's Marcus Jones is switching from defensive end to tackle to be a
few steps closer to the quarterback. ``My motto is to treat
everything like a pass rush and if you happen to run into the person
with the ball, it's a bonus,'' Jones says.
by CNB