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OT Dawand Jones (All B1G, All-American, Cleveland Browns)

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LovelandBuckeye said:
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SKULL SESSION: SMALL BALL WORKED FOR CHRIS HOLTMANN AND THE BUCKEYES, DAWAND JONES PLAYS BASKETBALL TO STAY IN SHAPE, AND RICHARD SHERMAN FEUDS WITH JIM HARBAUGH

MORE LIKE J-WAND JONES. Dawand Jones is properly gigantic right now, and Mickey Marotti's job this offseason is to make sure he stays that perfect and correct amount of gigantic and doesn't get too gigantic.

And to do it, he's got a secret trick up his sleeve: basketball.

“We have to be creative in keeping his weight down,” Marotti said of Jones. “He likes basketball, so I told him I’ll get one of our interns to feed him the basketball. He can do jump shots for two hours in a row and see how much he sweats.”

...

For Marotti, training Jones isn’t just a tall task. It’s a fun one. Jones constantly has a smile on his face, even when Marotti tries to yell at him. Marotti loves being around Jones because of his size.

“I love him,” Marotti said. “He’s a great kid. He smiles all the time. Even when you’re trying to coach him really hard, he looks at you and just smiles. He’s so tall. The best thing is when he’s with our nutritionist. Kaila [Olson] is like not very tall and he’s super tall, and he follows her around. He does exactly what she tells him.”

I dig it – keeping his weight down while also getting him game-ready for whenever that call comes down from Chris Holtmann. Kill two birds with one stone.

I think I'm joking, but if this is seriously all he does all summer, he's going to be more lethal than Steph Curry from three-point land, so maybe it is worth a shot? I mean, imagine a 6-foot-8, 350-pound sharpshooter. I'm in.

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...awand-jones-plays-basketball-to-stay-in-shape
 
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With there being 1,042 players better than Jones in the 2019 recruiting class, there was no reason to expect him to see the field as a freshman

2019 Season

Pretty early on, however, there was a buzz about Jones.

“We want to recruit big guys who are athletic, and I think when you look at offensive linemen nowadays, you see very athletic guys,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said last August. “Even the big guy — well, a great example of the three guys that we just brought in this year, Harry Miller, very athletic. You look at him, he’s over 300 pounds, but he’s very, very athletic and lean. Enokk Vimahi came in at 270 pounds, he’s now 293 if you can believe that. In two months he’s put on that much weight. Very, very athletic. And then Dawand Jones, if you look at Dawand Jones, he’s 6’8″, 380 pounds, but he’s not — I know it sounds crazy, but he’s not a sloppy-looking guy. He’s put together. He needs to lose weight. But they’re all very, very good athletes.”

Jones played in 10 games as a true freshman, including each of the final eight.

Initially, he was just going to play in four games and maintain his redshirt status. And the first couple of those games came on the field goal block team because of his size and reach. It proved successful, and while he wasn’t credited with a kick block, he was certainly effective at the line.

He was so effective, in fact, that there was discussion of burning his redshirt just for special teams purposes.

Eventually, it was decided that he was good enough to see time on both special teams and offense. He was a backup at tackle and saw snaps on offense against Northwestern, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Maryland.

Jones’ contributions in 2019 were completely unexpected, and while he was far from perfect as a pass protector, the potential was impossible to miss.
 
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Dawand Jones

Ohio State’s offensive line should be in rather good shape this upcoming season, as Wyatt Davis, Josh Myers and Thayer Munford all return as starters. With two spots left to fill, and those likely being Harry Miller at guard and whoever wins the Nichols Petit-Frere/Paris Johnson Jr. battle at tackle, Jones isn’t all that likely to earn a starting spot. However, he could become an incredibly valuable piece as the first man up off the bench.

Everything about this 6-foot-8, 359 pound offensive lineman screams underdog. Like Hooker, he was the lowest rated member of his respective recruiting class, coming in as a three-star prospect and the 86th-best OT in the cycle, ranking in the 1,000s nationally. As a true freshman in 2019, Jones actually saw the field quite a bit despite being more of a project player. He appeared in 10 contests, totaling 90 offensive snaps while being a force on special teams. As a truly hulking figure, he became a topic of discussion almost every time he lined up late in games during blowouts.

As previously mentioned, Ohio State is more or less set with its starting offensive line this upcoming season. Best suited for a tackle spot, Jones has a pair of five-star recruits in front of him. However, he did surprise people in such a minimal role last year, and has quickly become a crowd favorite as a lovable giant. It would not be at all shocking for Jones to find himself on the two-deep in 2020, and could possibly become a valuable asset to fill in should someone go down with an injury.

Just sayin': This guy is the "poster child" for inaccuracies in the recruit ranking business. He's definite better than 3 stars, 1043 best player, 86th best OT, and 13th best player in Indiana: https://247sports.com/Player/Dawand-Jones-46052090/

The recruit ranking guys just looked at his weight and not his athleticism:
• A talented two-sport athlete who also excelled on the basketball court
• averaged 17.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game on the hardwood and had several Division I scholarship offers
 
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It might still take him another season or two to become a starter with Munford returning for one more campaign at left tackle and Petit-Frere and Johnson both bringing elite potential to the position as well. But Jones is already showing that he’s going to be a valuable piece of the depth for possibly the nation’s best offensive line, and he’s only going to get better for Ohio State.

Just sayin': He was a very good high school basketball player, i.e. he could run down court and rebound. I wonder if the coaches have ever considered (occasionally) lining him up as an reliable receiver, i.e. like Belichick did with Vrabel on the Patriots, etc.
 
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