Jones sees Arkansas visit as a success

Will Jones

— Parkers Chapel junior offensive lineman Will Jones enjoyed his first trip to Arkansas for the Razorbacks showdown with Tulsa over the weekend.

Jones, 6-4, 320 pounds, 5.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, has schools like Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech , Illinois and Harvard interested. He’s visited Mississippi State once and plans to make a return trip this week for the Tennessee game and has plans to visit Vanderbilt in two weeks.

“The facilities were really nice,” said Jones, who bench presses 300 pounds and squats 475. “I met coach (Tim) Horton and talked to him and I talked to the line coach (Chris Klenakis) and he said he was going to have to get down and talk to my coach sometime this year. It was nice atmosphere. I really don’t know what I was expecting but I was really impressed. ”

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With his football season over, Jones is playing basketball to help with his play on the gridiron.

“I’ve mostly just played it for fun and to be with my friends and work on footwork for football,” he said. “It’s made my footwork a whole better.”

Jones has also visited Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Arkansas State and Louisiana Tech while participating in Tennessee’s camp over the summer. He has learned that all schools aren’t created equal.

“One school might be great in athletics but not very good in academics,” Jones said. “Some schools have both academics and athletics.”

Jones, who has a 4.1 grade point average and has scored a 25 on the ACT, was educated about the Hogs’ academic support.

“I learned some things about Arkansas’ academic program that I didn’t know before,” Jones said. “It’s the first place I’ve been that’s done that.”