Big pick-up here and you can consider me surprised that we landed this one. With Yeldon, Hart, and Tenpenny in the fold I didn't see another back of Jones' caliber coming to 'Bama in this class, so lots of credit is in order to the staff on this one.
As a prospect, Jones looks big-time. This kid looks a lot like Mark Ingram did in Flint, and if he can add 10-20 pounds to his frame he's going to be an outstanding player for us. We've done extremely well with low center of gravity backs with strong power bases and open field quickness and that is exactly the kind of prospect we have in Jones. If he, Tenpenny, and Yeldon can all stay healthy and out of trouble, we're going to be stacked at tailback for years to come.
As for the talk of adding three backs, I previously thought we'd add Tenpenny and then a combo guy like Kenyan Drake who could project to a lot of positions. With the third back, if that happens, I again expect it will be of the combo type. There is just no real reason for us to add another every-down tailback prospect at this point. We're basically as deep as we can possibly get at tailback now given the overall scholarship limits.
On the downside, though, I do worry about what this says about Dee Hart's recovery. Also, I think you can probably forget about Kenyan Drake ending up at tailback at this point, he's probably going to receiver or DB. Calloway, too, is headed out from the backfield, though that was expected before this.
Also, picking up Tenpenny and Jones really brings the long-term wisdom of Blake Sims at tailback into question. We've got to figure out something to do with that kid, and tailback doesn't look to be it. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if we should have just stuck him at corner when he first arrived.
