Jones is Tide’s movable anchor
Junior star plays all 5 spots on line
NEW ORLEANS — More often than not, the smartest guys on the football field are offensive linemen. Then, there is Alabama’s Barrett Jones, who’s an offensive line unto himself.
Jones, a junior All-american, started at right guard the previous two seasons. He moved to starting left tackle this year while also playing left guard, right tackle and center.
“I think it is more of a challenge mentally than it is physically,” Jones said Thursday. “It takes a lot more film study. You’ve got to really study all five positions, and when you’re studying personnel, you can’t just study one person. You have to study the whole defensive line.”
Jones graduated with a 4.0 average in accounting and is enrolled in graduate school. Still, even the smartest guy in the room said the mental juggling is a challenge.
“Sometimes you’re playing the right side and the call means one thing to you, and then you switch sides to the left side, now I have to go the opposite way,” Jones said. “It sounds easy, but really when lights are on and everything is happening so fast, sometimes you really get confused, so it takes a lot of study to make sure you know what you’re doing.”
When the Crimson Tide lost to LSU on Nov. 5, Jones sprained his ankle early in the game but played on. He missed the next two games before returning for the regular-season finale against Auburn.
With a healthy Jones, the Tide like their chances when they meet LSU in the Bowl Championship Series title game Monday. Given that the last meeting was a 9-6 field-goal fest, Jones was asked if touchdowns are more likely this time. “Have to say more likely because anything is more likely than zero,” he said.
Jones won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman last month, but he said he will return for his senior season.
“I love college,” said Jones, who was raised on the college game, albeit basketball. Jones’ father, Rex, played bas- ketball at Alabama. His late grandfather, Bill Jones, won a Division II title as basketball coach at North Alabama.
When Jones was being recruited by Saban, he knew he would win national championships of his own. “When you’re getting recruited,” Jones said, “you go around to a lot of different places, and you hear every coach tell you that they’re going to win a lot of games and you’re going to be a big part of that. But when coach (Nick) Saban tells it to you, you believe him.”
He started for the 2009 national championship team and has a chance to win his second Monday and contend for another next year.
“I just love being a part of Alabama; I just wanted a few more chances to put on that crimson jersey,” said Jones, whose brother, Harrison, is a redshirt tight end for Alabama.
His connection to the community runs deep. When a deadly tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the spring, Jones carried his chainsaw through a neighborhood, removing trees from roofs.
“He’s as fine a person as you’re ever gonna be around,” Saban said. “Serving other people is the only way you can be a good leader, and he’s just phenomenal in that regard.”
Jones had experienced natural disaster before. He flew to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to help relief efforts.
“When I went to Haiti and saw the earthquake damage, I thought I’d never see anything like that again,” he said. “I was obviously wrong.”
Jones said before the season that the Crimson Tide were playing for something more this year, for a community that lost 50 people, including six students, and 7,200 homes and businesses. “I think it will be a special year if we can do that,” he said one hot August afternoon. “If we can win a national championship for the city in light of what’s happened.”
Monday, he will have a chance to do just that.