Recruiting at a Standstill

Collegeville, Pa., resident Derrick Jones recently had his sole offer taken off the table by West Virginia and is now hustling to find other options late in the game. Jones had struggled in the classroom early in his high school days, but has recently picked up the slack in a major way and may end up qualifying at the end of the semester.

Perkiomen Valley running back Derrick Jones had a terrific season this year, leading the Vikings to a share of their league title and one of the best seasons in the school’s history. The 5-foot-9, 195-pound ball carrier had 156 carries for 1244 yards and 19 touchdowns this season and also grabbed 23 catches for 466 yards and eight scores in ten games.

“I’m not sure if the offer from West Virginia is still available to me and I’ve never talked to Coach Bill Stewart before, so I guess I need to talk to my coach,” Jones said. “I watched them play Oklahoma and wasn’t surprised at all that they won because they have a ton of speed. Coach Rich Rodriguez not being there wouldn’t affect me at all with them.”

We spoke to Jones’s head coach Scott Reed later in the day who clarified his star running back’s recruiting situation.

“Derrick had his offer from West Virginia taken off the table,” Reed explained. “I just sent out film to a bunch of schools like Connecticut, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Delaware, Villanova, West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Penn State and Iowa to name a few, but I haven’t heard anything back from those evaluations yet. It does surprise me because Derrick certainly has the talent to play at that level and has worked very hard in the classroom lately, putting forth straight A’s this semester.”

Having seen Jones play in person, he certainly has the talent to play at the Division I-A level at running back. The question will now be which teams have holes open at running back they need to fill late in recruiting.