Last week, we put out a few posts on our Facebook and Twitter asking fans to tell us who they think is the biggest “sleeper” in Texas.  It came as no surprise that people began to respond to the post in droves, and flooded our inbox with names, videos and statistics of the next great football star who somehow has been overlooked.

Before we go any deeper, I think we should give you our definition of a true ‘sleeper”.  A sleeper to us is a guy who was overlooked in the recruiting process for one reason or another, but should be being recruited by division one colleges. Now that we have that cleared up we need to take a look at the (in)exact science of college recruiting. Football, like the rest of the world, has gone “big data”!  As coaches have grown more and more reliant on analytics as a coaching tool, so have the recruiting departments. This data provides scouts everything and anything they could ever want to know about every athlete in a particular class.

Over the last few years, social media has also become a vital tool in the recruiting process. It has given coaches and scouts an inside look at players and unprecedented access.

So in a world of big data and and uber-connectivity how does a kid get missed?

In the case of Justin Jones getting passed by the scouts is simple to explain.  He’s 5’9″, 175 pounds and ended up having to forfeit his junior year of varsity football at Holliday High School (approx. 150 miles NW of Dallas) because the family made a move.  Being 5’9″ almost instantly knocks you off the chart for most recruiters as they lean towards players 6 foot and above for obvious reasons.  Then there’s the family move…Justin was relegated to a year of JV due to school policy.  There you go: that’s how a guy of Justin’s obvious special ability gets looked over.

How Was He Found?

Lets just say that Justin’s father, Michael is persistent (putting it mildly). I actually found out about Justin through an email that was forwarded to me by my assistant.  The email sounded like the thousands of other parents who write in talking about their son and asking for us to write a story. We love the emails!  These emails are why we decided to write this story. This particular email included a video that I was told to watch, which immediately got my attention.

The first thing I noticed was the sheer speed that Justin portrayed on film. Play after play he was blowing by defensive backs like they were standing still! Check out the 2nd and 3rd play in the video below to see what I mean. The next thing I noticed was one play he’s a receiver, the next he’s at tailback all with the same effect. To make things more interesting, when the ball changed hands he’s playing DB and returning interceptions for touchdowns. And just when I think I’ve seen all the kid has, I see him running a sweep out of the backfield and throwing a stiff arm into a player that ends up de-cleating him.  Go to 4:21 in the video and enjoy!

Could We Have Found A True Sleeper?!

Justin was nowhere to be found in anyone’s rankings.  This led me to contact his father and get to the bottom of the matter. This is where things got interesting.  His father of course explained how Justin started varsity as a freshman, and how the family moved after Justin’s sophomore year relegating him to the JV squad for his junior season. Regardless, of him playing JV in some of the film we were watching you couldn’t deny that what we were seeing was special. His father then tells me that Justin is running in the state finals in the 100 meter this weekend and invited me to attend.

Wait what?!

Yep, thats right, he’s running in the state finals in the 100m.  The 100m sprint for those of you who don’t know is the true test of anyone that says they have speed.  I asked his father, “what’s his fastest time in the hundred”? He replies, “10.7”. Right from the start I know that 10 anything is quick, but just how quick? I’ll put it to you this way–The state record in Texas high school track in the 100m was set by Derrick Florence from Galveston ball high school in 1986, he ran a 10.13. Folks Your talking about 6/10th’s of a second difference…the kid can fly!  To put this into firm perspective, Jamaican Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt’s 100m world record time is 9.58.  In the sprinting world this is night and day, but to say the 17 year old is a second behind Bolt firmly establishes that the kid has the quickness to play.

The next thing I know I find myself at the University of Texas with my son waiting to see this for myself.  Justin is in Lane 3 and we are positioned at the finish line finding ourselves pulling for Justin to be as fast as we think he is. The race begins and immediately I notice Justin’s explosive speed out of the gate. Inside of 11 seconds the race is over and Justin finishes a respectable 4th in the race. To be honest, the race was so close it was difficult to see the fractions of a second where one kid finished before another.  The bottom line is this kid was in the state finals in the 100 meter in Texas…he’s got the jets….check.
Justin Jones, 2017 UIL State Finals

After the race, we meet up with the family and hoards of Justin Jones fans. In the crowd of Justin’s fans I run into his offensive coordinator and track coach Kent Thomas. We start talking about Justin’s speed and he tells me, “the best part is we can throw the pads on him and his time will be the same”.  After seeing the film and his outrageous 65″ box jump below…I believe it.

Justin Jones, 65″ Box Jump

After years of college and NFL playing experience, I can tell you that football players come in all shapes and sizes.  I can’t tell you the countless number of guys that I have have known in the league who didn’t look the part.  Some more recent examples of undersized guys in college and NFL football would be guys like Maryland DB William Likely who is 5’7″and 180lbs, Or how about former Texas Tech and current Miami Dolphins WR Jakeem Grant who stands at 5’6″ and 169lbs, and Nate Phillips WR at Arizona who only stands 5’7″ and 177lbs.  Justin at 5’9″ and 175lbs is in good company.  Besides, it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the dog!

As I spoke with family, friends and coaches about Justin, I learned that his work ethic and determination are simply unmatched.  After speaking with him I was quick to learn that they were spot on. Justin displays just about every great characteristic a coach is looking for in a player, and to top it all off, he maintains a 3.6 grade point average at Holliday High School.

Second Opinions

Before writing this article on Justin, I had to hear a second opinion from someone whose job it is to find players for D1 schools across the country. My next step was to get with who most regard as the number one college scout in the state of Texas, James Lott.  It’s his job to know talent when he see’s it.  I found myself anxiously awaiting his thoughts about Justin.  I was definitely pulling for Justin at this point, but knew that in order to make this real I didn’t want to sway his thoughts during the review process.  I simply sent him the film, stats and photos and let James do what he does best.  After a long weekend I finally received a call from James. He immediately hit me with, “how did you find him?”  I explained the back story that started with a simple email.  He takes a pause….”I think you found something pretty special”, he says. He then starts shooting out comparisons to to former Texas Tech WR’s Eric Morris and Wes Welker.  He then says, “this kid has explosive speed and great hands”. We then went down the road of discussing how he has been missed by D1 scouting departments and how the family move took him off the radar of colleges. He then tells me, “Let’s get him on the radar, the kid has a real shot”. The general conversation after that centered around how we wouldn’t be surprised to look at the TV on a future Saturday or Sunday and see Justin Jones playing at the highest levels of football. After all, its been done many times before with undersized guys like Justin throughout the history of the game. I have come to learn that these type of players all have a couple things in common, they have that uncanny ability to find the ball and make the big play, and they know how to work. That work ethic Justin has will no doubt serve him well long after his football days are over…..no matter where or when that is.

Leave It On The Field

No matter what happens from here for Justin we know one thing is for sure, and that is that there is still a lot of work to be done on the field.

This fall Justin Jones will step on the field for his senior season of football at Holliday High School. If he continues to be the Justin we have seen on and off the field I expect he’ll have more D1 college offers than he could have dreamed of!  When he does that…the rest will take care of itself.

Sleepers

When we asked people on social media to let us know of any “sleepers” they might know of we literally received hundreds of emails within the first 10-15 minutes of posting, and we love it! As a team we have decided that we will be giving other athletes like Justin an opportunity to be discovered.  Over the next few months, we will be selecting players from our email and social media submissions to write a feature story on. If you know of a player who is a real “sleeper” please let us know and the next feature post like this might be on your favorite Texas high school football player!

Here’s What You Need To Do

Email us: [email protected]

Tell us what we need to know:

Name, number, position, year and GPA

Height, weight, 40 time (tell us if it’s hand or digital), vertical jump

Include highlight video or game film, and any photos.

Write us a brief summary of the players stats and story. You will be notified via email of the players selection and directions on how we will proceed writing a feature article.

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