Being a walk-on for any college team is difficult. One of those things is that you will have to pay your way through college and manage your time between classes, team meetings, practice, and homework is difficult for any ordinary person.
When it comes to defensive tackle Andarious Jones, he takes it to another level and head coach Mark Hudspeth has used him as a source of motivation for this team.
A Typical Day in the Life
The typical day that Jones has is amazing considering how much goes on in the life of a student-athlete. His day starts around 3 A.M. when he goes to work at a CVS as a cashier a few miles away from campus and typically gets off around 9:30 so he can make it to his classes starting at 10 A.M.
After classes are done he goes through team meetings at either 2 or 3 P.M. and after that he’ll turn his focus to his schoolwork before starting the process again.
The senior’s schedule gets even crazier during spring practice. The Cajuns will practice until 6 pm and then Jones will head straight to work to make some more money and get to workouts from 4:30-5:30 A.M.
Now when does Jones sleep? “It’s really in between classes.” Jones said to the media on Thursday. “I may get six or seven hours of sleep a day. There’s no set schedule of when I sleep.”
Long Road to Lafayette
The road to get a spot on a roster for the defensive tackle was a long one, starting out in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The youngest of four siblings was a two-sport athlete in both football and track before going to UL Monroe as a walk-on.
That didn’t stick as he got into some trouble and wound up transferring over to the University of Louisiana during fall camp in 2015 as a sophomore. That gave him a chance to start over and it wound up being the perfect fit.
“They accepted me in here and I felt like this was an extension of my home out in Arkansas so I said ‘I want to stick it out regardless of whatever happens.’ I love the program, I love the coaches, I love the Cajun atmosphere and this was just the place for me.” Jones said of his journey to Lafayette from Arkansas.
Big Decisions
Last season was a rough one for Jones as he was ruled academically ineligible. He had a good chance to play in 2016, but between everything that he does on a day-to-day basis his grades wound up slipping.
This left Jones with a big decision: step away from the game he loved to focus on school or keep at it? The decision was actually pretty simple.
“I felt like I owed this team something because I’ve been here for three years.” Jones said, “Except for being on the scout team, I feel like owe this team to be the best I can be. I always wanted to keep on working hard and keep helping my teammates”
Blue Collar Mentality
If there’s one thing that Jones wants you to know about it’s that he is as blue collar as they come.
That mentality was something he learned from his parents. His mother worked at a Whirlpool plant for 25 years before it closed down in June 2012.
Jones lives by a credo “Work hard now these next twenty years and you can celebrate when you’re 60, 70 years old.”
All He Wants to Do Is Start
It’s evident from what he’s done so far during fall camp that he is living up to that credo and head coach Mark Hudspeth has taken notice.
“He’s a worker, dependable, and he stood out today.” Hudspeth said after the first day of pads on Thursday, “I’m going to find a role for that man. He’s as quality of a person as I’ve ever been around.”
Upon hearing what Hudspeth said, he was humbled by it and simply said “That’s all I ever wanted to do. It would mean a lot to me. My family being able to see me and actually get on the field, that’s like a dream come true for me.”
Life After Football
Jones hopes to graduate with a degree in General Studies this coming December and will become the first person in his family to graduate from college and he cannot wait for that day to finally come being the youngest of four kids.
Typically when you hear about walk-on players, college football is their last hurrah as the odds of making the NFL as a walk-on is a little bit of a harder road for some players. However, it looks like Jones has an idea of what he wants to do after graduation: become a graduate assistant for the team.
His dream job is to be a college coach just like Hudspeth and is currently learning from all the coaches on the staff because he just wants to coach regardless of what he’s doing. “I’ve talked to my coach, he said ‘There’s a great possibility. Just keep working hard, keep being a blue-collar guy, and don’t get in any trouble and it’s possible.”
-Clint Domingue