A unique email request landed in the inbox of UNC football’s media relations last month. It was a media poll granting Tar Heel graduate wide receiver J.J. Jones the ability to vote for preseason team rankings and all-ACC player ballots.
Jones traveled to Charlotte for the ACC Football Kickoff — not as a player, but as a credentialed media member. Yet, due to his obvious conflict of interest, the wideout never got the chance to cast his vote.
“We would have been number one, immediately,” Jones said.
Sports journalism is common ground for Jones, who just began pursuing a master's degree in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. He has anchored the student-led sports broadcasting show, Sports Xtra, and co-hosted the annual Tar Heel athletics award show, the Rammys. All are strides towards one day landing his dream job of being on ESPN’s College Gameday desk.
When Jones hangs up his UNC jersey for good, he’ll have a successful football career to add to his resume, too.
The 6-foot-2.5 inch pass catcher tallied 711 yards on 46 receptions last season, leading North Carolina’s receivers. This year, Jones will be UNC’s No. 1 option and a veteran leader in a room full of young talent.
“He has taken advantage of what North Carolina has to offer him, as well as what we get out of him every day at practice and him busting his butt,” wide receivers coach Lonnie Galloway said. “J.J.’s a true student-athlete.”
Had Jones been able to vote in the ACC preseason rankings, he would have been the lone voter to select UNC to win the conference. Instead, the Tar Heels are projected to finish eighth, the lowest projection of Jones’ career. But the pessimism doesn’t worry the veteran — he claims it only adds more fuel for his season. Of course, Jones hopes his confidence can inspire the rest of his team to prove the doubters wrong.
“It puts the chips on my shoulder,” Jones said. “As a leader, it trickles down to the younger guys — knowing that some guys out there don’t believe in us.”
