The story of UCLA’s newest commit is a little bit strange.
This much cannot be disputed. Keegan Jones is fast.
How fast? Fast enough to win the Tennessee State Championship in the 200m race and fast enough to run the 100m in 10.57 seconds.
That was fast enough for Chip Kelly to make Jones an offer when he was given his release by Navy recently.
It’s not exactly clear what Jones’ status was with the Midshipmen. A report from the Capital Gazette indicates that Jones was planning on playing this year at the Naval Academy Prep School while other reports indicated that he had signed a letter of intent to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.
Regardless of what the original plan was, Jones wasn’t happy with his commitment and was given his release.
Jones’ initial recruitment did not draw much interest. According to Rivals, Navy was the biggest school that was interested in him. That might have something to do with the fact that Rivals had him rated as a two-star recruit, while it doesn’t look like enough of the other recruiting services had rated him as 247Sports does not have a composite rating or a rating of their own for him.
But, his situation at Navy caught the eye of coaches at UCLA, Michigan and Baylor and, suddenly, a player who may have gotten overlooked had an offer from the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the Pac-12.
Tonight, Jones announced on his Twitter account that he is planning on coming to Westwood.
— Keegan Jones (@Chance202) August 2, 2018
According to Patrick Yew of 247Sports, UCLA is bringing Jones in as a greyshirt. So, he “will spend the fall semester at a prep school before enrolling at UCLA in January 2019.”
Jones, who recently graduated from Cleveland HS in Cleveland, Tennessee, is listed at 5’11” tall and 182 pounds in a Chattanooga Times Free Press article, while his Hudl profile lists him at 5’9” and 170 pounds.
Frankly, those two inches and 10 pounds don’t seem to matter much. What matters is that Jones is fast. How fast? Watch his senior season highlight video and see for yourself.
When Jones gets into some open space, be it on the sideline or downfield, he just turns on the jets and blows past the defense. He seems to love running the sweep or, at least, his coaches loved calling that play for him. But, he also seems to be able to shake defenders up the middle and penetrate into the secondary.
Jones is going to be one fun Bruin to watch!
Welcome to Westwood, Keegan!
Go Bruins!!!