http://newsok.com/oklahoma-state-fo...son-a-product-of-perseverance/article/5456657
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State fans have finally got to know No. 24 on defense this season.
Back in August in Austin, he chased Jerrod Heard 22-yards deep from the line of scrimmage and spun the Texas quarterback to the turf.
Last Saturday, he bore down on Kansas punter Mathew Wyman after a bad snap as he attempted a last-ditch boot. No. 24 jumped into the air, batted the ball down with both hands, picked it up, and took a running dive into the end zone for a score.
Say hello to Miketavius Jones, the Cowboy cornerback with 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble to go along with his special teams heroics through seven games.
“He's a very valuable part of our team right now,” coach Mike Gundy said.
Although, it hasn't always been that way. Through his first three years in Stillwater, Jones rarely saw the field on defense. Last season, he appeared in only the Cactus Bowl.
“It hurt me deep down inside,” Jones said. “I knew I was missing my opportunity.”
The pain was both self-inflicted and and circumstantial. But his return for a breakout fifth-year senior season has already become a teaching tool for defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer.
“I think it's a lesson for everybody on the team as to how he's handled that adversity,” Spencer said.
Jones' journey to OSU began in April of 2010, when he committed to the Cowboys out of North Shore High School in Houston. Jones was a three-star prospect with scholarship offers from the likes of Baylor and Kansas, but instead followed in the footsteps of North Shore alumni Andrea May and Larry Stephens who played for OSU.
There was only one problem. Jones was listed at about 155 pounds.
“I knew that was going to be one of my biggest things playing at this level,” Jones said. “I was going to have a get a lot bigger and a lot stronger. So redshirting, in my mind, that wasn't a big deal.”
Through his first two seasons, Jones was buried on the depth chart behind established playmakers such as Justin Gilbert, Broderick Brown and Tyler Patmon. So, Jones relied his biggest strength to get noticed on special teams — speed.
“It's something crazy,” linebacker Devante Averette said.
As a flyer on punts, Jones steps to the edge across from his opponent like a sprinter in his starting blocks. Just as he did in his track days at North Shore, when Jones' 100-meter and 200-meter relay teams claimed state championships his junior and senior seasons. Chasing down punts certainly felt comfortable.
Spencer said if a vote was taken among Big 12 special teams coaches to rate the No. 1 players on punt coverage, Jones' name “would come up on a lot of people's polls.”
“I always looked at it like it was a chance to challenge other teams, some of their faster guys, to see who's the best person in space,” Jones said. “I embraced my role fully. I enjoyed it.”
Still, the goal was to crack into a role on defense. Everything appeared to line up entering the 2014 season.
Patmon was off to the Dallas Cowboys and Jones, along with Ashton Lampkin, appeared to each have a chance to be next in line across from Kevin Peterson. So you can imagine then-freshman receiver Chris Lacy's confusion that fall. He witnessed Jones' blazing speed, but never saw it in a game during the regular season.
“I remember last year seeing him in practice and wondering why he didn't play,” Lacy said.
Then, he found out — academic ineligibility.
Jones, whose biography on the OSU athletics website lists he was member of the National Honors Society in high school, says he switched majors and got behind.
“It was just me being irresponsible,” Jones said. “I take full accountability for that. It was just a mistake on my part.”
For the entire fall 2014 semester, Jones could practice, but not play. And things got lot worse when the Cowboys played Texas Tech for their conference home opener in September. Lampkin suffered a season-ending high-ankle sprain, and OSU turned to true freshman Ramon Richards as his replacement.
“I wanted to play so bad last year,” Jones said. “I knew I was going to get a chance to play corner. Even if I wasn't starting, I would have gotten in the rotation with Kevin and Ashton. Then to see Ashton go down, I knew that was going to be my chance that I had been waiting for these four years that I've been here.”
Instead, Spencer said he had “written off” Jones until he regained eligibility. Gundy told reporters Monday the slow start to Jones' career was partly due to “not anything other than just being lazy.”
Jones took the criticism to heart.
“Last offseason, it made me want to work even harder,” Jones said, “and be smarter when it comes to things like academics.”
Strong spring practices carried into summer workouts and then fall two-a-days. Suddenly, Jones was becoming more involved in nickel sub-packages and even some play at star linebacker. Jones has continued earning coaches' trust after strong performances in several games this year — especially his ability to bring down the quarterback while still only listed at 175 pounds.
Gundy said he joked with Jones: “Pound-per-pound per capita, you've got to have more sacks than anybody in the history of football.”
And there's still time for more, as OSU travels to Texas Tech for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday against a pass-happy attack that ranks third nationally with an average of 405 yards through the air. The Cowboys will likely need their depth at cornerback. Jones is simply glad he's now part of that picture.
But this had always been the plan. Wait for his opportunity in Stillwater. Make the most of it.
“Transferring, that was never on my mind,” Jones said. “I love OSU. The coaches, the fan base, the community, everything.”
That attitude is what has Spencer so impressed.
“In society today, kids, if they're not immediately successful, if they're not the guy, if they're not an all-star, they're going to blame other people,” Spencer said. “They're going to want to transfer or it's coach's fault. Miketavius did not do that. Miketavius looked inside himself to why he wasn't playing and why he wasn't effective.
“For somebody like that to just be persistent and just keep fighting until success comes, that's what he did. That's what makes him such a good story.”
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State fans have finally got to know No. 24 on defense this season.
Back in August in Austin, he chased Jerrod Heard 22-yards deep from the line of scrimmage and spun the Texas quarterback to the turf.
Last Saturday, he bore down on Kansas punter Mathew Wyman after a bad snap as he attempted a last-ditch boot. No. 24 jumped into the air, batted the ball down with both hands, picked it up, and took a running dive into the end zone for a score.
Say hello to Miketavius Jones, the Cowboy cornerback with 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble to go along with his special teams heroics through seven games.
“He's a very valuable part of our team right now,” coach Mike Gundy said.
Although, it hasn't always been that way. Through his first three years in Stillwater, Jones rarely saw the field on defense. Last season, he appeared in only the Cactus Bowl.
“It hurt me deep down inside,” Jones said. “I knew I was missing my opportunity.”
The pain was both self-inflicted and and circumstantial. But his return for a breakout fifth-year senior season has already become a teaching tool for defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer.
“I think it's a lesson for everybody on the team as to how he's handled that adversity,” Spencer said.
Jones' journey to OSU began in April of 2010, when he committed to the Cowboys out of North Shore High School in Houston. Jones was a three-star prospect with scholarship offers from the likes of Baylor and Kansas, but instead followed in the footsteps of North Shore alumni Andrea May and Larry Stephens who played for OSU.
There was only one problem. Jones was listed at about 155 pounds.
“I knew that was going to be one of my biggest things playing at this level,” Jones said. “I was going to have a get a lot bigger and a lot stronger. So redshirting, in my mind, that wasn't a big deal.”
Through his first two seasons, Jones was buried on the depth chart behind established playmakers such as Justin Gilbert, Broderick Brown and Tyler Patmon. So, Jones relied his biggest strength to get noticed on special teams — speed.
“It's something crazy,” linebacker Devante Averette said.
As a flyer on punts, Jones steps to the edge across from his opponent like a sprinter in his starting blocks. Just as he did in his track days at North Shore, when Jones' 100-meter and 200-meter relay teams claimed state championships his junior and senior seasons. Chasing down punts certainly felt comfortable.
Spencer said if a vote was taken among Big 12 special teams coaches to rate the No. 1 players on punt coverage, Jones' name “would come up on a lot of people's polls.”
“I always looked at it like it was a chance to challenge other teams, some of their faster guys, to see who's the best person in space,” Jones said. “I embraced my role fully. I enjoyed it.”
Still, the goal was to crack into a role on defense. Everything appeared to line up entering the 2014 season.
Patmon was off to the Dallas Cowboys and Jones, along with Ashton Lampkin, appeared to each have a chance to be next in line across from Kevin Peterson. So you can imagine then-freshman receiver Chris Lacy's confusion that fall. He witnessed Jones' blazing speed, but never saw it in a game during the regular season.
“I remember last year seeing him in practice and wondering why he didn't play,” Lacy said.
Then, he found out — academic ineligibility.
Jones, whose biography on the OSU athletics website lists he was member of the National Honors Society in high school, says he switched majors and got behind.
“It was just me being irresponsible,” Jones said. “I take full accountability for that. It was just a mistake on my part.”
For the entire fall 2014 semester, Jones could practice, but not play. And things got lot worse when the Cowboys played Texas Tech for their conference home opener in September. Lampkin suffered a season-ending high-ankle sprain, and OSU turned to true freshman Ramon Richards as his replacement.
“I wanted to play so bad last year,” Jones said. “I knew I was going to get a chance to play corner. Even if I wasn't starting, I would have gotten in the rotation with Kevin and Ashton. Then to see Ashton go down, I knew that was going to be my chance that I had been waiting for these four years that I've been here.”
Instead, Spencer said he had “written off” Jones until he regained eligibility. Gundy told reporters Monday the slow start to Jones' career was partly due to “not anything other than just being lazy.”
Jones took the criticism to heart.
“Last offseason, it made me want to work even harder,” Jones said, “and be smarter when it comes to things like academics.”
Strong spring practices carried into summer workouts and then fall two-a-days. Suddenly, Jones was becoming more involved in nickel sub-packages and even some play at star linebacker. Jones has continued earning coaches' trust after strong performances in several games this year — especially his ability to bring down the quarterback while still only listed at 175 pounds.
Gundy said he joked with Jones: “Pound-per-pound per capita, you've got to have more sacks than anybody in the history of football.”
And there's still time for more, as OSU travels to Texas Tech for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday against a pass-happy attack that ranks third nationally with an average of 405 yards through the air. The Cowboys will likely need their depth at cornerback. Jones is simply glad he's now part of that picture.
But this had always been the plan. Wait for his opportunity in Stillwater. Make the most of it.
“Transferring, that was never on my mind,” Jones said. “I love OSU. The coaches, the fan base, the community, everything.”
That attitude is what has Spencer so impressed.
“In society today, kids, if they're not immediately successful, if they're not the guy, if they're not an all-star, they're going to blame other people,” Spencer said. “They're going to want to transfer or it's coach's fault. Miketavius did not do that. Miketavius looked inside himself to why he wasn't playing and why he wasn't effective.
“For somebody like that to just be persistent and just keep fighting until success comes, that's what he did. That's what makes him such a good story.”
