Former Ravens return specialist and Super Bowl champion Jacoby Jones has come back to the Baltimore area after he received a job on Calvert Hall’s football team as the wide receivers coach. After coaching at Division II Lane College (Jackson, Tenn.) from 2018-2020, Jones is bringing his skills back to the state of Maryland.
Jones got the job offer after getting in touch with Calvert Hall head coach Josh Ward. The upcoming season will be Ward’s first with the Cardinals. The Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association recently announced member schools had the freedom to play an “open schedule” in the fall.
Though Jones had an impressive NFL career, playing for nine seasons with four different teams, his main goal early on was to become a football coach after graduating from college. Jones attended and played football at Lane College, but he had his eyes set on the bigger picture.
“Coming from a D-II HBCU, I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the league or not,” Jones said on Glenn Clark Radio Oct. 9. “But my whole thing was once I get my degree I wanted to coach no matter what. And then I wound up going to the league. … Once I was in the draft, my college coaches let me come back before the draft, and I coached the spring game.”
As such, Jones recognized early on that playing in the NFL would only last so long and that job security afterward would be important. He has a plan for coaching at Calvert Hall beyond having a passion for it. He wants the offensive staff to be meticulous and detailed in game-planning for opposing defenses.
“We put our brains together and try to figure it out,” Jones said. “It’s really more like playing chess [than] checkers. You have to move that pawn and find space where we [are] going to be open where we can hit all day. I would throw a 5-yard route all day if they are going to give it to us.”
Jones was somewhat familiar with the Calvert Hall having recruited at Baltimore-area schools in the past.
“I [had] heard of Calvert Hall and some of the other schools,” Jones said. “I was coaching at Lane College and I recruited a kid from Mount Zion [Prep]. I have a receiver up there at Lane College right now that was there, and I was coaching there for three years and I left to come home for some family issues, but God brought me back [to Baltimore] for a breath of fresh air.”
Baltimore is special to Jones because of the time he spent with the Ravens while playing in the NFL. Jones spent three years in Baltimore after being let go from the Houston Texans. Jones muffed a punt in a playoff game against the Ravens in January 2012, which resulted in a turnover and seven points for Baltimore. The Texans ended up losing. But Jones believes he was destined to go to Baltimore, and he is happy to be back again.
“This place right here, when I was at my lowest, they gave me a changing opportunity in life and I turned my life around,” Jones said. “Now they are giving me another opportunity again.”
While playing for the Ravens, Jones returned 86 punts for 853 yards and one touchdown, averaging 9.9 yards per return. He also returned 101 kicks for 3,037 yards and four touchdowns for an average of 30.1 yards per return. Jones scored two touchdowns (a 56-yard catch and a kick return) in Super Bowl XLVII.
With all the commotion involved with moving back to Baltimore and preparing to coach high school athletes, Jones traveled light. He is still waiting on some of his essentials to get to Baltimore.
“I got here [Oct. 5] and got my apartment and then I got my furniture,” Jones said. “[I’ve been] running around. I have a rental car until my car gets shipped here. So I came here with just one bag.”
For more from Jones, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Calvert Hall