‘Bones’ It Is – Linebacker Emerges as Big Ten Force
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - “Bones” Jones has a rhyme to it, a rhythm that if you buy into it, as Isaiah Jones has, if you play to it, as the Indiana redshirt junior linebacker does, good things can happen.
And so, they have.
Jones leads the No. 2/2 Hoosiers (7-0 overall, 4-0 in the Big Ten) with a conference-best 11 tackles for loss, plus 4.5 sacks among his 37 tackles. He’s added a key interception against Oregon, a pass breakup, a quarterback hurry, and a blocked kick heading into Saturday’s game against UCLA (3-4, 3-1) at Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium.
Not bad for the former scout team player with the intriguing nickname who has emerged as a Big Ten standout, and if it wasn’t instant success, nobody cares.
Head coach Curt Cignetti certainly doesn’t.
“Everyone is just so proud of Isaiah Jones,” Cignetti says. “He’s a great teammate. He’s a great leader. He represents everything that we talk about, what it takes to be the best you can be. He is really playing well. I am so happy for him. He has been a huge playmaker for us.”
Jones’ transformation, All-America cornerback D’Angelo Ponds says, starts with his work ethic.
“He’s getting what he deserves,” Ponds says. “He’s always been that guy. He’s gotten an opportunity and he’s taking advantage of it. He’s a product of the work he’s put in.”
Or, as Jones puts it when asked how much better he is now than he was as a true freshman, “It’s a night and day difference. I can play faster.”
Jones’ nickname comes from Bryant Haines, the Hoosiers’ defensive coordinator, linebackers coach, and mixed martial arts fan of UFC.
“He started calling me ‘Bones,’ and I thought it was just a linebacker thing -- that we were just using it in the linebacker room,” Jones says.
He thought wrong.
Last summer, while walking through the Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium weight room, Jones ran into defensive tackles coach Pat Kuntz.
“He called me ‘Booonesssss Jooonessssssss,’” Jones says with a smile. “I was like ‘Where did you hear that?’ He goes, ‘That's all Haines refers to you in the meeting rooms.’ I was like, ‘All right. Bones Jones it is.’”
He smiles when asked if he likes it.
“It has a nice ring to it.”
Jones’ emergence wasn’t etched in stone. He played in just two games in each of his first two IU seasons. A bulging back disc that surfaced at Ohio’s London High School kept getting worse, but he powered through it for a couple of years before finally having surgery that caused him to miss 2024 spring practice but restored him to playing health.
“It was a game changer,” he says. “I felt completely different after that.”
Still, opportunity came slowly. Jones had been a scout team player for the previous coaching staff, and he wasn’t sure what to expect when Cignetti was hired from James Madison in late November of 2023 and brought Haines with him. Jones did know about all their success.
“When we found out Coach Cignetti was coming,” Jones says, “I was excited. I’d researched him. I knew where he’d been and what he’d done. I saw he was bringing in Coach Haines.”
As soon as Haines arrived in Bloomington, Jones made his move.
“When they got in the building,” Jones says, “it was a whirlwind; it was different; there were a lot of moving pieces.
“I reached out to Coach Haines. I wanted to put a face to a name. You want to know who your coach would be.
“We talked for quite a while. I knew it would be a good fit to stay. I liked what he offered and the scheme.”
It helped that a pair of outstanding linebackers, Aiden Fisher and Jaylin Walker, came with Cignetti and Haines from James Madison. Jones says he picked their brains to learn the defense and its nuances. He’d done that previously with former standout IU linebackers Cam Jones and Aaron Casey.
Last season, Jones was a key special teams player (his six special teams tackles shared the team lead with Bryson Bonds and tied for No. 2 among Power 4 conference teams). He started two games and finished with 42 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and a half-sack. He also made Academic All-Big Ten for the second-straight year.
“We've known Isaiah was (an up-and-coming) guy for a long time,” Fisher says. “It was just a matter of time when he got his opportunity to get in, and he's taking full advantage of it every week. That starts in practice -- he's done a great job.”
This season’s progress, Jones says, was partly physical, mostly mental. Learning the roles of everyone in the defense was a key.
“We talk about the scheme a lot in the linebacker room,” he says. “That’s really helped me with my game. It’s not just knowing what the linebackers do but knowing what the safety rotation is. It’s understanding the scheme, taking everything you learn, year by year. You put it together, and here we are.”
Adds Fisher: “He took a step. Just physically playing, but I think mentally the game has slowed down for him. He started to see things a lot quicker. He watches film with me. We watch film with Coach Haines. In the meeting room, he's answering questions quick.
“He's so confident in himself, and I think that's really what you're seeing every Saturday. It’s the confidence he's playing with. He's done a great job. He's playing phenomenally.”
Cignetti credits maturity combined with last season’s playing opportunity.
“It’s the natural progression of reps accumulating, and getting bigger, stronger, faster, older, wiser,” Cignetti says.
Jones’ impact goes beyond the defense. Roman Hemby credits the linebacker for improving his running back skills.
“It’s his work ethic and his experience,” Hemby says. “He’s a great player. He’s helped my game tremendously. I’m glad he’s having the kind of season I knew he could have. We saw it from Day One.”
Hemby says Jones is “a true depiction of what a linebacker should be, especially in the Big Ten. He’s hard-nosed. He has a lot of moves in pass pro. He’s a pass rush guy who creates a lot of problems for running backs. It’s just his grit. He’s always in the right gaps. He makes you work. As a running back, when you go against that every day in practice, Saturdays are a little easier.”
Jones’ improvement has caused IU to often play -- and thrive -- with three linebackers: Jones, Fisher, and Rolijah Hardy. They all have made major impacts. Fisher leads the team in tackles (48) and quarterback hits (four); Hardy has 36 tackles, four sacks, and seven tackles for loss.
“All three of us rotate in all positions,” Jones says. “It gives an extra layer to the defense. It’s another guy who is a 230-pound outside linebacker instead of a 190-pound defensive back.”
That could be a key against UCLA, which has averaged 233 rushing yards during its three-game winning streak.
“In this league, that will help you because teams want to establish the run,” Jones says. “When you can shut down the run, you can open up all kinds of things. You can blitz. You can get them behind the sticks. You can trap the offense and what they can do. You don’t let them attack the defense.”