Jeshaun Jones Ready for 2020 Return
No one took college football by storm like Jeshaun Jones did during his true freshman season. The Florida native became the first player since Marcus Mariota at Oregon to record a rushing, passing and receiving touchdown on his first three touches his electric performance helped the Terps top Texas for the second consecutive season. So when Jones tore his ACL on the first day of fall camp under new head coach Mike Locksley, the Terps had a big hole to fill on the outside.
Jones has regained full health and in an offseason where appreciation for the sport hit a different level, he’s taking nothing for granted. “It’s hard to put it in words honestly,” he told reports. “I’ve literally been talking to my mom, teammates, like I sit there and tell them I’m just so happy to be back out there. I know we play in three and a half weeks but I’m just happy that I got to be back in pads the first time since my injury. That’s been the biggest thing for me is just having the opportunity to be back out there and with everything going on, it was almost like I was looking at it like dang I won’t be able to play football for two whole years, like that’ll be two years off. Now that we have the opportunity to play now it’s just, like I said, it’s a blessing. We’re all blessed to be here to do this.”
The rehab process for the redshirt sophomore was one that required patience and persistence in order to regain his footing. But uncertainty midway through the rehab left some lingering questions as Jones worked with the Maryland coaching staff.
“I had to wait a couple weeks then I had surgery. I had surgery then I couldn’t walk for a couple weeks, then I started to walk and it was from walking to a light jog then jogging to trying to run then that probably got me to like about January, February I want to say when I stated actually jogging. That’s right when the pandemic started to come about. It affected me because when I went home for spring break, expecting to only be there a week or two or maybe we were going to get a week extra because of the pandemic. I found a trainer down there and I was working with him for a week, then they called us and told us that we weren’t coming back. That’s when it was kind of tough, having to find a trainer that I was comfortable with. Then it was doing things that I liked and needed for my knee to get where it needed to go. I want to thank the training staff here; I would send them the options and they’d let me know what was best for me and getting back to where I needed to be. I feel like that was the biggest effect on me, it was hard at first when I worked out with one guy for a week then I kind of started working out with one of my best friends and we were like filling up gas cans, doing squats with gas cans and walking them down the road as if we were pulling weights. We were kind of making a lot of stuff up, just trying to make the best of it because we didn’t have anywhere to go.”
Jones regained full health “about a month ago” as he joins a deep, experienced receiving core hoping to jumpstart the passing attack in 2020. “I feel great, I’m actually just happy to be back out there I’m not going to lie to you guys. Just happy to be back out there, finally get the pads on, this is the longest I haven’t played football ever since I started playing football. I’m just blessed for the opportunity to be back out there.”
