A Jacksonville vs. Jacksonville showdown could help determine the National Championship
Mac Jones doesn’t exactly look the part. He never really has.
In high school, he was a 6-2, 180-pound twig and a three-star recruit — the sort of quarterback the Alabama Crimson Tide doesn’t usually have to concern itself with.
Once he got to Alabama, he was behind Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts on the depth chart — and the Crimson Tide was always trying to find more reinforcements behind those two former Heisman Trophy finalists.
As he thinks about his future in the NFL, mock drafts don’t put him in the same league as Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields — he can’t throw it as far or run as fast as those likely top-five picks in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Long before Alabama thought about him at all as a star or even a recruit, Shaun Wade and the group of blue-chip prospects dotting the Pro Impact 7-on-7 team had a fitting nickname for the quarterback.
“’Money-Making Mac,’” the Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback said. “That’s what we called him.”
They were vastly different recruits — Wade was a five-star prospect and the No. 2 cornerback in 247Sports.com composite rankings the Class of 2017, while Jones barely cracked the top 400 — but their college football careers will likely end in similar places.
Both were All-Americans this season and they’ll find themselves staring one another down Monday when Ohio State faces the Crimson Tide in the 2021 College Football National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium.
The matchup between two of Jacksonville’s finest will go a long way in determining the national champion.
“He is a confident guy in just how he is,” Wade said. “He’s a hard worker and great quarterback, and really looking forward to playing against him this week.”
The perfectionist
Wade’s first scholarship offer came when he was still a freshman at Jacksonville Trinity Christian Academy. The North Carolina Tar Heels came and Ohio State second just two days later.
He orally committed to the Buckeyes before the end of his sophomore year — the same day Ohio State beat the the Oregon Ducks in the 2015 CFP National Championship to win its most recent title.
In four years at Trinity Christian Academy, Wade won four state championships, tying a Florida High School Athletic Association record. There was never a question about whether the 6-1, 195-pound senior could be a star in college.
“He’s a technician and he’s kind of a perfectionist in his own way,” Jones said. “He celebrates when he makes great plays, but he’s more of a quiet guy and just kind of does his job.”
He was also, naturally, a leader because of his stature as an elite recruit. He always felt like he had to back up Jones, who played at Jacksonville Bolles — a storied program in its own right, but not one with a reputation for regularly producing blue-chip talent.
It was easy to look at Jones simply as the caretaker for a loaded roster — similar to the way to detractors view him now. Wade always vouched for him as something more.
“I wasn’t very highly recruited and he always had my back in interviews or anything like that,” Jones said. “I really appreciate him and his family, and I’m just really happy for how he’s played throughout his career at Ohio State.”
Money-Making Mac
When Jones was a freshman at Bolles, he mostly rode the bench. His first offers from Power 5 Conference programs didn’t come until the summer ahead of his junior season, when he committed to the Kentucky Wildcats. Alabama didn’t sniff him until the following spring and Jones decided to flip from Kentucky to the Crimson Tide about two months later.
Jones never exactly had the tools, but he never lacked confidence. He wanted to compete in Tuscaloosa.
He’s going to talk,” Wade said, smiling. “That’s how Mac is.”
Two traits ultimately made him the perfect fit as the quarterback for this Alabama team and they were evident even when he was playing with Pro Impact.
The first: his confidence. He never even would’ve landed with the Crimson Tide if he didn’t have it and he wouldn’t have stuck around in Alabama if he didn’t believe he could one day be a Heisman finalist, himself.
The second, contradictory: his humility. He knows he’s not Lawrence or Fields. He knows he probably won’t singlehandedly win the Crimson Tide another national title.
Instead, the 6-3, 214-pound redshirt junior will do what he did so well growing up in Florida: He’ll get the ball to his star teammates in the right situations. It’s what made him a star, after all.
“We always knew that Mac was a great quarterback. He put the ball in the right spots just like he’s doing now,” Wade said. “Really, really looking forward to seeing him Monday and just playing against him.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 6:29 PM.
