Written by Amanda Pavelka
Confidence, confidence, confidence.
Confidence is what fifth-year senior linebacker Reakwon Jones preaches to himself. Confidence is what he preaches and works to help instill in the young linebacker squad. Confidence is key, and that’s not the first time we have heard confidence is what the Indiana football squad is lacking coming off of back-to-back 5-7, bowl-less seasons.
“Our depth has improved tremendously,” Jones said at Big Ten Media Days, “so the next piece is to be confident. I feel like right now we have 120 confident guys from walk-ons to scholarships and it's motivating to see that. And when somebody’s confident that’s going to rub off on somebody else, so I feel like that’s kind of the next key piece.”
In last season’s losses, like the heartbreaker against Purdue, the Old Oaken Bucket and a bowl birth really came down to one score. And Jones stands by his word that depth and confidence is what the Hoosiers were missing.
“People kind of undermine confidence as a piece, but confidence is probably the biggest piece to every football player,” Jones explained. “If you don’t have confidence, you’re not the same. You think slower, you react slower.”
Jones himself had a battle with his confidence and won it back last year. This year, he’s helping the younger players do the same.
“Coach Ballou was really a big part of me getting my confidence back. He came in and pushed us hard,” Jones explained. “When I got my confidence back through the weight room, I just translated it to the field…. That’s what I’ve tried to emphasize in the younger guys. Don’t lose faith in you. I know it gets hard, it’s tough, it’s college, and everyone’s good here. It’s always trusting in what you’ve got, trusting your abilities. You’re not here for no reason— that’s what I tell everybody. You’re here because coaches and everybody thought you were a good player in high school and that you could really come here and help us.”
When Tom Allen goes on the recruiting chase, he has a certain type, and his player pursuits have to do with everything but the amount of stars they’ve been given.
“These past couple classes Coach Allen has brought in— they’ve come in hungry. They came ready to learn, eager to learn, competitive. That’s a common thing with Coach Allen,” Jones said. “He knows the guys to get, the guys that will fit in with his team, guys that want the same thing as his team. Some guys were probably underdogs before or whatever, but they come in and they all want the same thing we want.”
As Reakwon Jones flips the page to a new chapter in his senior year at Indiana, he takes lessons learned from former teammate and Pittsburgh Steeler Tegray Scales to lead the young linebacker group.
“(Scales) really just taught me to be relentless and taught me to bring people with me. You don’t go to work alone, you find two, three, four, five other people to go to work. That’s how you get to be where you want to be. You’re going to get where you want to be individually by bringing this team with you. You have a great team, you’re going to have great players,” Jones explained at Media days last week.
Jones has taken it as his responsibility as veteran linebacker of the group to lead, and it’s created an atmosphere of hunger and growth in the offseason for guys like Micah McFadden, James Miller, Cam Jones, Khalil Bryant and Marcelino Ball.
“They’re eager, they want to come out. They’ll hit my phone saying ‘Hey big bro, when are we going out to the field?,” Jones said.
Jones, like Scales, has been a part of the start of something great he’ll get the opportunity to watch blossom over the next few years as an alumni.
“It’s the reason I came here. I wanted to change this program. I didn’t want to change it single-handedly, but I wanted to be a part of the change.”
