Coach Jones Speaks At Over The Mountain Touchdown Club In Birmingham
On Sunday, Coach Joey Jones had a speaking event in Birmingham for the Over the Mountain Touchdown Club. When speaking about the Jags two game road trip to NC State and Mississippi State, the Jaguars will be collecting “blood money.”
Speaking about major Division I schools giving smaller teams large paychecks to play at their home stadium. “I read an article recently called ‘Blood Money,’ and that’s a good analogy,” Jones said to the Birmingham News. “You have to take a beating in those games.”
But coach Jones added that it’s the price a young program has to pay in order to build their programs. He told the attendees that the Jags will get $980,000 for their trip to Tennessee next season. He also mentioned that it helps when they are recruiting prospects when you tell them they will be traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina, Starkville Mississippi and Hawaii.
Coach Jones likes the progress the Jaguars have made. “For four years we’ve been building a program, but now we’ve got to start building a team,” Jones said. “The players we were getting at first weren’t Division I players … but now it’s completely different. The athletes we got this year and will get moving forward are D-I players. We’re a better team this year. We’re competitive and on track where we need to go.”
While the Jaguars are not eligible to win the conference championship, they will be playing a full eight game Sun Belt schedule. NC State begins a tough four game stretch over five weeks. The Jags travel to NC State then Mississippi State before returning home for their first-ever Sun Belt game when they host Troy in Mobile Alabama. Then, after an off-week, they will then travel to Arkansas State, the defending Sun Belt champions coached by former Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzhan.
The Jags will be underdogs in those game, but it’s all part of the programs progress.