Charlotte 49ers football: QB Jalon Jones finding rhythm with new program

It was 4:00 a.m., and Jalon Jones lay wide awake in bed.

His restlessness boiled down to excitement — that very same morning the Charlotte 49ers would begin fall camp, and sleep would have to wait.

“I felt that Christmas Eve feeling,” Jones said. “Just ready to work, ready to get back out here, ready to see my guys.”

A senior transfer from Bethune-Cookman, the quarterback joins 69 other new players as part of first-year head coach Biff Poggi’s roster and staff overhaul. Though both Jones and Poggi are new to the Charlotte program, the two go way back.

Jones played his freshman, sophomore and senior years of high school football at Henrico High School in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia. His junior year, however, he played for Poggi in Baltimore, at Saint Frances Academy.

With Poggi, Jones passed for 1,025 yards and 11 touchdowns, tacking on 819 rushing yards and nine touchdowns as a threat on the ground. He helped the team rise to No. 4 in USA Today’s Super 25 national rankings, becoming a four-star recruit, according to 247Sports, along the way.

Now, he returns to Poggi’s ranks as a seasoned college veteran after playing at four different schools throughout his career — Florida, Jackson State, Mississippi Delta Community College and Bethune-Cookman. Having known the coach since he was 16, Jones feels Poggi has been a consistent source of support.

“He’s always been the same person, the same straight shooter,” Jones said. “He’s gonna be somebody that lifts you up while also building you with the criticism and building you with what you need to go forward. It’s helping me not just through football, but through life.”

Last season as the starting quarterback at Bethune Cookman, Jones threw for 2,275 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He ran for 574 yards and five touchdowns as well. He joins a Charlotte program that finished 3-9 last season, bound for its first year in the American Athletic Conference.

Nevertheless, last season’s Charlotte team looks much different than the one taking the field in 2023. Poggi believes Jones’ ability as a dual-threat quarterback makes him particularly scary to opposing defenses.

“He’s throwing the ball a lot better,” Poggi said. “Then when you add that to his athletic ability, with his feet, he’s dangerous.”

Since arriving in the Queen City, Jones has been welcomed into the program. He’s become comfortable around his new teammates and coaches, emphasizing the “family atmosphere” he’s been able to be a part of.

He mentioned how he feels like his coaches here all have his back, similarly to how Poggi has made him feel supported. It’s an environment he actively wants to be a part of.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to different coaches and just sat in their office and just laughed and talked about life,” Jones said. “It’s amazing to have because it makes you want to be in the facility more. It makes you want to learn more about the game because you like who you’re talking to, and you enjoy the conversation.”

That extra time spent with coaches is time where Jones is absorbing valuable advice, showing he wants to take the extra step to develop relationships with as many people within the program as possible.

Jones remembers feeling the need to be in control of everything on the field when he was a high school player under Poggi. One of the more valuable lessons he’s learned from his coach, he said, is to relax and take note that not everything is completely in his control.

“That’s something that I really didn’t start realizing and understanding what it meant until now, until my older years,” Jones said. “You can’t control anything in your outside environment. The only thing you can do is control how you act to it.”

That’s one of the pieces of advice he’s keeping in the back of his mind as he steps into his role as a leader.

Even though it’s only his first year on the team, quarterbacks are leaders by nature, meaning it’s Jones’ job to step up and be a voice his teammates look toward. He’s always been a quieter guy, he said, so he’s working on being more vocal both on the field and in the locker room.

He’s also worked on making sure he has more than a surface level relationship with his teammates — a relationship where there’s enough trust to share constructive criticism to move the team as a whole forward.

“I’ve really worked on building relationships with everybody on the team so whenever it’s something I need to say, I can come talk to them and they’ll understand because we have that relationship,” Jones said.

He’s been developing these relationships throughout the summer and spring since he arrived, but the 2023 season is looming.

The obvious team goal is to improve from where the team was last year, which of course is a priority. As far as personal goals, Jones believes it’s more than just what he can achieve individually that will earn the team success in the end.

“My personal goals are the team goals, we want to win,” Jones said. “That’s it, plain and simple.”