IU football's top defender Cam Jones remains sidelined, but still making his voice heard

BLOOMINGTON — Cam Jones won't say exactly what's wrong with his foot, whether it's a sprain or a fracture or some other kind of injury. The senior linebacker smiles in the face of the question, starts speaking in search for a non-committal answer and then simply declines.

"Um, it's... I can't really disclose that," Jones says.

What Jones will say, though, is that he injured the foot in the second quarter of the Nebraska game. And he knew immediately it was going to be a problem and one that might keep him from getting back on the field again in the near future. He ended up being right about that, as he he hasn't played since the Hoosiers' loss to the Cornhuskers on Oct. 1. He hasn't been declared out for the season yet, but there is no timeline for his return.

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But Jones didn't leave the game immediately when he injured his foot. In fact, he stayed in for the rest of the game and played through the pain with adrenaline and recorded 11 tackles including one for loss, hoping he could make just enough impact to get the Hoosiers a win. He fell short but there wasn't much more he could reasonably be asked to do.

"It was kind of crazy but I was able to play through the game," Jones said. "I felt it as soon as the play happened, it was kind of an instant reaction. I definitely informed my trainer and I was honest with them and they were honest with me. But my mindset is you've just gotta finish. I've always been taught to finish no matter what if I can. And I was able to. I'm just glad I was able to finish that game with the guys."

Every Saturday since, he's been prevented from starting, much less finishing. That stings Jones on a number of levels. The fifth-year senior was playing his best football and had also stepped into the most prominent leadership position in his career. It's his third year as captain but with close friend and teammate Micah McFadden having moved on to the NFL, it's the first time he's been the most revered voice of the Indiana defense. He's also never been this productive. He was at the top of the tackles leaderboard in the Big Ten when he was injured and even after missing three games, he's still second on the team with 54 tackles an average of nearly 11 in the five game he played.

The Hoosiers lost the last two games he played in and all four since, so it's been painful for him to be largely powerless to physically affect the game.

"It's definitely hard," Jones said. "It's like a person who drives to work every single day, you take their car away, they have to figure out how to get to work. I have to figure out how to play football without playing football."

The coaches have asked him to do that by effectively deputizing him. Immediately after his injury, Indiana coach Tom Allen told Jones the Hoosiers would need his voice even more with him off the field than they did with him on it.

So Allen has made sure Jones stays engaged with both the players and the coaches and has given him insights into things he hadn't seen before. He's still stayed at the team hotel before home games and travelled to the Rutgers game. Though there are limited spots on those trips and Jones technically took up a spot the Hoosiers could have used to send another healthy player, Allen considers Jones' presence that important.

And Jones embraces the responsibility. The night before the Rutgers game was his 23rd birthday. A friend of his half-joked with him that he should have stayed in Bloomington to celebrate his birthday. Jones never even considered that.

"Being on that trip meant a lot to me," Jones said. "... One of my friends back home said, 'Man, if I was you, I would have stayed back.' I was like, 'You're not me.'"

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Indeed, he hasn't missed an opportunity to anything the coaching staff has allowed him to do since the injury.

"He has sat in every meeting position-wise," defensive coordinator Chad Wilt said. "He is taking notes as if he's preparing to play. That's a testament to Cam Jones. Some guys I've seen not have that mental approach to it. When we go out to practice, we give Cam a script. In our scripts as we prepare them, they have the checks and the adjustments so we know what we're looking for and what we're triggering, so we know what we're looking for and he's going right along. Just the mental engagement he's been able to have. Cam has talked about wanting to be a coach some day. It's the ability to take that step back and ability to see how things fit together and he was already ahead of most in that regard."

Indeed, Jones has been able to see the game in a way he hasn't seen it before watching from the sideline, and believes it should help him when he does get back on the field, not to mention in a future coaching career.

"I think when I first got here I was just playing off the formation," Jones said. "Now I'm able to have a wider vision. I can pick up on tackle stances or the way that tackle bends his knees whether it's run or pass or he's in a two-point or three-point stance or running back alignment. Some players don't process those things during the game. I think my ability to learn all the defense and learn all the checks give me an extra edge."

Jones has been particularly helpful for fellow linebacker Aaron Casey. Casey, also a fifth-year senior, has experience at both linebacker spots, but had spent most of this season working at the Mike and moved to Jones' stinger spot to allow Miami transfer Bradley Jennings to play his more natural position. With Jones in his ear, Casey has become the Hoosiers' most productive defensive player, ranking seventh in the Big Ten with 66 tackles and fifth in tackles for loss with 9.0.

Physically, Jones sees progress. His foot hasn't affected his upper body or his core at all so he's kept those strong. To get cardio, he's worked on an exercise bike and elliptical and has started a limited amount of running. Not nearly enough to handle a whole game, but he's headed in that direction.

"As soon as possible is my timetable," Jones said. "We'll see how rehab goes, how the progression goes. How I'm able to play with different forces, different angles and stuff like that. But hopefully soon."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Cam Jones of IU football trying to help the Hoosiers while out injured