Tre Jones was much maligned last year as a cornerback who could keep pace with the fastest wide receivers but didn't turn his head at the right time. Now Jones has improved, and his fellow defenders have as well. Photo by Dan Poel, d3photography.com

By Ryan Tipps
D3sports.com

ALLIANCE, Ohio – When talking about the surprise blitz formations that Mount Union threw at Wesley on Saturday, it was obvious coach Vince Kehres was trying to hold back a proud and sly little smile.

His defense had matured since last season and now carries a depth, versatility and adaptability that have helped to catapult the Purple Raiders into the Stagg Bowl for the 10th consecutive year.

Kehres has known that for weeks, and by the time Mount Union finished Saturday with a 70-21 semifinal win, shutting out Wesley for the first three quarters, everyone else knew that, too.

The 2014 defense is older, more experienced, more disciplined and more poised than last year, Kehres said.

“It’s night and day,” he said. “We were just pulling out games for such a long stretch a year ago. We were fortunate to have 14 wins and going to the championship game. … It’s just a different feeling right now. Our team is peaking, we’re fresh, we’re healthy, we’re not wearing down.”

The list is long of players who have helped clamped down against opposing offenses: safety Alex Kocheff, linebacker Hank Spencer and defensive lineman Tom Lally are all juniors and have been formidable parts of this unit.

Among that group, too, is cornerback Tre Jones, an All-Region selection who has a team-leading six interceptions and 13 pass breakups this season. Like last year’s Wesley game, Jones again had a first-half pick-6 to help extend Mount’s lead and, being paired against Wesley’s standout receiver Steve Koudossou, Jones was instrumental in reining him in during the early parts of Saturday’s game.

He was more successful this year on that front than he was last season, when Wesley was able to rally behind quarterback Joe Callahan and lead the Wolverines to a stunning comeback that fell only a couple of points short of victory.

There would be none of that on Saturday.

“I learned that I have to keep my head up,” Jones said after the game. “When you go against great teams, like Wesley, they’re going to have great players and great athletes, and they’re going to make plays. But at the same time, when they’re making plays, you have to get your head up.”

Jones stands 5-10 and sports the number 4 in eyeblack under his right eye and the number 13 under his left, a biblical reference to Philippians 4:13, which says, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

“For a lot of corners,” Jones said, “you have to have that heart in you, that fight in you.”

Jones was one of about 30 players who stayed in Alliance over the summer, got jobs and spent time together doing footwork drills, lifting and other conditioning. He credits that work and that togetherness with a lot of the improvement the defense has seen since last fall. The prior summer, only about 20 football players stuck around campus and worked out together.

“When you’re here together, it just bonds you,” Jones said. “Each one of us … is trying to get better, and I think that was the key, staying here.

“The more people who can stay and do footwork with your position or, if you’re on offense, run routes with your quarterback, I feel that gives us a bond.”

He said some of that bond manifests itself on game day, when people on the sidelines are cheering on the second-stringers who are playing in the later quarters. The veteran athletes are excited to see younger players doing well and getting experience – those players are the future of Mount Union football, after all.

By the second half on Saturday, Mount had little to worry about even with the memory of last year’s comeback in the back of their minds. But the defense continued to clamp down, allowing just 28 rushing yards on 27 attempts through three quarters and giving up far fewer passing yards than the team had the previous year against Welsey.

“When you’re going against a good team, they have so much talent on their team, we realized after playing them last year that they could come back on us,” Jones said. “They did it before, they could do it again. I feel like just being on the sidelines with my teammates, they kept saying to keep your head in the game and don’t let up.

“We just need to keep fighting,” he said. “No matter how much we’re up by, we just need to keep fighting.”

Jones credits a new approach to student leadership on the team for helping to raise the profile of this defense. The turning point, in his mind, was the Heidelberg game. Not unlike the Wesley game, the defensive performance in the matchup against Heidelberg was – to use Kehres’ phrase – night and day between last year and this year.

In 2013, Mount let up after building a three-score lead in the first half. The Purple Raiders got worn down a bit, and got comfortable. That gave the Student Princes the opportunity to get back in the game after the break and bring the game to within three points. In mid-October of 2014, nothing like that happened. The team was confident and powerful, and Mount pulled away constantly and consistently throughout the game.

The Purple Raiders have logged three shutouts this season, and held seven other teams to no more than one score. The offseason training and leadership are apparent.

“It doesn’t just take a captain to lead the defense,” Jones said. “You can be a sophomore and have a lot of heart. I feel like when we’re communicating and talking, when we’re in practice and somebody is slacking off or not doing so well, I feel like everybody is picking each other up. It’s not just one person or a captain that’s doing it. Our whole defense and the leadership on the whole team, we get in each other’s heads day in and day out. That was the big key.

“Last year, we had captains, and I felt like that we shied away from speaking up if something went wrong. This year, I feel like all 11 players on defense are leaders, and that helped us improve.”

Will Mount Union take this newfound potency and use it to avenge last year’s lopsided Stagg Bowl loss to UW-Whitewater?

Wesley coach Mike Drass believes so. After Saturday, he bluntly remarked, “I think Mount Union’s going to kick someone’s ass next week.”