Austin Jones Ready to go Back to the Bay

USC running back Austin Jones was one of the Trojans’ key transfer portal additions this offseason. The 5-foot-10, 195-pound senior performed well in his first appearance with the Trojans. He carried the ball four times for 48 yards and two touchdowns, and caught a pass for 21 yards. Now, he’ll experience some familiarity as the Trojans travel north for a game against Stanford.

Jones spent the past three seasons as a running back at Stanford. He logged 278 carries for 1,155 yards and 12 touchdowns. And he caught 67 passes for 531 yards and another score. It would be understandable if emotions were running high for Jones, who is originally from Antioch, in the Bay Area. But Jones is downplaying the moment.

“It’s just another game,” Jones said. “It’s going to be fun playing against my old teammates. But at the end of the day, we just want to go 1-0 each week. Just another game for me, really.”

Jones said he’s received texts from some of his former teammates, but he hasn’t gotten into a back and forth with them.

“I give them all the same response,” Jones said. “See you this weekend.”

Jones said he’ll have a lot of supporters in the stands as well, with family and friends from his high school, Bishop O’Dowd, in attendance.

Jones Talks USC Ground Game From Week 1

The USC running backs were upstaged just a bit by quarterback Caleb Williams in the win over Rice. Williams led the team with 68 yards rushing on six carries. But Jones liked what he saw from the running game.

“I felt like the run game went really well last week,” Jones said. “I think if we just continue what we’ve been doing, it’ll go real well.”

Jones finally had some running lanes to utilize. His 12 yard-per carry average was just a bit higher than the 3.5 number he posted last season with Stanford. The Cardinal couldn’t consistently get any of the backs going last season as Stanford finished last in the Pac-12 in rushing yards per game. Between head coach Lincoln Riley’s offensive scheme and all the skill position talent running around for the Trojans, the running backs found room to operate.

“At Stanford you get a lot of Power I sets and a lot of closer sets where you’re going to get a bunch of eight guys in the box,” Jones said. “Here, at ‘SC…you get a lot more space to kind of run the ball and then the pass as well. So it just gives it a different kind of look.”

It was an interesting game for the offense as the defense scored three touchdowns and limited the number of snaps the offense was able to take. No player logged more than six rushing attempts. Raleek Brown led the group with six. Travis Dye and Darwin Barlow each had five. And Jones had four. But Jones said he liked the rotation used by the coaches at the position.

“You saw the results, it definitely worked,” Jones said. “Everybody’s going to get their share. The by-committed thing is straight with me. We’ve got too many athletes on the field to say only one person is going to get the carries, only one person is going to get the catches, or anything like that. We just have too many players on the field to not get the ball in space.”

Jones is Making Improvements

On Jones’ first touchdown against Rice, he ran over an Owl defender at the goal line on a short run. On his second touchdown, he blasted through a tackle attempt at the 18-yard line on his way to a 28-yard score. Jones said those physical runs are where he’s seen the most progress in his game since coming to USC.

And he credits running backs coach Kiel McDonald with helping him in that area. Jones said McDonald pushes the need to “run to, through and beyond contact.”

“He kind of pushes that and his biggest thing is forced missed tackles,” Jones said. “Forced missed tackles lead to touchdowns.”

Jones and the rest of the USC backs will try to collect a few more of those this weekend against Stanford.