Countdown to Ole Miss football 2018 - No. 93

As we continue our trek to Houston, Tex. for Ole Miss’ 2018 opener against the Texas Tech Red Raiders and Football Ryan Gosling, one of the more athletic big men in recent memory comes in at No. 93 Rebel of the Day for our 2018 countdown — D.J. Jones. If you haven’t seen DJ dunk, here it is.

Let’s recap this for a second, because this is just bonkers.

He easily lifts his 321-pound body in the air for the finish, and he’s not a 6’4 defensive end doing this as D.J. stands only 6’0, playing nose tackle.

In the NFL Combine, Jones posted a 5.0 40-yard dash, 25 reps in the 225-pound bench press, and a 28.5” vertical leap. Ole Miss’ strength and conditioning coach Paul Jackson always fell over himself talking about how strong D.J. was compared to his teammates when it came to the weight room. In fact, it’s the first thing on his official Ole Miss bio — “probably the strongest player on the team.”

But enough on his physical attributes though they are many.

D.J. was a four-star recruit out of East Mississippi Community College as the No. 4 junior college prospect in the nation and was a key cog in the middle of the 2016 defensive line. He started every game at nose tackle and finished the year with 30 tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, and one amazing interception.

His on-and-off field production led to a 6th round pick in the NFL draft in 2017 by the San Francisco 49ers, and he even put up 10 tackles in his rookie season.

There’s more coming from the big man, undoubtedly as he navigates through the leap from the college game to the pro game. He’s on the roster for the 2018 season and the 49ers only spent a 7th round pick on a defensive tackle out of Temple. So it looks like D.J. is poised for another year in the League making his mark for the gold and red as their guy in the trenches..

Rebel of the Day No. 93 — D.J. Jones