Position: Running Back
Ht/Wt/40: 6'0" / 185 lbs. / 4.41
Location: McKinney North High School – McKinney, TX
Offers: Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Clemson, Colorado State, Michigan, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, TCU, Texas Tech, Tulsa 
Ranking: ★★★★ .9092 (247 Composite)
FILM

The Michigan coaches have ventured into Big 12 country and offered RB Ronald Jones II out of the Lone Star State. On film this may be one of my favorite recruits to be offered in the 2015 class. This kid is flat out electric with the ball in his hands and knows how to churn out yards despite not being the biggest back Michigan has targeted. The second I saw his highlight I thought Jamaal Charles 2.0, who coincidentally also hailed from Texas. The coaches will have to work very hard to pull Jones out of Texas but to me he would be worth the effort.

With the drama-free events of Signing Day for the Michigan coaches taken care of before lunch, the staff decided to extend an offer to Jones once the 2014 letters had rolled in. Jones explained how he learned of his offer and where Michigan ranks among his other offers.

My coach told me that he got the call from Coach Funk and then just told me you’ve been offered by Michigan. It felt good you know, Go Blue! They are definitely up there for me with the rich tradition and history they have. I definitely like them. They didn’t sign a running back today so that may make for a good opportunity for me.

The state of Texas is a factory for D1 football players and even though Michigan recruits Texas pretty heavily, the only Texan currently on the roster is Russell Bellomy. With Jones being born in Georgia and raised in Texas since he was a toddler, I asked him about how he perceives the Michigan program.

I’d call my interest right now medium or steady. I’m trying to learn a lot more about the program, I know about Denard Robinson and how he was on the cover of NCAA. I remember Mike Hart, Mario Manningham, Chad Henne, and that team. I know they got a lot of history. I know about Desmond Howard being on ESPN on Saturday’s. I actually know a lot about Michigan but it is far away and it might be an issue getting up there for like a junior day or a visit or something like that.

The lid wasn’t even on the 2014 class yet and already coaches, especially Michigan’s, were able to really focus on the 2015 class, so I asked Ronald about how he plans to approach the now current 2015 recruiting cycle.

I want to make a decision pretty early I guess. Right now I’m just focusing on getting stronger. I’m just trying to enjoy the process. I’ve already taken a junior day visit to Baylor, I’ve been to Oklahoma, and I plan on going to TCU for a camp too. Honestly I would really like to check out Michigan. I’m going to talk to my mom and try to set something up either during spring break or over the summer when I actually have the time,  but yeah I really want to try and make it up there.

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I try to stay neutral when it comes to expressing my interest in players due to the nature of what I do, but this kid is a big YES PLEASE. His film is beyond impressive and talking to him was no different. He was a well-spoken, humble-sounding, yes-sir type of young man. His knowledge of Michigan also caught my attention because that’s not something that recruits can usually spout off the top of their heads.

Michigan recruits aggressively in Texas, but Texans can be hard to nab because they have so many solid options within their home state and in surrounding areas. Jones, as you’d expect, grew up liking the Longhorns, has been to multiple games in Austin, and was receiving a lot of attention from UT before Mack Brown was replaced by Charlie Strong. Jones said he hopes to starting hearing from the new staff and thinks an offer could be possible.

If Jones puts enough effort into checking out Ann Arbor I’d give Michigan an outside shot at landing him, but as of right now I think he’s going to be nearly impossible to lure away from the likes of a sexy Baylor, a refreshed Texas, the now-big-time Texas A&M Aggies, a confident Bama-beater in Oklahoma, as well as hot programs like Clemson and Oklahoma State.