The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Sports

JONES

Today at 2:30 p.m. at nearby Gainesville High School, Tai-ler Jones, a dynamic top 15 wide receiver prospect, will announce his commitment of where he will play college football.

He will grab the hat of one of his seven finalists -- Georgia, Stanford, North Carolina, California, UCLA, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Jones narrowed it down to those seven schools after a host of visits, believing those schools offer the best combination of coaching staffs, academics and athletics.

"It's just the rapport I built with the coaching staffs at all those schools, and I feel those schools can help me the best academically and athletically to better myself," Jones said.

To ultimately decide which school best suits him out of that group, Jones will be taking football out of the equation, realizing the fragility of his playing career.

"I'm going to pick the school that I feel that does both those things [academics and athletics] the

strongest -- and the school, [so] that if I couldn't play football anymore, I'd definitely want to go there as a student," Jones said.

There has been recent speculation that Stanford may not be as strong of a contender as previously thought for Jones, since he is graduating a semester early and Stanford doesn't accept early enrollees, which would delay his enrollment to June.

However, Jones says that it isn't the case, and the six months between his December graduation and June enrollment would allow him to better prepare his body for the rigors of college football.

"It doesn't affect my decision at all because I can spend that six months working out with a personal trainer, getting myself ready to come in when I enroll in June. Then I'm that much further ahead than everyone else because I had six months to really work on my body," Jones said.

Just last Thursday, Jones made the trek to Athens to get a feel for life off the field at Georgia.

"I got to learn about all the academics, and all the academic accolades of that school. It was really impressive and very informative," he said.

With Jones living 30 minutes away in a community of Georgia supporters, a betting man would have to think he wouldn't possibly be holding a press conference to announce for an out-of-state school.

But Jones wouldn't tip his hat just yet.

"That's a typical thought because it's 30 minutes down the road and everyone here supports Georgia and wears Georgia stuff everyday," Jones said.

If Jones doesn't decide on Georgia, one school to watch is North Carolina, where he unofficially visited for the Tar Heels' spring game two weeks ago, and came back with strong praise.

"It was very nice. I liked it a lot," he said. "I learned a lot about that school that I didn't know, and I definitely have made a bond with those coaches that is among the strongest that I have built."

With his visits behind him, Jones appears ready to announce his decision, and wherever he goes, he said that team will receive a versatile football player.

"They'll be getting a player they can use in many different ways, who is explosive with the ball and can score from anywhere on the field and can play both sides of the ball and be a return man and also be a great leader," he said.

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