The No. 18 jersey has become the most coveted honor bestowed to an LSU player, given to an athlete who demonstrates the values the program holds highest both on and off the field as voted on by coaches and players.
One of those values is selflessness, a characteristic shown by this year’s winner, junior cornerback Tre’Davious White.
In selfless fashion, White actually believed someone else would get the jersey – senior linebacker Deion “Debo” Jones, a player entering his fourth year but just getting his first crack as a full-time starter.
But if you ask Jones if White was the right man to don the distinguished number, he’ll look at you like the question was silly.
“He’s the perfect guy to get it,” Jones said.
That, in essence, is who Jones is, a jovial but humble veteran, embracing a “bittersweet” time in his life. He patiently and happily waited for an opportunity to start for LSU, cutting his teeth as a special team’s ace. Now, he’s an important member of an experienced unit, and his father, Cal Jones, has been preparing his son for this moment since he was six years old.
Football has been a part Cal’s life for quite some time. He considers it a “pastime,” but that would be selling his passion for the game short. In fact, his son’s nickname is a mesh between two of the game’s most notable players, Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson.
Cal was raised in the same area he raised Debo — Algiers, which is on the West Bank of Orleans Parish. Coincidentally, he grew up with LSU running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson, and the two played against each other in junior high school.
While Wilson, a running back, graduated from St. Augustine High School and Cal, a safety, graduated from L.B. Landry High School, Cal followed Wilson to Nicholls State as a walk-on, where the two were roommates for Cal’s first semester.
As Cal acknowledges, academic issues prevented him from continuing to play for the Colonels. But his love for the sport remained constant, which immediately rubbed off on his son. Cal wanted a way to channel a plethora of energy from his son — nicknaming him “Tasmanian devil” before “Debo” — and “controlled recreation,” such as football at Norman Playground, was the best way to do that.
Debo actually played a few sports at Norman, which is no surprise considering the athletes in his family. Like his dad, though, football became his focus.
Seeing his son’s excitement for the gridiron, Cal pushed Debo early on, placing him in the older age group. He started Debo off as a lineman to get adjusted. Cal focused on teaching him the X’s and O’s after he finished his homework at night, but he didn’t want his son to be stuck in a positional box.
“When you say you play football, that means you can play any position,” Cal said.
It didn’t take long for him to master his position on the line, moving to defensive end and wide receiver. As he grew with the game, he started commanding some of the more difficult positions, including linebacker, running back and some quarterback, displaying his signature speed.
Even from a young age, it was easy for Cal to tell Debo had a future in the game. But he wanted his son to make the decision for himself as Debo continued to play both football and basketball in high school.
“I was relieved when he told me he was going to play football because I really thought he wanted to do his own thing and make his name for himself, doing something other than what his dad used to do,” Cal said.
Although he played multiple positions in his youth, Debo could be seen sporting former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’ jersey, ironically being the spot that would grant him a scholarship to LSU. Before he became a star linebacker at Jesuit High School, though, he needed to get acclimated to the private school life.
“The first day, I didn’t know how to react because it was an all-boys school,” Debo said. “I had never been to an all-boys school. Come to find out, it’s pretty much like a big locker room. Another thing, the middle school I went to wasn’t really that strict on dress code and stuff like that. I had to adapt and really follow the code so I could stay out of trouble.”
Debo quickly came to enjoy the new environment and eventually got on the field as just a sophomore on a New Orleans Catholic League team. Initially, he thought he was going to end up as running back for the Blue Jays, but coaches switched him back to linebacker. Cal said Debo was slightly upset by the change from the position he played on the ninth-grade team but it proved to be beneficial.
By the third game of his sophomore year, Cal said Debo was a starter on the defense.
“I asked if he wanted to play running back again, and he said ‘hell no,’” Cal said.
Debo never looked back from there. He received his first official offer from Southern Miss that same year. More came flowing in after his All-State junior year, during which he posted 118 tackles, two sacks, five tackles for loss and three blocked kicks.
Though he had 20 schools to choose from, LSU was his dream school, looking up to former Tigers such as Skyler Green and Chad Jones. But he didn’t have an offer from the Tigers by the start of his senior year; he missed both available LSU camps the summer before his last year at Jesuit, missing the second due to death in the family after his attendance at an Alabama camp.
Although Debo had been to camps in Baton Rouge in the past, Cal blames himself for not better communicating with Wilson about why his son couldn’t attend the camps, knowing his son would have been officially offered had been able to attend.
Nebraska became the top choice, committing to the Cornhuskers on Aug. 9, 2011. His focus turned to school and winning a state championship in his last season, but the Blue Jays went 12-1 and fell in the state quarterfinals.
Wilson and LSU eventually did come calling in November, and after coming to an understanding of why he didn’t get an offer earlier, Debo made the decision to stay closer to his family. He didn’t want to go back on his promise to former Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, but he said he decided to do what was best for him.
For Cal, it was an indescribable moment for his son to be playing for a close friend of his.
“It was emotional because we came up together,” Cal said. “My son is the first kid of friends Frank has coached. I can’t explain it to you. I knew that Frank would be an extension of me because he was always competitive. He was my roommate. We worked out together. I knew [Debo] would be straight. I knew he was in good hands.”
The commitment to the Tigers is now paying off. Debo developed a love for special teams, learning under former special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and current coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto. Former Tiger linebackers such as Lamin Barrow and Kwon Alexander have also prepared him for the opportunity he has now — a starter in one of the fastest groups in the conference.
Regardless of what his future holds after LSU, Debo can look back fondly at a place he’s grown to love.
“You kind of get attached to this place from being around it for so long,” Debo said. “I’m going to miss these guys, playing with them. I’m going to miss the fans. You don’t really get that anywhere else.”