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  Arizona State Sports Information Offensive lineman Levi Jones is one of the major road blocks preventing UCLA from a potential bowl game invite.

By Scott Bair

Daily Bruin Reporter

Levi Jones, like the other 89 members of the varsity football team, received a scholarship to attend Arizona State University. The difference between Jones and the other 89 is that he came to ASU on an academic scholarship, not an athletic one.

Jones was a four-sport star from the small town of Eloi, Ariz., who concentrated more on As and Bs than the Xs and Os. That’s the only way that his mother, Joyce, would have it.

She viewed Jones’ athletic ventures as a distraction from the main goal of getting a college degree. She pushed him to succeed in the classroom and to do well in school, so he thanked his mother for her efforts by getting a free ride to ASU.

Just before the move from Eloi to Tempe, ex-ASU and current UCLA defensive coordinator Phil Snow entered the picture. He came to Eloi to recruit one of Jones’ Santa Cruz High School teammates and stumbled upon Jones and his versatile talents. While in Eloi, Snow began scratching a competitive itch that Jones just couldn’t get rid of.

After flirting with the idea of playing basketball, Jones walked on to the Sun Devil squad during his freshman year. Jones made an instant impact during his redshirt season, and was upgraded to varsity and was awarded an athletic scholarship in exchange for his academic award.

College football wasn’t in his mother’s master plan, but Jones couldn’t shake the need to compete.

“My mom always wanted me to succeed in academics,” Jones said. “She’s always said that graduating from college was my first priority. Now she sees football more as an added bonus.”

Jones’ talent made football into not only an added bonus, but also a prospective job opportunity. NFL teams will have a tough time passing on Jones, ASU’s 6-foot-6, 332-pound first-team All Pac-10 left tackle.

Opposing defensive linemen have also had a tough time getting past Jones this season. He will make it hard for UCLA defensive end Dave Ball, his foe during Saturday’s contest at the Rose Bowl, to attack ASU quarterback Jeff Krohn’s blind side.

“Levi is awesome to say the least,” Ball said. “He’s a big, physical guy. He’ll throw you down in more ways than one. Once you’re down, he knows how to keep you there.”

While devoting so much of his time to keeping opposing linemen down, Jones has managed to keep his grades up. Though the NFL draft could offer him a job in April, Jones has made sure to get the college degree his mother always wanted before that time comes. On Dec. 14, Jones will walk through ASU’s commencement ceremony and leave with a degree in exercise science and minors in both business and sociology.

“A college degree has always been important to both Levi and his family,” Snow said. “He has a lot of business to take care with football and school, and he has always taken care of both.”

Now that his graduation day has been established and draft day has been set, Jones only has one more thing left to do in his college career – to play the Bruins on Saturday.