Liberty’s Brian Jones

Brian Jones has come home. Although he never really left.

The first-year Liberty High football coach replaced Jeff Whittaker, who won 100 games over 17 seasons and took the school to the playoffs four times.

One of those playoff runs came in Jones’ senior season when he quarterbacked the Leopards to an 11-2 record and a regional final appearance. Since playing at Liberty, Jones was an assistant coach under Whittaker for two seasons then worked as an undergraduate assistant coach at Youngstown State.

Jones has the Leopards off to a 3-1 start as he tries to return the program to its once-lofty heights.

Q. What is it like going back to coach where you played? How emotional was the first game?

A. First off, being a head coach is a special thing in itself. I have been lucky to have been around some tremendous coaches in my career who have helped to prepare me. When I got the call to come back to Liberty I was really excited. Obviously I played here, we had good success here and I think it’s a great community. It was very exciting that first game. There was a lot of emotion, but it also was a lot of fun. It was great for the kids to get the first win and snap that 18-game losing streak.

Q. Do your players remember Liberty’s successful seasons?

A. The kids were in school then. They are aware of the success; in fact they watched some of the teams I played on. They understand what the tradition is like at Liberty and they have expectations at Liberty and want to be a part of that success. They want to set their own mark for Liberty football and we are on the right step to doing that.

Q. Does the fact you were part of the school’s success affect how the kids accept what you say? Are they more willing to follow orders?

A. I’m not so sure they follow for that. I think they would respect whomever was coach. But it is special. It gives added credibility when the kids have seen that you did it. They know you are not asking them to do something that you weren’t willing to do. The kids have been great and we are trying to mold them into good young men and teach them more than football. It has been fun watching the maturation process from week to week.

Q. Did you make a lot of changes on the coaching staff?

A. We kept some guys from the former staff and brought in a couple of new coaches. We seem to have a good mix of veteran coaches and young guys. Just like the kids learning a new system it took us a little while to gel and understand how to operate as a staff on a daily basis. There is a learning curve, but we’ve been coming along pretty good. It is going well for us and we are having a lot of fun.

Q. In your first year as head coach have you come across anything so far that you might change for next season?

A. You run into things like that all the time, maybe not big things, but in hindsight you look back and question how you did something. As a head coach you always take notes on how things are going and what needs improvement. It might be time management, or we could do this better, or we should bring the kids in earlier for this or later for that. We are always evaluating ourselves, always trying to improve and make things better in the future. At the end of the season we will look back as part of the evaluation process and see what we can improve on.

Q. How has your coaching experience at YSU helped?

A. Coaching at YSU was an invaluable experience for me. I got to work under coach (Jon) Heacock and for coach (Eric) Wolford when he first came in. As a student assistant or graduate assistant the job entails a lot of different things. You work behind the scenes, breaking down film, running study tables — you name it, I probably have been a part of it. You learn from the ground up but you also get to learn football too. I had a chance to learn under great coaches and great assistant coaches. Plus I was exposed to some great connections. I got to visit the Steelers and was able to have one-on-one conversations with Mike Shanahan and Mike Tomlin. It was a lot of hard work and dedication, but my YSU experience helped propel me to the position I have now. I am more than thankful. I had a blast and learned a lot.

Q. What style of play does your team play?

A. We use multiple offenses — we like to run downhill between the tackles but we also like to attack the perimeter. We like to use screens and draws and give different looks to the defense. We pretty much game plan against what the defense gives us, but we are always trying to look to get our skill players the amount of touches they need. On defense, we use a base 4-3 but we like to give different looks by using multiple fronts and different coverage schemes. We want to be aggressive, but structurally sound. We want to maximize our talent against each opponent.

Interview by Vindicator sports reporter Doug Chapin.