AggieYell.com concludes its look at the 2020 Aggie football team by position group with a review of the cornerbacks.
Cast of characters
Myles Jones (39 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 INT, 5 passes broken up)
Jaylon Jones (30 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 INT, 6 passes broken up)
Brian George (6 tackles, 1 INT, 1 pass broken up)
Elijah Blades (no stats in 1 game)
Analysis
The corners had two bad games, against both Alabama and Florida. After that, they were very good to excellent. More precisely, the two Joneses were very good to excellent.
Myles Jones had the best season of his career by far, giving up only 260 receiving yards in eight games — 142 coming against Alabama alone. Otherwise, he essentially shut down opponents, giving up only 3 receiving yards on 7 targets against LSU and tossing shutouts against Mississippi State and South Carolina. His return for another season is huge boost to the 2021 secondary and makes it a whole lot tougher.
Jaylon Jones was robbed of a spot on the freshman All-SEC team. He led the team in snaps played and gave up an average of 31.2 receiving yards a game. 82 of those, surprise surprise, were against the Alabama juggernaut in the second game of his career. He struggled with his tackling early on, but improved significantly as the season went on. In the five games against Mississippi State, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina, he gave up a total of 3 yards after the catch. Jones was a tough opponent as a freshman and could make a move into the elite of the conference in 2021.
George stepped in for Myles Jones to start the Tennessee game and the Orange Bowl and had mixed results. He was torched for a pair of scores against the Vols, but closed that game in style with an interception. He threw a shutout on just four targets against Sam Howell and the Tar Heels, being robbed of a second interception in the process. His impressive improvement from his first start to his second — in a major bowl game, no less — should give the Aggies confidence that his play will continue to improve in the upcoming season.
When Blades opted out of the 2020 season before it even began, it looked like a critical blow to the defense. Even though he had fought injury issues in 2019, Blades had shown flashes of what made him the most sought-after corner in the JUCO ranks the previous year. Instead, Jaylon Jones emerged and, when Blades opted back in late in the season, he was simply experienced depth. He played a total of five snaps in the Orange Bowl before getting hurt yet again. If he can stay healthy, he’ll give the Aggies another quality backup option at the position this year.
