FAYETTEVILLE — Bentonville West linebacker Braden Jones showed well at last year’s Arkansas prospect camp as a junior, and he did the same during Friday’s prospect camp.
Jones, 5-11, 187 pounds, recorded a time of 4.36 seconds in the 40-yard dash last year. He appeared to have run 4.43 seconds at today’s camp, but Razorbacks defensive coordinator Barry Odom said otherwise.
“I think it was a 4.41 because that’s what Coach Odom said,” Jones said.
Jones, along with three other linebackers/safeties, worked with Odom and linebackers coach Michael Scherer.
“Then after that it was just a private workout with me and Coach Odom for the remainder of it,” Jones said. “He was putting me through some drills and DB stuff and backpedaling, and then after that I did 1-on-1s and I felt like I did really, really good.”
As a junior, Jones had 107 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 6 sacks, 4 pass breakups, 3 recovered fumbles, 2 blocked punts with 1 returned for a score. He had a total of seven touchdowns, two on kickoff returns in back-to-back weeks.
He has offers from Western Missouri and Harding, and is drawing interest from Kansas State, Air Force, Army and Navy. He also recorded a vertical leap of 35 inches, and 10 feet in the broad jump.
Odom seemed to like what he saw of Jones.
“He just said he was really, really impressed with the way I’m moving,” Jones said. “He said I had a great camp today. They’re going to talk some things over and he’s going to get back with me. He said for me (to have) not ever played the safety position before, he was really impressed with the way I was able do all the drills.”