Coach says recruiting key to next year
By KEN IRVING
Student Reporter
Why would a former NFL and Division 1 Rose Bowl champion coach come to Alva to lead the NWOSU Rangers football team?
“There’s nothing more than I would love to do than bring my alma mater back to its winning ways,” said NWOSU head football Coach Ronnie Jones, during an interview with news reporting students on Friday.
Jones has had stints in the NFL with teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals. He won the Rose Bowl with the Arizona State Sun Devils.
He has coached at the pinnacle of sports, but he chose to come to his alma mater for his last years coaching.
“I love the challenge,” Jones said. “It’s different than any other job because I have ties here. It’s a chance to give back.”
Jones could have chosen retirement, but instead he decided to coach one of the worst programs in Division 2 football.
Since joining the Great American Conference in Division 2 NCAA football in 2011, the NWOSU Rangers have never had a winning season.
The Rangers went 1-10 before Jones’ arrival and repeated it under his first year at the helm.
Jones first year was not a Cinderella story. It was tough and a grind.
However, he said this year would be different because he finally has a chance to recruit his own players. Jones took the NWOSU job in December 2022 and arrived on campus in January 2023.
He did not have a chance to recruit his own players last year, but this year will be different.
“In changing a program, you have to bring football players we feel like we can win games with,” Jones said. “I inherited good football players, but I just didn’t have enough good football players.”
Jones recruited 11 transfers and signed a massive 40 high school players in the 2024 signing class.
He stressed recruiting is the absolute most important thing in college football. He said that if a coach cannot recruit then that coach could not be on Jones’ staff.
In addition, he wants to change the coach’s mindset in recruiting players.
“In the past it was almost like we took players that we could get,” Jones said.
Jones said he wants to stay away from the notion that NWOSU has to recruit players that no one else recruited.
He said they could recruit with anybody in the state of Oklahoma.
Jones recruiting skills does not just stop with players.
He said his best recruiting job was hiring former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville as his defensive coordinator.
“He’s one of the best defensive coaches of all time,” Jones said. “His scheme is unlike any other that I’ve seen. [Glanville] told me I’m a great coach with a great defensive scheme already, but I had to tell him ‘I know, but I need you to come coach for me.”
Jones made his best sales pitch and with a little bit of encouragement he was able to sign Glanville as his defensive coordinator.
With Glanville at his side and a group of young ambitious coaches, this is the most excited Jones said he has ever been for a season.
“I think this is going to be the best coaching staff I have ever worked with,” Jones said. “I feel great with the coaching staff we have right now. … I believe we are all on the same page on what we are trying to accomplish. We have one focus, and we’re all here for the same reason, and that’s to turn this program around.”
Jones has been around elite coaches during his tenure in the NFL and Division 1 level, but he said this is going to be the best coaching staff that he has had. He said he is more connected with them since they are at a smaller school. He feels like he can understand them and get to know them more. He has a personal connection with them, and that is important to him.
While Jones stressed the importance of recruiting and his coaching staff, he said the players are the most important thing to the program. He wants to get closer with his players. He has them come into the office before their first class each day, so he knows that they are up and he can say hello to them.
While he is feeling affectionate for his players off the field, on the field he said he is as tough as nails.
“We set our standards higher as a football team and also in recruiting,” Jones said.
Last week in one of the teams hard running days Jones told them that he was not going to compromise this year. Last year if they could not run down and back across the field, two times under 45 seconds then he would bump the time up to 50 seconds. This year, he is not budging.
“The players have to adjust, or they just won’t play for us,” Jones said.
Jones is not making the Rangers conditioning easy this season. He has increased the intensity of workouts and increased the number of times the Rangers are running this year. He wants all his athletes to be in shape this year.
Jones is currently 68 years old and has been coaching for 46 years. He has already coached and won at the highest level. He travels to and from Dallas when he can to see his wife who lives there. He could sit back, kick his legs up, retire and watch the sunset; but he will not.
“A season like what we just went through drives me because I’m not about to quit,” Jones said. “When I finally walk away from this job, I promise the program will be in good shape. I’m not leaving till it is. This will be my last coaching job. … When I walk, away people are going to be proud of this program and the success that we’re having.”
