Jones Provides Energy, Attitude Change For Siloam

It took Marc Jones five or six minutes to draw up five formations for his new players on his first day as Siloam Springs defensive coordinator in the spring.

His only instruction to the players was that if he didn't erase a position while sketching a new formation, their role remained the same as the previous alignment. He was met with a unanimous reaction when he finished drawing and stepped away from the whiteboard.

"They said, 'Golly, that's pretty simple,'" Jones said. "I said, 'That's the whole thing. It's simple.'"

As simple as rock-paper-scissors. Literally. Jones' new Panther defense will incorporate rock and scissor signs when signaling in plays from the sideline this fall.

But the simplicity comes with a catch.

"You've got to play it with a mindset and you've got to play it with aggression," Jones said. "It's very much (about) mindset. Vince Lombardi said it's 90 percent in your head 50 years ago and he's exactly right. We're going to watch the football and when the football moves, we're going to have a bunch of people coming real fast. And if we don't come real fast, then we'll be in trouble."

Simplifying the scheme and terminology should benefit a defense playing fast, especially a first-year group learning a new system.

"That's the whole theory," Jones said. "Don't make them think. Just let them react."

It's a philosophy that's served Jones well in a long coaching career that includes a 10-year tenure as head coach at Benton. He most recently served as defensive coordinator at Camden Fairview, helping lead the program to state runner-up finishes in 2009 and 2010.

His new players can already tell a big difference in practices.

"All the guys will talk about how last year is so much different," senior all-state linebacker David Goodman said. "Our practices now are so much more intense than we've ever had. He really nails it in as much as he can: aggression, aggression, aggression."

The 6-foot-2, 245-pounder racked up 105 tackles in the 7A-West last year and figures to again provide a menacing figure at the heart of the Panther defense as Siloam transitions from a base 4-3 to a 3-4 look.

"A lot of that is based on our personnel this year," Siloam coach Bryan Ross said. "We think it fits our personnel better. Coach Jones has been around a long time. He's a great defensive coach. He can get us into whatever we need to be to take advantage of our personnel. It still goes back to Dave is going to be a rock in the middle. So hopefully he can just add to what he did last year."

Added experience for players like Goodman, the addition of Jones and his philosophy and the move to the 7A/6A-Central are a trio of reasons Siloam enters the season with as much enthusiasm as its had in recent memory after going 1-13 in the brutal 7A-West the last two years.

"You're always afraid that your kids lose a little bit of that confidence and belief in themselves when you've got to play the Bentonvilles and the Rogers and you're at the bottom looking up," Goodman said. "I've been very pleased with our kids and the way they've competed, but I would love to get to that mindset that every time we walked out onto the field, we know we're going to win the game.

"And a lot of that just comes from doing it. Hopefully these seniors can step up and do that."

Jones would like nothing more than to be part of the catalyst that helps make Siloam competitive.

He moved back to Fayetteville after retiring from Camden Fairview. He spent last year as a volunteer assistant for Farmington, but wasn't going to go just anywhere to begin coaching full-time again.

And Siloam stood out.

"I was really choosy about where I wanted to coach again," Jones said. "I wanted to come back and coach kids like this. Love being at Siloam Springs. Enjoying myself to death."

Sports on 07/17/2014