#0 Elijah Sullivan — Having changed jersey numbers for the second time in his K-State career, junior cornerback Darell Jones should look a more natural fit back in the secondary wearing #0 than that one time poor linebacker Elijah Sullivan (0) was forced to play strong safety against Texas due to COVID attrition. | Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images

In which BracketCat counts down the 11th day until the 2024 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State cornerback Darell Jones.

Goal No. 11: DON’T ACCEPT LOSING. If you do so one time, it will be easy to do so for the rest of your life.

#0 Darell Jones

Redshirt Junior | 5-11 | 180 lbs. | Coffeyville, Kansas

Position: Cornerback
Previous College: None
Projection: Third-String
Status: On Scholarship

Darell Jones (b. Dec. 10, 2001) is a speedy defensive back majoring in social sciences from Field Kindley High School in Coffeyville who redshirted and did not see playing time in 2021.

After also not seeing any playing time during the 2022 Big 12 Championship season, Jones briefly entered the transfer portal in the offseason but later withdrew and returned to KSU.

He again did not see any playing time in 2023, but somehow I just have a weird feeling that 2024 might finally be his year.

(Or at least I did when I drafted my projected depth chart, although it now seems listening to Van Malone last week that Jordan Dunbar may have passed Jones up for that No. 3 spot.)

He prepped under head coach Deonta Wade at Field Kindley, where he was regarded as the fourth-best prospect in the state of Kansas for the Class of 2021 by ESPN and fifth by 247Sports, while the latter rated him the 70th-best athlete.

Jones picked up first-team all-state honors as a senior from Sports in Kansas, while he was an honorable mention pick by both The Topeka Capital-Journal and The Wichita Eagle as a senior. He also was an honorable mention pick by the Capital-Journal as a junior.

Jones played in eight games as a high school senior, coming away with 51 tackles, five tackles for loss, a sack and a pair of interceptions for the Golden Tornado. He also caught 14 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns during his final year as a prep.

Jones picked K-State over an offer from Eastern Michigan, plus interest from North Dakota and UNLV. His primary recruiter was his position coach, Malone, who serves as assistant head coach, defensive passing game coordinator and cornerbacks coach.

Jones appears to be something of a physical specimen, seeing as back in 2023 he tied Terence Newman’s record (41.5 inches) for vertical jump during spring workouts. According to head coach Chris Klieman, he also has 4.4 speed and he has been clocked at 22.48 mph.

Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said last spring Jones has the talent to contribute:

Darell Jones and Jordan Wright are good enough to play in the Big 12 (Conference) and it’s just on us to find different roles and situations where we can use those guys, whether it’s in nickel or dime packages where we can put those guys in and be cover guys, blitzers and underneath-zone guys.