Catching Up With 2021 WR Commit J.J. Jones

South Carolina’s high school football season kicked off this past Friday night, and that meant North Carolina class of 2021 commit J.J. Jones finally got to play in a game this season.

A 6-foot-4, 190-pounder who attends Myrtle Beach High School, Jones’ team got off to an excellent start and he’s hoping the Seahawks will continue playing that way.

Here is the full video interview with Jones as well as the full transcript of what he had to say:

THI: How are you doing today, JJ?

JONES: “Doing great today, just living another day.”

THI: Friday night was the opening weekend for high school football in South Carolina. What was it like to finally get on the field and play a game?

JONES: “It was great, because waiting all year not knowing if we were going to play football or not and them giving us the heads up ‘You’re going to play this season,’ and going into our opening game last night, shutting them out winning 69-0 it was a great first game. I’m just excited to be able to play.”

THI: You play for one of the top teams in South Carolina and had an impressive win over Darlington, you had three catches for I believe 57 yards and two touchdowns, was that only in the first half due to the score?

JONES: “Yes, me and my other receiver (Adam Randall) only played the first half.”

THI: You mentioned Adam Randall, who is class of 2022 and has been getting a lot of interest, what kind of combo are you guys?

JONES: “I truly believe with me and him (that) we’ve got the best receiving duo in the whole state. Lining us up on opposite sides of the ball, it’s going to be very hard for opposing defenses to guard us. Because let’s say you double-team me, Adam’s going to score, if you double-team Adam, I’m going to score. So it’s really tough for defenses to plan against us. And say we both get double teams, that leaves our slot open, so it’s just very hard to play against us.”

THI: UNC got its 17th commitment for 2021 on Friday when big offensive lineman Diego Pounds from Raleigh committed, what are your thoughts on him becoming a Tar Heel?

JONES: “I was extremely happy because me and Diego go way back. We’ve played AAU (basketball) against each other before, we’d take visits together, we talk to each other, and he told me, ‘I’m really liking North Carolina.’ And I told him it would be really great for him to come out and play for North Carolina. I was recruiting him. Me, Keeshawn (Silver), RaRa (Dillworth), (Dontavius) Nash, we all talked to him. We just tried to get him there and we got him.”

THI: Has WR Coach Lonnie Galloway been checking in on you and giving you tips?

JONES: “Coach Galloway, he’s always helping me out, giving me stuff I need to work on. I’ll send him my film from all my games and he’ll give me tips to work on more routes, getting better on my breaks, stuff like that. But him just helping me out overall made me become a better receiver and I’m just really grateful.”

THI: Did you watch UNC’s win over Syracuse, and what are your thoughts on seeing Sam Howell and the offense roll in the second half?

JONES: “Oh yeah, I got to watch them. It was right after our scrimmage. I took a shower and went straight home, I wanted to go watch the game. The first drive and being able to score and putting a statement out there that this offense is really deadly, you could tell they kind of took their foot off the gas a little bit, but that second half was a totally different ballgame. The ceiling right now is extremely high for them, I feel like these next few games is going to make a statement for the whole college football nation.”

THI: Lastly, with recruiting, who is left for this Keesahwn-RaRa-Dontavius-JJ-everybody-on-the-Tar Heels recruiting to join you guys in Chapel Hill?

JONES: “Right now, we’re working on two. We’re working on Bryson Nesbit out of South Mecklenburg (NC), a tight end, and we’re working on Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, a defensive end from Gaffney (SC). And then him being a South Carolina guy, I’ve got a lot of weight on my shoulders, I’ve got to bring him to North Carolina so I’m not the only South Carolina boy there.”

THI: What’s up next for Myrtle Beach, who do you play next?

JONES: “This Friday we play away at Georgetown. It should be a good game, another high-scoring game from the Myrtle Beach Seahawks.”