Ohio State Overview: Dre’mont Jones closed out an outstanding four-year career at Ohio State in 2018 by being named a first-team All-American by College Football News and earning first-team all-Big Ten Conference honors by the league’s coaches … Jones became a starter from game No. 2 of his freshman season on and played in 39 games as a Buckeye and started 37 times, including all 14 games for the 2018 Big Ten and Roses Bowl champions and 11 times for the 2017 Big Ten and Cotton Bowl champion Buckeyes … Jones, who graduated in December, 2018 with his degree in sociology, totaled 43 tackles as a fourth-year junior including 13.5 tackles-for-loss and 8.5 quarterbacks sacks … he became the first Ohio State defensive lineman in recorded history to score two touchdowns in one season, returning an interception 28 yards for a score against TCU and later recovering a fumble in the end zone vs. Michigan State … he finished his career with 115 total tackles, 22.0 TFLs and 9.5 quarterback sacks … Jones earned third-team all-Big Ten Conference honors in 2017 … he red-shirted the 2015 season while recovering from a high school injury and then had a breakthrough season in 2016 when he moved into a starting defensive tackle position … Jones finished as the team’s leading tackler among defensive line players with 52 total tackles that year … he registered a personal-best eight stops in the overtime win at Wisconsin and had seven in the overtime win over Michigan … he was a two-time academic all-Big Ten honoree and a two-time OSU Scholar-Athlete … he spent a week in the summer of 2018 in Manchester, N.H., interning with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Notable: Jones is one of three freshmen defensive linemen – the others are Dan Wilkinson (10 starts in 1992) and Luke Fickell (12 starts in 1993) – to start 10 or more games during a freshman season. Jones started 12 in 2016.
Honors & Awards
2018: First-team All-American (College Football News), first-team all-Big Ten Conference, Academic All-Big Ten
2017: Third-team all-Big Ten, Academic All-Big Ten, OSU Scholar-Athlete
2016: Freshman All-American (Football Writers Association of America), OSU Scholar-Athlete
More on Dre’mont: Jones came to Ohio State after just two seasons of high school football behind him … he was named first-team Division I Associated Press all-state as a senior for coach Chuck Kyle’s 6-4 team that advanced to the Ohio state playoffs … he also picked up all-Northeast Lakes District honors as a senior after recording 47 tackles, 21 tackles-for-losses and four sacks with four forced fumbles … Jones, who also played basketball at St. Ignatius, was considered a 4-star prospect by ESPN, Scout and 247Sports and he has overall rankings of No. 161 on the ESPN 300 and No. 169 by 247Sports … considered the No. 1 defensive line prospect in Ohio by Scout, Jones also had high positional rankings of No. 11 at strong side defensive end by 247Sports and Top 25 end status by both Scout and Rivals … a U.S. Army All-American … all-Midwest by PrepStar … parents are Schontina Jones and Sanderline Williams.