By Matt Florjancic
D3sports.com

Washington and Jefferson senior running back Curt Jones went from being a second option in the backfield to featured ball-carrier in the matter of 12 months.

Jones has responded to the change with confidence in his own ability that was quickly replaced by the support and appreciation of his peers and coaching staff. In 11 games behind All-American quarterback Bobby Swallow; Jones has carried the ball 207 times for 1,289 yards and 24 touchdowns.

While he averages 117.2 yards per game and better than six yards a carry, Jones is a dual threat for the Presidents (11-1). He is fourth on the team with 29 catches on the year for 263 yards and one touchdown. In addition, Jones has run for one two-point conversion and caught two others.

"Our linemen have been blocking phenomenally all year," said Jones, who deflected the credit for his success to the men in the trenches. "This group of kids has been together for a long time. Matt Houy and Dave Bucar have been starting since they were sophomores.

"They work together really well [and] we have a lot of good communication on the line with picking up blitzes while we're running the ball," he continued. "Sometimes, we'll check out of certain runs or switch sides [based] on what the defense gives us."

Another part of his game that Jones takes pride in is picking up defenders who make it through or around the offensive linemen. Keeping the quarterback healthy is been a key component of any team's success. Though the Washington and Jefferson quarterbacks have been sacked a combined 25 times for 157 lost yards, Swallow has remained on the field.

Picking up blitzing linebackers or safeties coming off the edge has allowed Swallow to throw 36 touchdowns and complete 413 passes for 3,551 yards.

"If one of our tackles gets beat on the outside, it's a lot easier for us to pick up a guy flying off the edge that may be 5-10, 5-11, 190 pounds than a 280-pound offensive lineman trying to pick him up," Jones said. "Some of the main problems that we run into are blitzes on the backside. They line up on the left and send a linebacker around to the right side. I have to go over to the right side and pick that guy up or else Bobby gets blindsided.

"It's great having such a great quarterback there with me," added Jones. "When I am running the ball, he'll change sides depending on what the defense gives us. It's great when Bobby's having a great game because they're looking for the pass more. It leaves it open for draws and even our regular run plays."

Moving Jones into the feature back role after having Kevin Mathews rush for nearly 1,000 yards a season ago was something coach Mike Sirianni felt would help the team.

"We felt they could play together," Sirianni said. "Then, we ended up moving Kevin to the secondary because we thought Curt could do it. The plan was to play both of them together."

"Kevin was a great player," Jones added. "He did great for us last year, better than me. He is a great athlete and we really needed him on defense more than we did on offense. We have a lot of depth at running back. I like running the feature back. It gets me in the game a lot more. It gets me more pumped up throughout the game."

Jones' love of football was evident with his performance in a 35-20 road victory against an undefeated Millsaps team last Saturday. He carried the ball 31 times for 208 yards and four touchdowns, three of which came in the second half.

As a team, the Presidents overcame a 20-14 third quarter deficit with Jones' three unanswered scores.

"We watched the film on them a lot," Jones said of Millsaps. "No one had really tried running the ball on them. It appeared to us that they had some holes in the defense and secondary that we could exploit. That was our game plan going in. We needed to run the ball and we were practicing all week on picking up the linebackers."

"Against Millsaps, we went into the game knowing that we had to try to run the football and control the clock to keep their high-powered offense off the field," Sirianni said. "[That] was opposite from the way we play because people do that to us. As the game went on, our O-line wore on them and Curt kept getting stronger. He was good in the first half, but he was even better in the second half."

The win against Millsaps earned Washington and Jefferson a second flight this postseason. They travel to Belton, Texas, to face Mary Hardin-Baylor in the regional final Saturday afternoon. Mary Hardin-Baylor (11-1) last lost a home game against a Division III opponent was Oct. 28, 2006. In that contest, the Crusaders lost a 7-3 decision to UW-Whitewater.

"Like we usually do, we're going to have to put up a lot of points," Jones said. "They seem to run the ball a lot and that's going to keep our offense off the field. It's going to be more on our defense this week stopping the run. Mary Hardin-Baylor's doing a really good job stopping the run, so it's going to be a big week for our receivers, Bobby and our line."

"We don't expect to go down to Mary Hardin-Baylor and rush for 220 yards," Sirianni added. "That's unrealistic to think that we're going to be able to do that, but the games that we've lost, we've thrown the ball 50, 55 times. We have to be able to run the football and have a mix where they're not teeing off and coming after our quarterback. We have to have [Jones] in the 100-yard range and 20-25 carries to keep them off balance. If we do that, we think we can be successful offensively."