Can't keep up with Cortez Jones

Dec 18, 2025

Cortez Jones has literally played wherever he's been needed most for North Central, whether on the offensive line or defensive line.
North Central athletics photo by Steve Woltmann

By Greg Thomas
D3football.com

Cortez Jones sets at right tackle the way you’d expect a veteran to do it, calm feet, quiet hands, no wasted motion. There’s no drama to it, no hint that this is anything other than his natural habitat. In 2025, Jones is anchoring the edge for North Central as the CCIW Lineman of the Year, the latest in a long line of Cardinals to win an award North Central has claimed in all seven years it’s been handed out.

Mastery, not experimentation, is the assumption.

It’s easy to forget that two seasons ago, Jones was lining up in a completely different stance. Same player, same jersey, different job description. In the 2023 national championship game, Jones was on the defensive line, part of the rotation up front, recording four tackles in a game that decided a national title. Those weren’t ceremonial snaps for a freshman getting a taste of the moment. They were meaningful reps in the biggest game North Central plays every year.

That contrast tells you almost everything you need to know. This isn’t versatility for versatility’s sake. North Central doesn’t just ask players to do more. It asks them to become more, sometimes quickly, sometimes uncomfortably, and always without lowering the standard.

Plenty of players switch positions in college football. Almost none become elite on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

North Central’s sustained success has been built on that idea. Three national championships in the last five seasons. A program that will play this Saturday in its sixth consecutive national semifinal. The Cardinals reload rather than rebuild, and they do it with an expectation that the next man up won’t simply fill space. He’ll perform at a championship level.

Jones has not only survived in that environment; he’s thrived, becoming the kind of player the staff feels comfortable asking more of, not less. His career arc isn’t accidental. It’s a reflection of what North Central values, rewards, and quietly depends on when the margins get thin.

The first inflection point came midway through Jones’ freshman season in 2023. He arrived in Naperville as an offensive lineman, and early in the year he was actually working with both lines. North Central’s offensive front that season was one of the best in program history, with three All-Americans and quality depth behind them. If Jones was going to see the field as a freshman, it wasn’t going to be on an already loaded offensive line.

“I was recruited as an offensive lineman, and around Week 3 or Week 4 I got switched to defensive line after one of our D-tackles got hurt,” Jones said.

The timing was fast, the runway short. The move was driven by need as much as curiosity.

It wasn’t entirely foreign. Jones had played defensive line in high school, which softened the shock, but that didn’t mean it was seamless. “That process for me moving from offensive line to defensive line, it wasn't that big of a jump because I played it in high school,” he said. “But I had to learn the technique and more fundamentals. I had guys like Dan Lester around who helped me become technically sound within the position.”

From the staff’s perspective, the move made sense because Jones had been standing out long before his name was written on a depth chart. Offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Eric Stuedemann remembers the first time he saw him at a summer camp. “That's really where he jumped out and we saw, that this is a guy that's very athletic, he's got great size and he's taking coaching, and he has leadership abilities,” Stuedemann said. “This is after seeing him for two hours out in the field, one time. You learn pretty quickly that he's a special kid.”

Those impressions only deepened. “He is extremely skilled and athletic for his size and then he's got an extremely high football IQ,” Stuedemann said. “He's a natural leader and when you mix all those ingredients together, you're going to have a darn good football player. And with the IQ that he has, he's able to play both sides of the ball, which he did in high school.”

By the time the postseason arrived in 2023, Jones wasn’t dabbling. He was in defensive meetings, part of the rotation, trusted when the stakes were highest. Four tackles in a national championship game don’t happen by accident. He didn’t just fill a role. He earned snaps on the biggest stage.

A year later, the story went a step further. In 2024, Jones wasn’t just helping on defense. He was an all-region defensive tackle, recognition that’s hard-earned in the interior, where physical punishment is constant and technique is relentlessly exposed. “The hardest part is technique for sure, because the offensive and defensive line are just the complete opposite,” Jones said. “So everything I was taught for the offensive line, I had to break those habits to become a defensive lineman.”

That breaking and rebuilding process is where many position switches stall out. Jones pushed through it, learning to take pride in the work rather than treating the role as temporary.

At many programs, that would have been the end of the story. An all-region defensive tackle would be penciled in, celebrated, and left right where he was.

At North Central, the story kept moving.

Entering 2025, the Cardinals needed help on the offensive line. Graduation and roster math have a way of forcing uncomfortable conversations, and this one was as big as they come. The staff was asking an all-region defensive lineman to go back, to start over, to give up the momentum and identity he’d earned.

“At first it was surprising because of the year I had previously,” Jones admitted. “But the coaches knew I could do it, and ultimately I believe in the coaches as far as what they want me to do. If they tell me or ask me to do something, I trust them because they believe that I can do it as well.”

That trust cuts both ways, and Stuedemann acknowledges this move was even more delicate than the first. The physical transition mattered, but the emotional one mattered more. You don’t ask a player to leave success behind unless you’re sure of the answer you’re going to get.

Jones didn’t hedge. There were no conditions attached. If that’s what the team needed, he’d do it.

The payoff has been emphatic. In 2025, Jones didn’t just slide back into the offensive line. He dominated, earning CCIW Lineman of the Year honors and first-team all-region recognition while playing alongside four new starters up front. That kind of cohesion doesn’t happen without someone who understands the entire picture.

Jones’ time on defense shows up in subtle ways. He anticipates pass rush plans, understands leverage and counters, and knows what defensive linemen want to do before they do it. Stuedemann has leaned into that perspective. “Actually I lean on him quite a bit when we're going against our defense in practice,” he said. “I’ll say, ‘What's that defensive lineman doing? Is he supposed to be doing that?’ ”

There’s humor in it, but also truth. “We laugh, but I'm serious,” Stuedemann said. “ ‘Can you take me through that?’ I’m just trying to get him to grow his overall football IQ. It's fun to experience that with him.”

When you zoom back out, Jones becomes a case study in how North Central sustains excellence. Selflessness without bitterness. Development without shortcuts. Trust that flows both directions. These aren’t slogans. They’re habits, reinforced by players willing to live them.

Jones understands that now, and he’s become a reference point for others navigating similar transitions. “I'm not the only one that has switched positions and they come to me for advice,” he said. “As far as how I took it, it was like I wasn't moved just because I couldn't do it. I was moved because I can do it. And I want to instill that in them.”

That perspective is the through-line. The ultimate North Central player isn’t defined by position, or by where his name sits on a depth chart in a given year. He’s defined by willingness, by the ability to answer the hardest questions a staff can ask with a simple yes. For Cortez Jones, that answer has already shaped a remarkable career, and it’s still pointing forward.