Sept. 10, 2009
Caitlin Mangum, Texas Media Relations
The new, state-of-the-art academic facility in the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Center is not the only addition to the Longhorn football program's educational efforts. In July, Curtis Jones joined The University of Texas as an academic counselor, bringing a wealth of personal and professional experience, as well as bevy of new insight and ideas.
As academic counselor, Jones is responsible for academic support for offensive linemen and linebackers. He will also assist in The University's efforts to enhance the academic services including the study hall, tutor, and mentor programs. Jones shares the department's vision to mold these programs to better suit the unique demands on student-athletes.
"We would like to evolve toward a more objective based study hall, where we are actually having students come in, meet with someone, define a goal, and at the end of that two or three hours, hopefully they have accomplished that finite goal of the day and then they can build on that," Jones said.
Jones joins Texas from the University of South Florida, where he served as the assistant athletics director for football student-athlete development.
Prior to that, Jones spent several years at a certain school in Norman, Okla., advising both the football and baseball teams on their academic endeavors. When asked about what it is like trading in crimson for burnt orange, Jones smirked and replied coyly, "Very strange."
Nonetheless, Jones is excited to join The University of Texas and help to build on its tradition of academic and athletic excellence.
"Texas has a very challenging curriculum, and the students who come to school here have to be student-athletes," Jones said. "It is very impressive the ones who can be successful, and it is exciting to try and develop programs to help them to be successful in such a rigorous environment."
Jones himself is no stranger to such rigors. A four-year letterman in baseball, he received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Dartmouth College in 1995. He later attended graduate school and obtained his master's degree in journalism (advertising-copywriting) in the spring of 1998 from the University of Missouri.
Besides his own stint on the Dartmouth baseball team, Jones was immersed in collegiate athletics at a young age. His father, Curtis, Sr., served as an assistant football coach at Missouri where his brother, Corby, was the starting quarterback. His personal experience coupled with his family background help Jones relate to both the needs of and demands on student-athletes today.
"My exposure to college athletics helps me to understand their time constraints, some of the pressures that they are under, and their desire for freedom," said Jones. "When every second of your day is accounted for, you understand there is burnout involved. It helps you to try and relate and try and develop ways of doing things that will reward student-athletes for a job well done, as well as allow them freedom when possible."
Brian Davis, associate athletics director for student services, believes this will help Jones succeed at UT. Davis admires Jones' competence and energy, both of which are making an immediate impact on the players and coaches.
"He has always impressed me as a very skillful counselor," Davis said. "He has a great energy about him, and I think that we needed that new energy around here for our players. He and I think alike in many ways, but he also brings some new ideas, and I am all for listening to new ideas to see how they fit into the structure of what we already have in place."
It also does not hurt that Jones could easily blend in with the student-athletes he advises.
"You hate to say it, but just visually he is pretty built up for an academic counselor," Davis laughed. "He gets the attention of the players just from that. He looks like an athlete, he walks like an athlete, he talks like an athlete, but he has that other polish that really comes across. I think that with anyone in education when you are talking to students, you better be really confident in what you are saying if you want them to listen to you. He has that kind of confidence and that aura."
Plus, as Davis adds, "Curtis likes to win"--a quality which he shares with his student-athletes and their efforts both on the field and in the classroom.
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