Coach Rick Jones

COACH RICK JONES Leaving High School Football

By Leland Barclay SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR

One of the most successful coaching tenures in the history of Arkansas high school football ended on Friday.

Greenwood’s Rick Jones accepted a coaching consultant position with the University of Missouri and new head coach Eli Drinkwitz.

Drinkwitz became the head coach at the University of Missouri in December and reached out to Jones.

“When he got the job, he sent me a text and said that he wasn’t going to do anything until after recruiting but would I want to talk,” Jones said. “That’s how it went.”

Jones is 317-74 overall as a high school head coach at three Oklahoma schools, including his alma mater of Edmond, and at Greenwood, where he was 185- 26 in 16 seasons.

At Greenwood, under Jones, the Bulldogs won eight state championships, including two three-peats in 2005-2007 and 2010-2012 before winning consecutive titles in 2017 and 2018.

Jones’ eight state championships ties him with Barton’s Frank McClellan and Pulaski Academy’s Kevin

After 16 years as Greenwood’s head football coach, Rick Jones, leaves to be a coaching consultant at University of Missouri. Photo courtesy of Greenwood Schools

Kelley for second in Arkansas history behind only Wilson Matthews, the famed coach at Little Rock High and Little Rock Central, who won 10 from 1947-1957.

Like Matthews, who joined Frank Broyles as a top assistant at the University of Arkansas, Jones also goes to the collegiate ranks as a top assistant for a young coach in Drinkwitz, an Alma native.

“It will be interesting,” Jones said. “It’s the top level of college football. While I won’t be an on-the-field coach, I will be close enough that I can see how it goes, what they do, how they do it and learn from it.”

Drinkwitz said Friday he can “neither confirm nor deny” Jones’ hiring. Missouri officials did not release any statements Friday. eran coach, who had a young daughter and young son when he arrived in Greenwood.

“Being around the kids and the coaches and the community,” Jones said. “I raised my kids here. Reagan was a first-grader and Kevin was a second-grader when we got here. It’s home. It’s the best place to coach in America.”

Jones will make the move to Missouri for the second time to coach college football. He served as an assistant at Southwest Missouri State for three years from 1992 through 1994.

Now, he’s eager to begin a new chapter in the nation’s most competitive college football arena.

“It’s going to be a great adventure,” Jones said.

It was the allure of coaching in the Southeastern Conference that was too much for Jones to pass up.

“It’s the opportunity,” he said. “I think it will be fun. I want to learn.”

Jones came to Greenwood in 2004 and immediately took the Bulldogs to the state championship game, losing to Wynne and missing on a two-point attempt to end the game.

Then the Bulldogs won three in a row and set in motion an unprecedented run during the modern playoff era.

“I need to go learn a different way of doing things,” Jones said. “That’s the main thing. I want to learn how they do it and see if I can figure out how to do it better.”

Jones produced six Divisions I quarterbacks at Greenwood and developed an off-season speed and conditioning program that is now emulated across the state.

Obviously, the decision was a tough one for the vet

Players pour ice water onto Greenwood head coach Rick Jones after defeating Pine Bluff to win the 6A State Championship game at War Memorial Stadium on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017.

Photo by Brian D. Sanderford