Athlete & Scholar...Keith Jones
By Jim Joanos
Keith Jones is well known to most Florida State football fans. He has been a part of the football broadcast team for Sunshine Network television since its inception in 1988. During that time, he has served as the color analyst for all of FSU's games that have been carried by that network. Fans listening to him cannot help but be amazed by his knowledge of the intricacies of football. What some fans may not know is that Jones was an outstanding member of the 1978-80 Florida State football teams. Some fans might also be surprised to learn that Jones is one of the brightest student-athletes to have come through FSU's athletic program.
Nineteen Seventy-Seven
In 1977, things were looking up for FSU football. A new coach named, "Bobby Bowden", had been hired the previous year to head a team that had only won four games in three years. Bowden's leadership had paid off almost immediately. In Bowden's first season, the team had won five and lost six games. They had won the last three games of the 1976 season. Bowden had been limited in his ability to recruit prior to that 1976 season as he had been hired too late to make a strong impact upon the recruiting process. However, fortunately for FSU and Bowden, Bowden inherited a number of very good young players from his predecessor, Darrell Mudra, who provided a foundation upon which to build.
The 1977 recruiting period gave Bowden his first big opportunity at FSU to choose players and he took full advantage of it. Recruiting was not easy for FSU then. In 1977, FSU was generally relegated to the second tier of recruits, as Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and the likes were choosing among the blue chip national recruits while Alabama, Georgia, and Florida were having their way with the best Florida high school athletes.
However, Bowden has always been a great recruiter, and in 1977, he may have done his best job ever. He came up with a group that is referred to by many as the "class that built Bowden's program at FSU". Many members of that class have become household names in FSU football folk lore. The "prize jewel" of the class was Ron Simmons of Warner Robbins, Georgia. Simmons had been considered one of the best high school linebackers in all of America from a team that had been regarded as one of the top five high school teams in the nation. As a nose guard at FSU, Simmons would make an immediate impact and go on to become the Seminoles' first ever two year consensus first team All American. The class also included kicker Bill Capeece, linebackers Reggie Herring and Paul Piurowski, running backs Homes Johnson, and Ernie Sims, wide receiver Sam Platt, tight end Bill Keck, offensive linemen Ken Lanier, Mark Mace, John Madden, and Barry Voltapetti, as well as defensive backs Bobby Butler, Monk Bonosorte, and Keith Jones. Those three defensive back recruits together with Ivory Joe Hunter who was already at FSU would form a tight-knit group that would help stifle the passing attacks of many foes.
Keith Jones was one of the members of the class that was also recruited by some of the more established programs. He chose FSU over the University of Florida, Alabama and Georgia Tech. At Wildwood High School in central Florida, he had been a two-time first team All 2A State quarterback who also played defensive back. Well rounded, he played baseball as well as served his classmates as their class president all four years and in his senior year was also student body president. No slouch in the classroom, Jones excelled there and graduated as the salutatorian of his class just narrowly being edged out of the top academic spot.
Jones says that he chose FSU for two reasons. First, because of Bobby Bowden. Jones and his family were "very comfortable" with Bowden. Secondly, he wanted to play defensive back in college. Most of the teams that recruited him wanted him as a quarterback. Jones had already formed one of his prime philosophical tenets that he would carry with him during his FSU years and later in life, as well, that "it is better to be a 'hittor' than a 'hittee'. At FSU he became one of the hardest tackling defensive backs in the school's history.
Coach Jim Gladden
Very instrumental in Jones' recruitment was Assistant Coach Jim Gladden who had come to FSU a year before Bowden. Gladden had been assigned the central Florida area for recruiting. He was the initial reason that Jones got interested in FSU. Jones still regards Gladden as the "best recruiter" that he has ever encountered. Gladden would call Jones each Saturday morning following his Friday night high school game and already know the statistics of what Jones had done in the game. Jones is puzzled to this day as to how Gladden got that information so soon as there was no internet then and the newspapers that would carry the information had not yet been distributed that early in the morning.
Jones especially remembers the effect Gladden had upon him on his official recruiting trip to Tallahassee for the 1976 game against Clemson. Florida State, although leading most of the way during the game had been worn down and ultimately lost in the late minutes of the game. After the game, Jones remembers Gladden as "being in tears and apologizing" to Jones and his father for how badly the team had played in the fourth quarter. Gladden promised that they were "going to fix that".
Jones' First Season at FSU
Nineteen seventy-seven was a special year for FSU as the team went 10-2 in the regular season and then mauled Texas Tech 40-17 in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando. Although he did not even dress for a single regular season game, Jones thoroughly enjoyed the year. He liked his new position, strong safety, and he describes every day as being a "fresh" one and that the team "was in un-chartered territory". FSU attained success that year that had not been enjoyed in a number of years. Although he did not play, Jones did not get down and continued to work hard in practice. He was confident that "his day" would come. A member of his recruiting class, Ron Simmons, was already a national star, and others, including Bobby Butler, Monk Bonosorte, and Reggie Herring, had gotten into some games. At the end of the season, he was rewarded for his persistence as he and three other non-regulars were taken as part of the team to the bowl game.
Nineteen Seventy-Eight
The 1978 season opened with FSU playing at Syracuse. Jones was not scheduled to start. However, during pre-game practice, it was determined that the scheduled starter at free safety could not go because of an ankle injury. Bonosorte who was scheduled to start at strong safety was moved to free safety and Jones became the starter at strong safety where he would be for his three remaining years at FSU. Thus, Jones started in every game that he played in at FSU. FSU beat Syracuse in that first game and went on to have a good 8-3 season but there was no bowl game at the end. FSU, rather than court the officials of one of the other smaller bowls, had hoped to go to the larger Gator Bowl that it had not gone to since 1967. The effort turned out to be fruitless as the Gator Bowl snubbed FSU in favor of Pittsburgh and Clemson. FSU's failure to be invited to a bowl that year is one of the reasons why the Seminole Boosters later formed a bowl hospitality committee with the purpose of preventing the team from being overlooked in the future.
Jones has an interesting recollection of one of the games that year. Just before the game at Mississippi State, the boosters had raised some money and bought some new sweat suits for the team. Each suit had the individual player's number on it. When the team got to Starkville on Friday preceding the Saturday game, they held an enthusiastic workout on the field in those sweats. When the game was played the next day, despite leading at half time 21-14, FSU lost the game 55-27. Jones says that the fancy sweats with the numbers were never seen again. "They just disappeared". In addition, it was the last time that the team had a vigorous workout on the Friday preceding a Saturday game. Thereafter, at away games, the team would merely have a walk through in the opposing team's stadium on the day before a game.
Nineteen Seventy-Nine...An undefeated regular season
In Jones' third year at FSU the team had its greatest year in history up to that point by winning all eleven of the regular season games. While most of the games were decisive wins for the Seminoles, there were some real close ones. In the very first game of the season, FSU had to have a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown by Gary Henry late in the fourth quarter to pull out a win over Southern Mississippi, 17-14. In the third game, an interception by Monk Bonosorte in the fourth quarter preserved a 17-10 win over Virginia Tech. After beating LSU at Baton Rouge, 24-19, the following week, FSU was behind Cincinnati 21-7 in the fourth quarter. FSU scored three touchdowns in the final quarter to win, 26-21. In the final game against the University of Florida, FSU had to fight and scratch throughout the game to pull out a very close 27-16 win over the Gators despite Florida's record coming into the game of 0-9-1. The undefeated season got FSU its first ever trip to one of the major bowls, the Orange Bowl. Although FSU took an early 7-0 lead, Oklahoma under the leadership of quarterback J.C. Watts and running back Billy Sims dominated the bowl game and beat FSU 24-7.
Jones remembers the team consistency that year as most remarkable. There were very few injuries. Eight of the defensive players started every game of the season. They included Jones, Bonosorte, Butler, Herring, Piurowski, Simmons, Macek, and Scott Warren. The defensive team was so together that they could change defenses or responsibilities right up to the snap dependent upon what the opposing team showed. Another characteristic of the defense was their intelligence. They knew exactly what they were doing throughout and were serious students of the game. In the classroom they did well all as all would get their diplomas before they left FSU.
Because of the loss in the Orange Bowl and the depression that came with it, Jones said that it was a while later before they "realized what we had done" in that fantastic season that ended with FSU in the AP's 6th spot, the highest that an FSU team had ever finished a season up to that time.
Nineteen Eighty and another Orange Bowl
The 1980 FSU team was also a fine one. Despite two very painful losses, there are many that believe that it was FSU's greatest team until the 1993 one. The team started the season by shutting out LSU in Baton Rouge, 16-0, and Louisville in Tallahassee, 52-0, then bombing East Carolina, 63-7, before losing at Miami 10-9, when with 39 seconds left FSU went for an unsucessful two-point conversion and had quarterback Rick Stockstill's pass batted down by a defensive lineman. Despite the loss, the team, seven days later, went into Lincoln, Nebraska, before a sea of over 76,000 red clad fans and beat Nebraska 18-14. The victory was saved when Paul Piurowski forced the Husker quarterback to fumble on the FSU three yard line with about ten seconds left in the game. After that FSU cruised with wins over Pittsburgh, Boston College, Memphis State, Tulsa, and Virginia Tech. Then, in the final game of the regular season, FSU beat Florida in a close, tough game, 17-13. This set up a return match with Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
Despite FSU being in control during most of the way in the Orange Bowl game, Oklahoma staged an uncharacteristic passing drive in the late minutes that ended with Sooner Quarterback J.C. Watts completing an eleven yard touchdown pass to a diving receiver to put Oklahoma ahead for good with 1:27 remaining on the clock. Jones and his teammates were devastated by the loss. He describes it as "of all the things that I have done athletically, that was the worst feeling that I have ever had". Jones' father had taped the game for him. He still has the tape, but to this day, he has never watched it. Despite the loss, FSU was ranked 5th by the Association Press at the season's end, which exceeded the previous year's number six as the highest final ranking by an FSU football team until then.
Four Great Years
Thus, ended the four years that Jones and that great class that was recruited in 1977, played at FSU. During the time, the team went 39-8, and played in three bowl games, including the first two in FSU's history in a major bowl. The team also beat its archrival, the University of Florida, all four years. Jones, a three year starter, who graded out among the best defensive players in all three of those years, was also FSU's first ever two-time NCAA First Team Academic All American. Jones graduated from FSU, Magna Cum Laude, in 1981, with a degree from the College of Business in Risk Mangement.
Since graduation, Jones has had a very successful career in business and insurance. He and wife, Kathy, who is also an FSU grad, live in Tallahassee. There are five children. Currently he serves as an insurance program administrator. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor in FSU's College of Business and teaches on a regular basis. In addition to his broadcast duties with Sunshine Network, since 2000, he has teamed with Gene Deckerhoff to do the FSU basketball radio broadcasts.
Jones looks back upon his four years at FSU and has wonderful memories about the guys that he played with. He regards Bobby Butler who went on to play for 12 years with the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL as the "greatest athlete" that he ever played with. He believes that what Bill Capeece did as a kicker with FSU compares very favorably with the accomplishments of later day Sebastian Janikowski. He goes further and says that the combination of Capeece as a kicker and Rohn Stark, the punter, may have been the best kicking combination "anywhere at any time." He regards linebacker Reggie Herring as the "most committed football player" that he has ever seen. He remembers running back Homes Johnson as "the best that never was". Believes that if Johnson had just finished his career, that "we would still be talking about him". Monk Bonosorte was the "smartest football player" that Jones ever knew. He could "even read the lips of the opposing coaches". He regards Ken Lanier as FSU's "first prototypical NFL type lineman" and that his outstanding twelve year career with the Denver Broncos "speaks for itself". Mark Macek had "the best foot work of any lineman" that he has ever seen. He refers to John Madden as the "Mister Consistency" who replaced "Mister Consistency", Gil Wesley as FSU's center. Paul Piurowski was an "absolute football player" in his estimation, and that running back Ernie Sims was "the hardest guy to tackle, ever". He believes that playing Sam Platt at wide receiver and then at running back was one of Coach Bowden's first brillant coaching moves at FSU. He says that the very first time that he saw Ron Simmons he knew that he was "playing with the best college football player at his position at the time". Defensive back Ivory Joe Hunter was also a favorite and Jones remembers Hunter as "always talking". He still marvels at how quarterbacks Jimmy Jordan and Wally Woodham got along so well when they jointly played one position. He says that he "never sensed any animosity between them". "It was like they were supposed to share that job".
He also has kind words to say about those who coached the team. He says that at the time, he did not appreciate "what Jack Stanton (defensive backs coach) was doing for us because we were young". However, "immediately after leaving, the lessons learned payed high dividends because of the work habits that had been learned". He says that Bob Harbison had the "institutional knowledge that every program should have that comes from someone having been there and seeing it happen". Coach Bobby Bowden was his "second Dad". As a defensive player, Jones did not have much interaction with Bowden, but if he had a question, he knew that "the door was always open". He is still amazed by Bowden's "consistency and loyalty", and says that Bowden was and is everything that Jones has "wanted to become". One of his greatest treasures is to be able to say that "I played for Bobby".