SPORTS
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, December 14, 2018 3B
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Jones’ second chance
BILLY CALZADAI Associated Press
AJ MAST I Associated Press
Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer smiles after Ohio State defeated
Northwestern to win the Big Ten championship game on Dec. 1, in
Indianapolis.
Business as usual
Florida International running back Anthony Jones (2) runs against UTSA’s Cassius Grady during the game
on Nov. 10 in San Antonio.
FIU running back Anthony Jones has recovered
from shooting and will play in Bahamas Bowl
BY TIM REYNOLDS
Associated Press
MIAMI — The scar snakes
down the right side of Anthony
Jones’ neck, serving as a con
stant reminder of something
the FIU running back doesn’t
exactly remember nor will he
ever forget.
Had the bullet gone an inch or
two in a different direction, he
could have died.
Instead, he’s about to go play
for FIU in the Bahamas Bowl
next week.
Shot in the back on Sept. 6,
Jones has been back on the field
for several weeks already and is
now speaking out about the fate
ful day when he and FIU offen
sive lineman Mershawn Miller
were hurt in a drive-by shooting
outside a home they were visit
ing in the city of Opa-Locka, a
few miles north of downtown
Miami.
The wounds have healed. The
scar is dissipating. He’s still here.
“That first night, I asked God,
‘Why me?”’ Jones said in an
interview with The Associated
Press. “I did. You know I did. I
just wished I could rewind time,
man. Why me? I don’t ever do
anything to anybody. I’m a good
dude. I respect everybody. I’m
a respectful man. My momma
raised me right. I’ve never done
anything to anybody. I just want
to play football, graduate, get my
degree and help my family.
“I have that chance now. A
second chance.”
He’s already taking advantage
of that second chance.
In four games since return
ing, Jones — the brother of Min
nesota Vikings running back
Dalvin Cook — has three touch
downs, two receiving and one
rushing. He ran for 158 yards in
those games on 37 carries, and
the Panthers (8-4) have a chance
to set a school record for wins
should they beat Toledo in the
Bahamas Bowl on Dec. 21.
Other than the scar and some
puffiness under his eye, there’s
no visible damage.
“The doctor at the hospi
tal when it happened told me,
‘Coach, I’ve been doing this for
like 18 years and I’ve never
seen anybody survive this,” FIU
coach Butch Davis said. “And
then he described the bullet
wounds, where they went, what
they didn’t touch. For that shot
to go through and not hit any
organs, any bones, any nerve tis
sue, he said it’s a miracle. It hon
estly is a miracle.”
Jones and Miller were stand
ing outside the home on Sept. 6
at 2:21 p.m., when surveillance
video captured from across the
narrow street of single-story
homes shows a Nissan Sentra
enter the frame. Shots rang out.
The next few minutes were a
blur; Jones never lost conscious
ness, but also was unaware that
he had been shot.
“My first thought was, I’m
not hurt, so good, I can play in
two days,” Jones said. “I didn’t
think it was real, until I realized
the ambulance was coming. And
then I saw blood. That’s when I
knew it was bad.”
Doctors said Jones was shot
in the back, the bullet entering
around the collarbone and exit
ing between the bottom of his
left eye and the top of his left
cheekbone. He needed surgery
because of swelling on the right
side of his neck as well, and
had to be fed through a tube for
nearly two weeks afterward.
Jones’ mother, Betty Cook
— anyone who knows anything
about football in Miami calls her
“Miss Betty” — was on the scene
minutes after the shooting. One
of the first responders was one
of Jones’ youth football coaches,
and Jones remembers him tell
ing his mom, “Don’t worry Miss
Betty, Ant’s going to be OK.”
That was the only time Jones
was confused.
“I was wondering how he
knew my name,” he said.
The investigation is continu
ing, though police have already
charged Lorenzo Shine, 26,
with two counts of first-degree
attempted murder. Shine is a
convicted armed robber, some
one who had been out of prison
for less than three months prior
to the shooting, and is facing a
slew of other charges related to
being a felon in possession of a
weapon.
Jones said he does not know
Shine, and still has no idea why
the shooting took place.
“I don’t know anything about
him,” Jones said. “Why it hap
pened. Who he is. I’m just glad
they got him, but I don’t know the
guy or why he was there or why
he did that.”
Shine is being held without
bond. No trial date has been
set. He will be represented by
the public defender’s office and
has entered written pleas of not
guilty.
Miller was shot in the arm,
and has returned to the field for
FIU in recent weeks as well. His
injury was nowhere near as seri
ous as Jones’, and he was out of
the hospital within hours of the
shooting. But because the bullet
damaged some muscle, Miller’s
return to the field actually took
longer than Jones’ did.
Jones missed a ton of school
time, although he said every
one at FIU has been more than
understanding about his situa
tion. His weight is back up. His
strength is back to where it once
was. It took some convincing,
but teammates in practice are
actually willing to hit him again
now. Things are, somehow, near
normal.
Just don’t call him lucky.
Miss Betty would get angry.
“Everybody would come to
the hospital and they kept saying
to me, ‘Man, you’re a lucky dude,
you’re a lucky dude,”’ Jones said.
“And every time somebody said
I was a lucky dude, my mom
corrected them fast. That’s the
only time she got mad. She kept
saying, ‘No, my baby’s not lucky.
He’s blessed.’ And then I thought
about it, and realized, she’s right.
Things could have been so much
worse.”
Urban Meyer’s pregame preparation hasn’t
changed despite impending retirement
BY MITCH STACY
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Retiring
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer isn’t
easing out of the job just yet, not as
long as there’s one more game to
win.
Buckeyes players said this week
that Meyer has been at the Woody
Hayes Athletic Center for every
practice and is fully engaged in prep
arations for the Rose Bowl. As usual,
he’s still sweating the small stuff.
That kind of intensity made him one
of the greatest college coaches of
all time, but it also hastened his exit
from the game.
Meyer announced Dec.
5 he would step down after
the Jan. 1 game and hand
the keys to the program
to offensive coordinator
Ryan Day. Debilitating
headaches caused by a cyst
in Meyer’s brain worsened
throughout the season, and
he said he needs to step
away from the high-stress
job. His season started with a three-
game suspension over mismanage
ment of now-fired assistant Zach
Smith, who had been accused of
domestic abuse.
By all accounts, he hasn’t taken
his foot off the gas yet, even if he
seems to be enjoying himself more
than usual.
“Usually coach Meyer is really
tough on us, but it brings the best out
of us,” running back Mike Weber
said. “But lately it is good to just
see him smile and joke around and
everything is not always about foot
ball. You get to enjoy him kind of
like a father figure, just enjoy hav
ing normal conversations and see a
different side of him.”
“Seeing a smile on his face brings
a smile to your face,” receiver John
nie Dixon said, “because you see
nothing but joy and know he’s at
peace right now.”
Despite emerging with an 11-1
record, a second-consecutive Big
Ten championship, Rose Bowl berth
and No. 6 ranking, this season was a
rough one for the seventh-year Ohio
State coach.
It began with a three-game sus
pension. When he got back, he
lost star defensive end Nick Bosa
to a season-ending injury and the
defense struggled, leading to a loss
at Purdue on Oct. 20 that ultimately
kept the Buckeyes out of the College
Football Playoff.
Meyer seemed in pain at times
on the sideline. During one game in
early October, he dropped to a knee
because of a severe headache and
was treated by medical staff.
All of that, he acknowledged,
contributed to his decision to retire
but remain in Columbus and stay
connected in some capacity to Ohio
State. He said he won’t coach again.
“I don’t think that it has damp
ened any spirits,” offensive tackle
Isaiah Prince said. “I think it is a lit
tle emotional because coach
Meyer has done a lot for us,
especially me. I am forever
grateful for him, but I think
a lot of us have the attitude
to just go out with a bang and
send coach Meyer out the
right way.”
The Buckeyes face No.
9 Washington, the PAC 12
champion, in Pasadena.
“(He’s) still driving, still
pushing us,” defensive tackle Rob
ert Landers said. “You mess up, he’s
gonna tell you about it, so nothing
has changed. I feel that’s a part of
what coach Meyer is. He’s naturally
a competitor. Stepping out is one
of the hardest things he’s had to do
and while he’s still here in the facil
ity, he’s not gonna change. It’s in
his nature. He couldn’t help it if he
wanted to.”
Players said the “win one for
coach” talk is intensifying.
“When one of your toughest sol
diers is calling it quits, we need to
go out with a bang,” Dixon said. “It
means a lot to us and a lot to him —
all the work we’ve put in together.”
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
As expected, junior defensive
tackle Dre’Mont Jones said he’s
foregoing his senior year to enter
the NFL draft. Several Ohio State
players will decide whether to leave
early for the draft, but they are
waiting until after the Rose Bowl to
make any announcement.
Quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr.
is among them. The Heisman Tro
phy finalist broke scores of single
season passing records in his first
year as a starter.
U.S. WOMEN’S SOCCER
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Davidson aims for
World Cup roster
Cyclones’Wigginton and Young will
not return for final Big Four Classic
BY ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
Instead of wallowing in
her ankle injury, defender
Tierna Davidson did a lot
of cheering — and even
some self-styled coaching
— from the sidelines.
U.S. Soccer’s Young
Player of the
Year saw her stel
lar national team
debut season cut
short by a frac
tured ankle while
playing for Stan
ford in September.
She could only
watch as the
national team
qualified for next year’s
World Cup, and also as
Stanford extended a
45-match unbeaten streak
en route to the NCAA Col
lege Cup semifinals. She
tried to make the best of it.
“I feel like maybe I
embraced more of a
coaching role at Stanford.
There were many fans
that sat above our bench
who were telling me they
could hear me screaming
— whether it be just yell
ing at my teammates to do
well or yelling for a good
tackle, or actually giving
different instructions,” she
said. “It was hard for me
not actively to be on the
field, but doing as much as
I could was a good experi
ence to have.”
Now well on
a call-up to the
national team’s January
camp. Then 19, she went
on to start in her first-ever
appearance, a 5-1 victory
over Denmark.
“I would say one of the
hardest things obviously
is the speed of play. It is
faster than college,” she
said about making the suc
cessful jump to the national
team. “You get less time on
the ball, less time to make
decisions.”
BY LUKE MEREDITH
Associated Press
AMES, Iowa — Injured Iowa State
star Lindell Wigginton’s shirt read
“Then What?” when he met with
reporters for the first time in weeks
Thursday
That’s a question the Cyclones will
soon be asking themselves
-
the road to recov-
once Wigginton and Solomon
ery, the 5-foot-10
Young return to the lineup.
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Wigginton (strained foot), a
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show she’s worthy
sophomore guard, and Young
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of a spot on the
(strained groin), a junior for-
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World Cup roster.
ward, won’t play on Saturday
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The California
when the Cyclones (8-2) face
native’s eventful
Drake (6-1) in the final Big
Davidson
year started with
Four Classic in Des Moines.
Wigginton
But both could be back within
a week, leaving Iowa State
coach Steve Prohm with some deci
sions to make with a roster that will
soon feature about a dozen Big 12-cali-
ber players.
“There’s not going to be any drastic
changes,” Prohm said. “It’s not really
roles changing. At the end of the day it
might be a couple of minutes (lost) here
or there for a couple of guys.”
No. 22 Iowa (7-2) will face North
ern Iowa (4-5) in the second game of a
doubleheader. It’s the last season for
the six-year-old event, which is being
phased out in part because the Big
Ten’s push to 20 league games left the
Hawkeyes with less wiggle room for
their non-conference schedule.
As for Young, he’ll likely come off
the bench because Michael Jacobson is
flourishing in his first season in Ames,
averaging 14.8 points and 6.8 rebounds
a game as the center in Prohm’s four-
guard lineup. How Young fits
into a rotation that has also fea
tured former starter Cameron
Lard in a backup role has yet to
be determined.
But Wigginton is too talented
to keep in a reserve role, and
the Cyclones will likely look
to get creative with their min
utes once Big 12 play opens on
January 2.
Wigginton led Iowa State
with 16.7 points a game as a freshman
and was the only underclassman to
land a spot on the Big 12’s preseason
all-league team. When Wigginton got
hurt late in this year’s opener though, it
opened up a spot for freshman Tyrese
Haliburton — and he has quickly
become invaluable for the Cyclones.
The emergence of Haliburton, who
broke the school record with 17 assists
in Sunday’s 101-65 win over Southern,
should allow Wigginton, like Halibur
ton a point guard, to spend more time
focused on getting shots than distribut
ing the ball.
“His I.Q. is good. Coming off that
17-assist game, that’s hard for any
player in any game,” Wigginton said of
Haliburton. “He doesn’t really turn the
ball over a lot, and he can really shoot.
I really like the way he’s playing right
now.”
The nightcap will feature an Iowa
team that hasn’t played since beating
the Cyclones 98-84 on Dec. 6. That win
capped a stretch of six games against
major-conference opponents out of
seven, and Iowa went 5-2 during that
stretch to enter the Top 25.
One of the reasons why the Hawk-
eyes have played well enough to get
ranked has been the play of senior
super-sub Nicholas Baer.
Baer is 9 of 15 from 3-point range
in his last four games, and he had 14
points with seven rebounds against the
Cyclones. Baer, a former walk-on is
averaging 7.3 points and 5.1 rebounds
in just over 17 minutes an outing.
“He is incredibly versatile and is
playing really well. Playing with great
confidence,” Iowa coach Fran McCaf-
fery said. “When you’re playing with
that kind of confidence, you impact the
game in so many different ways and
that’s what he does.”
