Veteran Clemson CB Sheridan Jones Back to Having Fun and Being Himself

CLEMSON, S.C.- Sheridan Jones is the next man up at corner for Clemson.

With Andrew Booth Jr. and Mario Goodrich both off to the NFL, Jones is now the veteran of the group.

"It's crazy, just seeing how fast time really goes by," Jones said after a recent practice. "One day I was a freshman and now I'm the oldest in the room. It was crazy. Just hearing coach Swinney really say that the days are long but the years are short, that's really hitting home, this year." 

Both Booth and Goodrich were first-team All ACC players a season ago, and Jones learned a lot about leadership playing side by side with both over the past three seasons.

"Definitely (learned) a lot, just being with them every day," Jones said. "Making sure we always get extra work and just getting back to really like having fun. Like football is a serious sport but at the end of the day, we're still out here playing football. Just getting back to having fun out, making plays and always keeping an edge."

Jones came to Clemson as a highly-touted prospect in the 2019 recruiting class and the former blue-chip recruit has admittedly always been a lead-by-example type of player. However, being the elder statesmen in the cornerback room, Jones is now working on being more vocal.

"I've always been kind of a lead by example guy," Jones said. "So I'm always trying to extra work, get those guys in the film room and things like that. I know one thing I wanted to work on was being more vocal. So I'm trying to make sure I open up and tell them, 'Do this, make sure you don't do that.' Just basically putting them under my wing and putting everybody in the best position possible to be successful."