ARIZONA STATE FOOTBALL
Emory Jones’ decision to transfer to ASU ‘wasn’t hard’ for new starting QB
When the Arizona State Sun Devils football team takes the field for the first time of the 2022 regular season against Northern Arizona on Sept. 1, they will be doing so with a new man under center.
After three seasons with Jayden Daniels running the offense, it’s time for the Emory Jones show to take control of the Sun Devils’ offense.
ASU head coach Herm Edwards named Jones the team’s ‘QB1’ on Thursday, after a training camp battle with fellow quarterbacks Paul Tyson and Trenton Bourguet.
“It’s a lot different, a different landscape for me,” Jones told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo about his new home. “It’s been a smooth transition for me, though.”
Jones, the LaGrange, Georgia native who spent the first four years of his collegiate career at Florida, traded the southern humidity for the Valley heat.
The quarterback, however, said he went on a trip to Arizona during spring break this year before making the decision to transfer.
After participating in spring ball at Florida under new head coach Billy Napier, Jones entered the transfer portal. He said he was in contact with Oklahoma, Notre Dame and UCF before ultimately making the decision to head to ASU.
“It really wasn’t hard, I only took one official visit and it was here,” Jones said. “Coach Herm, throughout the recruitment, he talked to me and my mom almost every day.”
Comparing it to his recruitment as a high schooler, Jones said he knew exactly what he was looking for, which was ultimately support.
“I knew that he would take care of me on and off the field and put me in the best position to be successful,” Jones said.
The signal caller added the coaching staff’s “crazy” experience in the NFL also interested him in being a Sun Devil.
Jones said he also had a conversation with Daniels, ASU’s former quarterback, with the two having a relationship from attending camps together in the past.
“He kind of just filled me in with the roster and told me how some of the guys were,” Jones said of his conversation with Daniels. “He said he (Edwards) had his back through everything they went through here, and that honestly was what stood out most to me.”
