Jared Jones is talking a million miles an hour, which is fitting because that’s how he plays football.

The sophomore outside linebacker is pretty excitable, even when he’s doing a casual interview for his first time as an Air Force football player, so when he played his first career game Saturday, starting on the Falcons’ defense, he was a little amped up.

“The first series I couldn’t even catch my breath,” Jones said. “It wasn’t because I was tired, because God knows we condition our butts off out here. But I was going nuts.”

That’s one reason he won a starting job in August. Stephan Atrice was the presumptive starter opposite Alex Means, but a hamstring injury cost him most of camp. Jones and Steven Sumpter battled in camp, and Jones won the spot. His effort in practice was hard to ignore.

“His motor and his energy never stop,” defensive coordinator Charlton Warren said.“He’s going to give you everything he’s got every play. He’s going to go hard, now. He’s a bull in a china shop. We just have to make sure he’s fundamentally sound in the defense.”

Jones said he isn’t a “rah-rah guy” and doesn’t celebrate his own plays, but he had to make an exception against Idaho State. He sacked the quarterback on third down, and said he was overwhelmed with excitement. As he celebrated his first sack with Means and the rest of his teammates, something odd happened.

“Even from high school I’ve never heard the crowd, you focus on the snap count and then boom,” Jones said. “But for the first time, I finally heard the crowd, after he went down. That was pretty cool.”

Jones’ debut almost didn’t happen. A passing comment from one of Air Force’s trainers probably saved Jones’ season.

Jones was supposed to be wearing a left knee brace during training camp, as a result of an injury suffered at the prep school when his anterior cruciate ligament was stretched and his lateral collateral ligament was partially torn as the result of a low block. But he hated the brace. When trainer Derrick Fitts asked him why he wasn’t wearing it, he went to see the doctors who told him he still needed it.

Three days later in a scrimmage, he was hit on the knee and was obviously upset and hurting on the field. But instead of the worst-case scenario, he only suffered a hyperextension and was back at practice a few days later.

“They said, ‘That probably saved your knee,’” Jones said about the brace.

He’s still wearing the brace, and is grateful for his health and what he has accomplished. He didn’t see any time for the Falcons last year as he rehabilitated the knee – he said if he underwent surgery after his prep school season he would have missed basic training, and admits he might not have come back to the academy at all – and was wearing his academy uniform last year instead of his football uniform. From that, to being a virtual unknown a month ago, to a key starter on a defense that will play at Michigan on Saturday, it has been a pretty incredible journey.

“It’s so weird, a year ago my parents were watching me march on instead of being on the field,” Jones said. “I just got on the grind and worked for it.”

Contact Frank Schwab: 476-4891

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Air Force linebacker Jared Jones celebrates with teammates during the first half of the game at Falcon Stadium. Air Force and Idaho State played at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

Jerilee Bennett