Michigan State linebacker Shane Jones taking team-first approach to final season

EAST LANSING — Shane Jones doesn't like to talk about himself.

He deflects all praise to his teammates and absorbs blame. He is a team-first guy with a win-first attitude.

"Selfless" is the word co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Mike Tressel uses to describe the fifth-year senior linebacker from Cincinnati.

Jones might not like to toot his own horn, but his coaches and teammates had no issue singing his praises at Michigan State's annual media day earlier this week.

“He has accepted the role of utility player,” Tressel said. “He has studied the defense enough to play every position. He has also done a great job of helping younger guys and coaching them up.”

Junior outside linebacker Andrew Dowell used to be one of those young guys.

Last season, he started eight games. He credits Jones with preparing him for a starting role.

“He’s been good for me,” Dowell said. “As a player, Shane is really good at coaching and teaching you the defense. He will pull you aside after a play and break things down in a way that’s simpler for you that the coach might not have explained the same way.

“He’s a great leader.”

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Jones (6-1, 236) earned three starts of his own for the Spartans last fall, filling in for the injured Riley Bullough. He finished the season with a career-high 28 tackles, including a 13-tackle performance in a home loss to BYU.

The Archbishop Moeller (Ohio) product is one of only 12 seniors on the Spartans roster this fall. He is now the "old guy."

A grizzled vet, if you will.

The nearly 30 MSU players that were made available to the media Monday all heard the dreaded questions about a tumultuous offseason and were reminded again and again that this team went 3-9 last fall. Jones, sporting a bright white smile under a bushy black beard, surrounded by cameras, didn't shy away from "the noise."

Unlike a vast majority of guys in this locker room, Jones has seen it all.

He is a Rose Bowl champion. He’s been to the College Football Playoff. He has been a part of two Big Ten title teams.

Jones has also seen the worst life has to offer, with the tragic deaths of teammates Mike Sadler and Mylan Hicks.

“Sometimes I sit back and think about what a lot of seniors have told me before -- time here goes fast. My time here has gone fast,” he said. “These five years here have been some of the best years of my life.”

In other words, Jones is enjoying the ride. Good and bad.

That humility comes from his upbringing, he said, crediting his mother, Antonia Jones, and his brother, Eric Thatcher, who played safety at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Be humble or get humbled,"' Jones said of the advice he has received from family and coaches. "I learned that at a young age."

Jones likely won’t be in the starting lineup again this fall, barring injury, sitting in the two-deep behind Joe Bachie, Chris Frey and Dowell.

That doesn’t faze Jones.

He said he likes the makeup of this team, and the linebacking corps could be one of the best in the nation, he claims. Jones said he will continue to be a vocal leader and make plays when his number is called.

His expectations are high. Winning is the key.

“Everybody wants to start, but I do whatever is asked of me week in and week out,” he said. “Whatever my role is, I will always accept it and try to do my best every week.”

Tressel said that mentality is one of a true “Spartan Dawg.”

“I’ve been really impressed with the leadership he’s shown,” Tressel said. “(He is a) fifth-year guy who is not starting yet. That can be frustrating. He hasn’t shown any bad body language. Shane is a guy who knows he will get his turns.”

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @CodyTucker_LSJ.