No Doubt

BARSTOW — Derrick Jones can hear the negative talk.

He hears the doubters — the people who say, “You’re from Silver Valley.”

He hears the people who saying signing an NFL contract does not equal an NFL career.

“I hear whispers — ‘He’s not going to make it. He’s going to get cut,’ ” Jones said.

On an empty field at the Barstow Marine Corps Logistics Base, the defensive lineman runs back and forth numerous times on a recent mid-July day.

He’s preparing for the NFL — something he’s said since high school, but on this day, it’s the truth. He does running drills assigned to him by the Pittsburgh Steelers before moving onto lifting weights.

The former Silver Valley football player signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in April. He got his first taste of the NFL during minicamp in May and June and is fighting for a spot on the team’s 53-man roster at Steelers training camp in Latrobe, Pa.

Jones welcomes those who want to believe this won’t happen.

“Part of it is, he sees every single offensive lineman as someone who doubts him,” said Matt Yoches, Jones’ defensive line coach at Grand Valley State.

He speaks quietly throughout most conversations but kicks up his intensity when talking about those who doubt — doubted that he would make it out of Silver Valley to play junior college, doubted he would make it at Grand Valley State, doubted that he can make it to the NFL.

“That’s what brings my passion back — when people doubt me, and I have to prove them wrong,” Jones said.

Silver Lining

Jones’ mom, Linda, enrolled him and his brother in many sports and other activities around Fort Irwin and Barstow when they were children, but she never thought of her son as a football player. He was a quiet, reserved kid and didn’t show much interest in the sport until high school, when he caught Linda by surprise.

“He kind of blew me away when he said, ‘Mom, I’m going to play football,’ ” Linda said.

Once he started playing, football was his life. Even when he was hanging around the house, he’d toss his football around — sometimes to the annoyance of his mom and brother.

However, Jones questioned playing another down of football in his life after high school. He didn’t experience much winning during his four years at Silver Valley. The school’s varsity team went 10-29-1 during Jones’ four years at the school.

Midway through the Jones’ senior season in 2001, Doug Spencer was forced to retire due to health problems and the program limped to a 4-6 finish. Football wasn’t fun, Jones said.

“I wasn’t even going to play football after high school,” Jones said. “I was sick of it.”

He wasn’t getting encouragement to do otherwise either. With Spencer out as coach, the program was in flux with no one helping seniors to play football beyond high school.

Doug South, Lucerne Valley football coach, saw a player who should be playing football at the next level.

“He was so dominant,” South said. “He was so much better than the people around him both on his school and others.”

South, who used to coach football at Silver Valley, was working the shot put event at a track meet between Lucerne Valley and Silver Valley, where Jones was competing. South began asking Jones about his plans, only to discover he didn’t have any.

The events finished, South pulled Jones aside and called up Dave Hoover, Victor Valley Community College football coach.

“Yea, I’m from Lucerne Valley, but what does it hurt to take 10 to 15 minutes out of your time to say, ‘Hey, you’re a good football player?’ ”

Battering Ram

When Jones began playing with the Rams, Hoover was impressed by his quiet and polite demeanor, but Jones wasn’t exactly penciled in as a starter.

“He wasn’t our top prospect by any means,” Hoover said. “I didn’t have really high expectations to be honest.

“He’s not a real brash athlete like you are used to these days. He’s real quiet and unassuming.”

Jones had something to prove.

The Rams didn’t have a football history much different from Silver Valley’s when Jones arrived. They finished with a combined record of 4-16 in Hoover’s first two years as head coach with all four wins coming in his second season.

Jones was a part of class that helped turn the Rams around though. VVCC barely missed the playoffs in 2002, finishing with a 6-3 record.

“The love of the game came back,” Jones said. “The passion came back.”

Another transformation was about to happen. Jones weighed about 205 pounds when he began playing for Victor Valley. He added 50 pounds before the beginning of the 2003 season.

“Yes, we have a very structured weight-lifting program, but Derrick’s getting big and strong comes down to Derrick,” Hoover said. “Some guys always talk about going to the next level and don’t work hard. Derrick rarely talks about going to the next

level and always works hard.”

The Rams dominant defense helped lead them to the program’s first-ever bowl appearance. Jones recorded 141⁄2 sacks, 91 tackles, six forced fumbles, 41 hurries and one blocked kick that season.

Jones initially signed with Division I San Jose State following his career at VVCC, but he never ended up playing for the Spartans. A Spanish class he didn’t finish in Victorville prevented him from transferring. Jones sat out a year before Hoover was able to sell Div. II powerhouse Grand Valley State in Michigan on Jones.

“Even then, I knew I just had to work hard,” Jones said.

Another Valley

By the time Jones arrived at Grand Valley State, his weight was up to about 270 pounds.

“He looked like he should have been playing somewhere like USC or just bigger than Grand Valley State just by his size,” Yoches said.

After being unrecruited out of high school, but eventually starring at VVCC, Jones was ready to finally prove himself at a higher level, but it didn’t work out like that immediately.

A bad spring when he arrived on campus put Jones behind before the 2005 season even started.

He said coaches were ready to finally insert him as the starter in the third game of the season, but an injury kept him playing mostly in obvious passing situations. He recorded nine tackles and two sacks that season.

Jones speaks with a hint of frustration about the situation. He said he was clearly better than the player the Lakers started on the defensive line. Those around him saw a player and a person adjusting to a new situation a world away from his California desert home.

Girlfriend Lauren Domanski said when she first met Jones at Grand Valley, he was friendly but a bit of a loner. Yoches said he needed the time to get acclimated with the Lakers’ defensive system.

“Physically he could start, but it was just adapting to getting acclimated to college football,” Yoches said.

It was another opportunity to prove people wrong. Jones continued working hard in the gym, adding even more weight before his senior season.

“If he gets down on himself, he gets back up and says, ‘I need to show people I can do this,’ ” Domanski said.

The work paid off. He started getting attention from NFL scouts during the season, recorded 62 tackles and 9.5 sacks while starting 15 games and helped Grand Valley State to its second consecutive NCAA Div. II Championship.

A Steal

One of the people who took notice of Jones’ performance was John Mitchell, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line coach for the last 14 years. Mitchell, who was recently named Steelers assistant head coach, liked Jones’ mixture of speed, athleticism and size. He helped convince the Steelers to pick him up when Jones fell through the draft.

When the Steelers take the field Saturday against the New Orleans Saints, Jones won’t be fighting for a starting spot so much as just a roster spot.

“He’ll have a chance to play and compete, but it’s not going to be tomorrow, next week or next month,” Mitchell said. “We did not take him for that reason.”

Jones, who signed a three-year deal with the Steelers after the draft, is expected to get plenty of work during the preseason and could compete on special teams throughout the year.

The Steelers are loaded with players taken as low-round draft picks or undrafted free agents. James Harrison, Willie Parker, Chris Hoke and Brett Keisel are examples of players who worked to prominent positions with the Steelers despite being drafted late or not at all.

For now, Jones has plenty of people to prove wrong — and he doesn’t see that ending anytime soon.

“When that day comes, I’m probably done playing football,” Jones said. “I don’t think that day is ever going to happen. There’s still going to be doubters out there. I just use it as motivation and keep working hard.”