{"id":182685,"date":"2025-07-05T05:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T05:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/182685\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T05:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T05:54:11","slug":"jones-makes-college-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/182685\/","title":{"rendered":"Jones makes college decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Class of 2026 cornerback Darion Jones<\/a> has made his college decision. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound Omaha native announced today that he is going to be a Hawkeye after giving his verbal commitment to the Iowa coaching staff. For Jones, it was his official visit to Iowa City last month that sealed the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say what really made up my mind was just being there and seeing the culture and how close everyone is,\u201d Jones told\u00a0HawkeyeReport.com<\/a>. \u201cThe fit is really good because of the relationships I\u2019ve made with the coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a junior, Jones had quite an impressive season<\/a> at\u00a0Omaha North<\/a>, finishing the year with 47 tackles and eight interceptions on defense, 43 catches for 781 yards and 11 touchdowns on offense, and four returns for touchdowns on special teams.<\/p>\n

That type of production led to scholarship offers from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas State, Minnesota, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Washington State, Colorado State, Fresno State, New Mexico, Wyoming, Miami-OH, South Dakota State, and Dartmouth. But the chance to be coached and developed by Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker<\/a> was a key factor for the three-star prospect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the opportunity at Iowa is amazing, just seeing how many of their defensive backs have gone on to the NFL,\u201d said Jones. \u201cThat\u2019s the dream right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing at Iowa will also give the Class of 2026 prospect the unique opportunity to play against his older brother, Donovan Jones<\/a>, who is a redshirt freshman at Nebraska this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already talked about it,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Jones is commitment No. 14 for the Hawkeyes in the\u00a0Class of 2026<\/a>. He joins offensive linemen\u00a0Carson Nielsen<\/a>,\u00a0Hudson Parliament<\/a>,\u00a0Gene Riordan<\/a>,\u00a0Owen Linder<\/a>, and\u00a0Colin Whitters<\/a>, wide receivers\u00a0Brody Schaffer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Diondre Smith<\/a>, defensive backs\u00a0Marcello Vitti<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ronnie Hill<\/a>, defensive lineman\u00a0Sawyer Jezierski<\/a>, and linebackers\u00a0Kasen Thomas<\/a>, Julian Manson<\/a>, and Billy Weivoda<\/a> on Iowa\u2019s list. The Hawkeyes have also added preferred walk-ons\u00a0Isaiah Oliver<\/a>, Noah Daniel<\/a>, and Eli Robbins<\/a>\u00a0in the class as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels amazing,\u201d said Jones. \u201cAll of the people I\u2019ve met there are great, especially in my class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay with\u00a0HawkeyeReport.com<\/a>\u00a0for the latest on Iowa football recruiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Class of 2026 cornerback Darion Jones has made his college decision. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound Omaha native announced today…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[39849,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-182685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-darion-jones-26-omaha-north","9":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114799081204004200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}