Cornel Jones and his 'Fight Me' towel making trip to Illinois

Right before the first practice this week, Cornel Jones picked up his white hand towel, saw a black Sharpie and his 19-year-old mind began to wonder.

In just a few seconds, the sophomore linebacker's towel became a motivational tactic to literally and figuratively give Purdue's offense some fighting words. In big bold, capital letters, Jones wrote 'FIGHT ME!' on his towel to remind any offensive players standing across from him this week in practice that he was ready for his physicality to be challenged.

"I literally just walked into the locker room, saw a Sharpie and thought, 'Hmm, I'm going to write ‘fight me’ on my towel,’” Jones said with a smile. "I just wanted to see if I could get the offense going for this rivalry game. I'll definitely try to wear it Saturday."

Purdue (2-3, 1-1 Big Ten) will try to bring home the Cannon trophy for the third straight season and the 11th time in the last 14 seasons when they travel to Illinois (3-2, 1-1) this weekend. Fresh off a road win at Nebraska and an open week, Jones wanted to do his part to inspire an offense that is third in the Big Ten in total yards and second in passing yards.

"I needed something to get the offense going and let them know who we were playing, what we're playing for," Jones said. "Since we got a week off, I didn't want those guys to think we were just chilling and we could go into somebody else's town and they'll just lay down for us. It's the total opposite."

Jones has certainly emerged as two things for this Purdue defense: A consistent tackle producer and a prankster. The sophomore from Miami is one of six players with at least 30 tackles and leads all Purdue players with eight tackles for loss. Jones' presence inside at middle linebacker has allowed Boilermaker defensive coordinator Nick Holt to get creative with Markus Bailey and Derrick Barnes in his blitz schemes. According to Pro Football Focus data, Jones is the second-highest-ranked defensive player on Purdue's roster through five games.

"The defense we have is set up for the inside ‘backers and those guys should be the stars of the team," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said last month of Jones' early play. "We want him to be a vocal leader, do things the right way, but he is a talented football player that has a good instinct and knack for making plays. We just need him to be a leader as much as he can."

Jones will be key in spying Illinois quarterback AJ Bush and stopping the zone-read inside runs from the Illini's 1-2 punch at tailback of Reggie Corbin and Mike Epstein. Jones says the Illini's zone-read options and run-pass option look are very similar to a high school matchup in the Miami area when he was asked to contain Chatarius “Tutu” Atwell, a 5-foot-9 quarterback at Miami Northwestern High in a replicated scheme. Atwell is a freshman wide receiver at Louisville who just caught two touchdown passes against Georgia Tech last weekend.

"The (Nebraska) game gave me a flashback to high school where there was a fast guy who can throw the ball a little bit," Jones said. "Now we respect a guy that can use his legs and can throw the ball but we saw that last week."

Holt's emphasis this week in practice has been to stress his linebackers need to increase the awareness of their speed to the ball right from the initial snap. After watching Nebraska rush for 259 yards two weeks ago, Purdue's linebackers now understand that one flat-footed moment against a zone-read offense could mean surrendering a big chunk-yardage play to Illini run game, which ranks 13th in the nation.

"Holt wants us moving at 300 miles per hour on every single play," Jones said. "We don't have walk m-through sessions in the linebacker room because that one time you think Holt isn't looking at you, suddenly he's jumping you in practice like, 'Run, run, you're not moving fast enough.'’"

Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook

More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2018. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.