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The quick-twitch is noticeable the moment he comes off the line.
No. 15 quickly cuts to the left, catches a pass and turns up field. A defender is left flat-footed, flustered ... and beaten.
Charlie Jones has done it again.
It's a scene that has been repeated often during training camp. Jones is good. Really good. In fact, the transfer from Iowa may be the top receiver on the Purdue roster.
"Charlie can play football," said Purdue coach Jeff Brohm. "We're going to use him a lot of different ways on the outside, on the inside, return kicks. He's got good receiving skills, he can run good routes, understands football. He definitely will be a big factor for us.”
Jones joins a Purdue receiving unit that is looking for a No. 1 wideout with David Bell off to the NFL a year early and Milton Wright an academic casualty.
“His route-running is impressive,” said Purdue quarterback Austin Burton. “He gets in and out of his breaks very, very aggressively. So, just the ability to break guys off and get open. Done a great job.”
Jones signed with Buffalo out of Deerfield (Ill.) High in 2017. After two seasons, he transferred in 2019 to Iowa, where he became kind of a big deal in 2020 and 2021 before matriculating to Purdue in June. It was a move that shocked the Hawkeyes--and may turn out to be a god-send for the Boilermakers.
“He told me right before he let everybody know (he was leaving),” Iowa receiver Nico Ragaini told the media after news of Jones’ departure broke in early June. “I just wished him luck. We talk all the time, so I just wish him the best. What’s in the past is in the past.
“You can’t sit here and cry,” Ragaini added. “You can’t make somebody who doesn’t want to be here, be here. That’s not beneficial for both of us. So, he thinks he’s better off there. I wish him the best of luck and it’ll be fun seeing him this year.”
Iowa comes to Purdue on November 5th this season. Circle the date.
Purdue not only is getting a player who wants to prove himself as a pass-catcher. It's also getting one of the best return men in the nation. Jones has the hardware to prove it, winning Big Ten Return Man of the Year honors in 2021. He’ll be a big upgrade in that department for Purdue, giving the program its most deadly return man since Rondale Moore. Jones had 635 yards on kickoff returns and averaged nearly nine yards a return in the punt game in 2021. He ran back a punt and kickoff for TDs while at Iowa.
“Charlie brings another element,” said first-year Purdue special teams coach Karl Maslowski. “You see on film. He's fearless when he's back catching punts. He takes chances and they've paid off for him so far. So, we just got to make sure that he gets a clean look when he gets out there.”
What attracted Jones to Purdue—according to those close to him—was the chance to play in Brohm’s offense. Jones finished 2021 with a modest 21 receptions for 323 yards and three touchdowns, playing in a blue-collar Iowa offense known more for bash than flash.
The 6-0, 185-pound Jones has 39 career receptions for 718 yards (18.4 ypc) and six TDs. He could surpass those numbers by Halloween with Purdue. In fact, those numbers could soar playing in the Boilermaker attack, which Jones saw slice up the Hawkeye defense the last two seasons. His adaptation to Purdue has been seamless.
“Charlie had a really good day,” said Brohm following last Saturday's scrimmage. “I'm not sure how many catches he had, but he was productive. He's a valuable guy. He was able to catch quite a few deep-end cuts over the middle from Aidan (O’Connell) and it was a good combination.”
A sixth-year player, Jones isn’t the only Iowa wideout who transferred to Purdue in the offseason. Tyrone Tracy made the move earlier, arriving in West Lafayette for 2022 spring drills. The Indianapolis native will be used as a ballcarrier in addition to catching passes.
“He's a little combination of everything, a Swiss Army knife,” said O’Connell. “He had a great spring both at wide receiver and at running back. So, he's a gadget guy that we're going to use and I think that just credits his ability. He's dynamic and he’s very smart, too. He picked up the playbook fast and so he's a guy that we're definitely going to lean on a lot.”
The timing of the arrivals of Tracy and Jones was ideal for Purdue, which has two other transfer wideouts on the roster in Elijah Canion (Auburn) and Broc Thompson (Marshall). In fact, Tracy, Jones and Thompson all could end up starting in 2022. And don't count out Canion, who has been a camp standout.
“We did lose our top two receivers, so we've got to replace some of those,” said Brohm. “We were fortunate enough to get Charlie Jones on our football team, who's played a lot of really good football. He’s done great things on special teams. He's a young man who's coming here, he's been here all summer for us, and he's really a good football player. So, I think he'll play a great role in our offense, playing on the outside at receiver, playing on the inside, and returning kicks.”
The Purdue offense wasn’t the only draw for Jones. He has deep roots with O’Connell that date back to their youth football days in suburban Chicago.
“We played on the same team for a few years,” O’Connell said. “He was a wide receiver. I was a quarterback and he was definitely our best wide receiver. When you're that old, you don't have concepts and you're not really reading coverages, or at least I wasn't. I was like, 'I'm gonna drop back and throw it to Charlie, whatever he does.' Some of my earliest memories of playing football were throwing Charlie the ball.”
O’Connell and Jones could rekindle those memories a lot in 2022.
“He's just very smart,” said Brohm. “He understands. He's picked up things well. He's got a great rapport with our quarterback, Aidan O'Connell, who I think they knew each other growing up. So, we're fortunate to have him. Really, I think he'll be a great leader as well.”
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