South Carolina Football’s GOAT Series: Top-15 greatest linebackers of all-time
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football’s No. 10 Linebacker of All-Time:
Ernest Jones
Ernest Jones (2018-2020) was a lightly recruited linebacker who had a serious back injury before he got to South Carolina. His injury and lack of recruiting hype had many doubting he would ever contribute as a Gamecock. After recovering from his injury, Jones showed he had a winner’s mentality by voluntarily burning his redshirt in 2018 by playing in the Belk Bowl against Virginia. That mentality was a sign of things to come for #53.
As it turned out, that extra year of eligibility was meaningless as Jones was awesome during his sophomore and junior campaigns, leading to him being drafted in the 2021 NFL Draft. He racked up almost 200 tackles combined in 2019 and 2020, despite 2020 being a condensed schedule. Jones filled the hole left on the defense by Skai Moore and dominated from sideline to sideline. He is still in the NFL, where he starts at linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams.