Jones Bolts For Alabama

Minneapolis,MN- The Aaron Jones era has come to a close at the University of Minnesota. Jones made it official yesterday at a press conference, he's headed to the University of Alabama to replace Nick Saban who has decided to try his hand in the NFL again. 'While I'm deeply saddened to be leaving my alum in Minnesota, the position at Alabama represents the next step in my career...a step that I am not comfortable passing up.'

Jones was hired as an unknown just two short years ago. He was a 2001 graduate of the University and upon the firing of Tim Brewster the University decided to take a chance on the rookie coach, and boy did it pay off. Jones led what many saw as an undermanned, undermatched team to consecutive undefeated seasons, both ending with Big Ten and BCS Titles. The Conference Titles were the first for the Gophers since 1967 and the BCS Titles were the first in the schools history. 'I am forever indebted to Minnesota. They took a chance on me when nobody else would and for that I am grateful beyond words. Of course all the accolades were nice, but what I'm going to truly miss is the young men that I had the good fortune of being able to lead for two seasons. It's a great group of young men in Minneapolis and I wish them luck going forward, but now it's time to turn my attention to Alabama to ensure I can get a nice class in place.'

Jones did not leave the cupboard bare for the next coach to come through. He had brought in two decently rated recruiting classes that include a number of 4 star prospects. One of the beliefs as to why Jones decided to make the jump was in the ability to recruit top notch classes. He's known as a recruiting genius for his two classes at Minnesota who, shall we say, has some difficulty keeping up with the Ohio States and Floridas of the world. While they drastically upgraded their athletic facilities over the championship runs, they still fell wildly short in other areas.

While we'll sadly miss Jones here in Minneapolis, we do genuinely wish him the best in Tuscaloosa. According to multiple sources, he's fitting in quite well already as Scout.com has verified that the Crimson Tide have already landed 4 five star prospects and have a dozen or so 4 star players ready to commit. It's been a great run Gopher fans, we can only hope that the replacement to Jones can keep the train on the tracks long enough to be competitive for another few seasons.