SEMO coaches land Quin Jones - finally - on third try

Perseverance is a trait that can be of the utmost importance in the eyes of the Southeast Missouri State football coaching staff. And that applies to the coaches themselves, as much as it does to how they evaluate their student-athletes.

Veteran Redhawk head coach Tom Matukewicz and his defensive coordinator, Ricky Coon, have spent years in pursuit of Quin Jones, both as an athlete, and now as a coach, and SEMO – finally – landed him.

“I recruited Quin out of high school,” Coon recalled of Jones, who instead, signed with East Mississippi Community College.

“I recruited him out of junior college,” Coon continued.

AND Jones verbally committed to SEMO. However, the story doesn’t end there.

Jones reneged on his commitment and signed with Stephen F. Austin instead.

“He wanted to get into coaching,” Coon explained, “so he wanted to go to Texas and get into that network. So, I understood.”

But finally, in January, Coon and Matukewicz landed Jones, this time as a coach, who will oversee the Redhawks’ outside linebackers.

“I got him on the third time,” Coon laughed.

Jones has spent the past three seasons as a defensive analyst with Midwestern State (2020), Southern Methodist (2021), and most recently, Texas Christian (2022), as in the same TCU program which played for the national championship in January.

“TCU does run similar (defensive) stuff,” Coon said. “But the main reason we hired Quin was because of his personality.”

Jones has ascended to high-quality-programs for a reason.

“He is a super hard worker,” Coon said. “He is very down-to-Earth, has a low ego, and so far, has been phenomenal.”

Matukewicz has always said that he appreciates coaches who have had to grind their way to their current positions, such as himself. With Jones coming from the second-best program in the country, how does that equate?

“He had three graduate (positions) before he got here,” Matukewicz said. “So, he did earn his stripes.”

Matukewicz said that Jones, who is a Mississippi native, has a “big-time personality.”

“He walks in the room, and he can talk to everybody,” Matukewicz said.

Matukewicz said after losing a similar personality in former defensive line coach Jerone Steckel, he felt the Redhawks needed someone that brought that same quality.

“He has that same personality,” Matukewicz said. “So, I like that, and he is close enough to the players’ age, that he can be sort of like a big brother.”