He’s a former UVA running back, but his memoir is hardly a story about football

But football, Jones said, was “just the vehicle that I used to get places. It’s lessons around it that make up this story.”

Add “author” to Jones’ growing list of titles that includes two-time UVA graduate, accomplished public speaker and doctoral student at the University of Louisville’s College of Education and Human Development.

“Ashes to Endzone,” which shares the lessons Jones has gained from adversity, loss and personal growth, is available now for presale and will be released Aug. 4.

Encouraged by a mentor to tell his life story – from an upbringing marked by poverty in small-town Florida to bouts with trauma at UVA – Jones locked himself in his apartment until he felt he had everything on paper.

It was a therapeutic process, Jones said.

“I felt as if a weight was taken off of my shoulders, because a lot of times, the things we go through, once we’re through it, we put it on the shelf, and it’s still there and it’s still affecting us, but we really don’t give it any attention,” he said.

Jones separates from a University of North Carolina defender during a 2023 game in Chapel Hill. Once a walk-on player, Jones earned a scholarship and ran for more than 750 yards over his final two seasons with the Cavaliers. (Virginia Athletics photo)

“And I think writing this book forced me to address some of the darker parts of myself that I had shoved aside, and allowed me to deal with them in a healthy way.”

In addition to his own emotional recollection, Jones spoke with former UVA teammates for their perspective on the Nov. 13, 2022, shooting on Grounds that claimed the lives of Cavalier football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.

The book includes an interview with Wahoo head football coach Tony Elliott, who has also overcome tragedy.

“He relays some of his experiences, which I think is really, really cool,” Jones said.

Jones, though, is the book’s main character. He doesn’t shy away from painful memories, like surviving a housefire as a child or dealing with a militant father. One part recounts how his dad, whom Jones describes as “very, very strict,” would sometimes drop him 10 miles from home after practice and make him run the rest of the way if he felt Jones’ mindset wasn’t right.

Members of the University of Louisville Health staff celebrate Jones’ release from the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in November 2023. Jones is now a doctoral student in the University of Louisville’s College of Education and Human Development. (UofL Health photo)

Miss the deadline to get home, Jones writes, and the consequence could be spending the night on the porch or in the backyard.

“He and I have talked about it numerous times,” Jones said. “Like, ‘Son, I’m sorry if I did too much.’

“He was doing the best he knew how to do, and I talk about that in the book – that he was, in his mind, preparing me for what he believed life would throw at me, and wanted to make sure I had all the tools necessary to get through it. And in some ways, it worked.”

Life has, indeed, thrown a lot at Jones, especially in recent years. In Louisville, Jones often takes morning jogs by the University of Louisville’s Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, the place where he spent about three weeks in November 2023 following his injury and emergency spinal surgery.

He says the mere sight of the building is motivating.

“I get a huge sense of gratification from it,” he said. “It keeps me in the right mind frame of just how much I’m thankful for and how much I’m still chasing.

“It’s like, ‘OK, this is how far I’ve come. I’m still doing well. I can still run, but there’s so much more ahead of me.’”

And more people to inspire.

“Success from this book would be one life being changed,” Jones said. “All I want is one person to read this book and say, ‘Man, I needed to hear that, and I’m better because of it.’”