Jeremiah Jones enters his 14th season of coaching at Newberry in the 2022 season. Jones had a successful playing career at linebacker for the Indians in the 1990s and has experienced success in both coaching and the private sector.
2019 leading tackler Marcus Chestnut, who also finished 12th in the SAC with 69 stops, 6.5 tackles for loss, and a sack, came into the year with eight career tackles. Jarod Fountain and AJ Valentine also increased their production late in the season after injuries to all-conference Darryl Foster, illustrating the depth of a unit that lost an all-time great in Joe Blue to graduation.
Blue, the star of the inside linebacking corps, completed his stellar career in 2018 with another First Team All-SAC selection and a Second Team All-Region nod from two publications. He led the SAC with 104 tackles and set a school record with 20 stops at Division I Western Carolina that earned him SAC Player of the Week and HERO Sports HERO of the Week awards. Darryl Foster's 61 tackles were third on the team, with Anfernee Moffett and Troy Cunningham playing significant support roles throughout the season.
Jones mentored Blue in 2017, who earned first team all-South Atlantic Conference and all-Eastern College Athletic Conference honors for the second straight season. The junior finished fifth in the SAC with 83 tackles and second with 54 solo stops. Blue's fellow primary starting inside linebacker, was fourth on the team with 49 tackles. the duo combined for 15 tackles for loss, five passes defended, six quarterback hurries, and three fumble recoveries.
Newberry won the 2016 South Atlantic Conference championship with the help of an inside linebacker corps menored by Jones. Sophomore Joe Blue was named first team all-SAC after finishing second in the conference with a team-high 91 tackles and leading the league with 60 solo stops. Blue finished the year with seven tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble, a recovery, an interception, and four passes defended. Fellow inside linebacker Anfernee Moffett capped the Carson-Newman game with a fumble recovery in the end zone.
The inside linebackers were part of a defense that finished the year ranked 10th in Division II in passing defense, giving up 166.6 yards per game. Newberry also attained top-25 national rankings in passing efficiency defense (21st - 108.88), scoring defense (22nd - 20.1 points per game), total defense (23rd - 316.1 yards per game), and sacks per game (25th - 2.92).
Apollo Stretch was a three-time all-SAC honoree in 2010-12 and was named an All-American by BSN in 2011. He ended his career sixth on Newberry's all-time tackles list with 324 career stops, three spots and 43 tackles ahead of Jones, and finished second in solo tackles with 224.
In 2009, Josh Williams set the conference’s mark for most tackles in a single game during the 2009 campaign with 17 stops in the game at Carson-Newman.
Jones made a total of 281 tackles from 1993-96, which places him eighth all-time in the Newberry College records and his 126 assisted tackles rank ninth in Newberry history.
After graduating from Newberry in 1998, Jones was a graduate assistant at Presbyterian College for the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons. In 1999, he assisted with the linebackers and special teams and then worked with the defensive line and special teams in 2000 and 2001.
For the 2002 season, Jones was the linebackers and strength and conditioning coach at Charleston Southern University. He returned to Presbyterian for the 2003 and 2004 seasons, when he served as linebackers coach, recruiting coordinator, and video coordinator. He had been in the private sector since 2005.
