He had teammates like Justin Hardy and Shane Carden, who put up eye-popping and record-breaking numbers in their respective careers at East Carolina. So people could be forgiven if they might not have noticed Zay Jones in the past.
There is no way to overlook the Pirate senior now, not after he shattered school and American Athletic Conference records with his 22-catch, 190-yard performance against South Carolina last Saturday.
Jones' father, Robert, is a member of East Carolina's Hall of Fame and was a consensus All-America selection for the Pirates in 1991. Zay Jones, meanwhile, has a fashioned hall-of-fame-caliber career for himself. He enters this week's game at Virginia Tech as the NCAA's active career leader in receptions (280), is second among active players in receiving yards (2,976) and is this year's national leader in receptions, averaging 13 per game.
Jones is a fan-favorite in Greenville, and not only for his accomplishments on the field. He is a regular speaker at local elementary schools and is one of the most active students on the ECU campus. He co-hosted the Pirates' annual athletics awards ceremony, in the model of the ESPYs, and starred in the department's promotional video,
Can't Stop This Feeling of Pirate Pride! (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ffq0n13rvc).
"He's a phenomenal talent," said East Carolina coach Scottie Montgomery prior to this week's trip to Virginia Tech. "I'm excited not only to see him this week, but also the rest of his time here and see where his career goes after that. What a fantastic person and for something like that to happen to him was really, really good."