4A Player of the Year: Landry Jones

We named Clovis star Brian Mead our 5A player of the year. Beating our competition from C.J. Oakley, Matthew Sandoval and Michael Scarlett. Our selection for 4A player of the year is Landry Jones. Jones is the selection over Ryley Hegarty, Paul Shay and Eric Varnell.

On Monday we announced our player of the year from the 5A ranks.  Clovis stud runner Brian Mead won over stiff competition from C.J. Oakley, Matthew Sandoval and Michael Scarlett.  So who is the player of the year from the 4A ranks?  Again several student athletes were given serious consideration.  Players who were considered were Ryley Hegarty, Paul Shay and Eric Varnell.  But when all the dust cleared the clear winner was Landry Jones QB from Artesia.  Take nothing away from any player in the 4A ranks, lots of guys had great years, but Jones was the easy choice.

Landry Jones is a great football player.  Right now there is a chance that Jones might go down as the biggest recruite from the state of New Mexico ever.  That's saying something if you really think about it.  Even though Jones is a blue chip type prospect it doesn't matter if he doesn't live up to all those expectations on the field.  Landry is the leader of a great team from a great program.  The Bulldogs were preseason number one and never were really challenged all season.  Sure they had a few close calls but nothing that was all that serious.  Jones statistically was great.  His season numbers match anyone in the country.  This year Jones completed 211 passes on 310 attempts for 3432 yards, that's a 68% completion percentage.  Jones also throw an amazing 45 touchdown passes compared to only 9 interceptions.  If that wasn't enough Landry also ran for 294 yards on 57 carries and found the endzone another 9 times.  That's 54 total touchdowns and 3726 total yards. 

Statistically it's easy to see why Jones is highly thought of from a recruiting standpoint.  Jones has an outside chance at being a five star prospect next season.  He clearly has that numbers to warrant that honor and the at 6'5 the size colleges love.  The thing for fans of New Mexico high school football and fans from Artesia to remember is that only 50 players in the entire country get a 5 star billing.  I think Jones has that type of talent but it might come down to a numbers game.

Jones is expected to make his college choice sometime in during the spring of 2007 before the 2007 football season.  Which ever team is lucky enough to get his services will be getting one heck of a quarterback.