On a humid July afternoon, Kevin Jones stands half-naked in front of 1,100 women at Cassell Coliseum, swinging a white Under Armour shirt over his head. He tosses the shirt to a group of women. They swoon. He smiles.

He cherishes the attention, the eyes tracing over his rippled torso.

That’s why he’s here, for the second consecutive year, modeling a football uniform at the Virginia Tech football team’s annual Ladies Clinic. That’s why he’s in his attic at home in Chester, Pa., thrusting 300 pounds of iron above his chest as he lays supine on a bench. And that’s why, when the No. 4 Hokies host Syracuse on Saturday, he’ll relish the fact that SU coaches kneaded their brows raw trying to calculate how to stop him.

‘That’s what I’ve been waiting for,’ Jones said, ‘since I got here.’

Now a junior, he’s the epicenter of Tech’s offense, one of the nation’s top running backs, a Heisman Trophy candidate, a first-round NFL draft lock.

‘He’s probably the most well-known player to come through here since Michael Vick,’ Tech running backs coach Billy Hite said.

So those eyes follow him. Students whip their heads around when he walks by them between classes. Fans ask him for his autograph when he goes out to eat.

Jones has commanded that attention since he arrived in Blacksburg, Va., in 2001 as the highest-rated recruit in Virginia Tech history. He requested Vick’s No. 7 jersey. His cocksure attitude, though, irked some teammates, especially fellow running back Lee Suggs, who followed a more tight-lipped attitude.

‘At first, he thought he could do everything on the field that he did in high school,’ Hokies quarterback Bryan Randall said. ‘He was like, ‘I’m gonna run you over. You can’t run with me.’ ‘

But Jones ended up splitting time with Keith Burnell in 2001 and rushed for 957 yards. He understudied Lee Suggs last year and gained 871 yards, including just 167 in the Hokies’ final six games. This season, Jones wants 2,000 yards – and a national championship.

He wrote three more goals on a message board in his dorm room: Keep God first; Be a leader; Seek and destroy, be the best on the field.

So far so good. Through five games, he has 551 yards. In a 35-19 home win over Texas A&M on Sept. 18, he rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns.

‘He runs the ball with such authority,’ said Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, who watched Jones rack up 118 yards on his Scarlet Knights last Saturday. ‘Very rarely do you see him going backwards.’

The same is true of Jones’s personality.

‘I’m still confident,’ he said. ‘I’m just not as outspoken about it.’

His actions reflect that new attitude. During the off-season, he changed his jersey to No. 25, a decision he made following two life-jarring incidents.

First, the son of Jones’s grade-school coach, Jim Mattiolli, died in a car accident over the winter. Jones wore No. 25 when he played under Mattiolli. Then, Jones’s best friend, James Johnson, was sent to fight in Iraq. As high school teammates, Jones wore No. 2 and Johnson wore No. 5.

‘He’s grown up,’ Randall said. ‘But he’s still a ham when he gets in front of a crowd.’

Jones learned to love those eyes as a kid, always stronger and faster than his friends. His father, Tom, worked as a strength coach at Chester High. When Jones was 10, he started hanging around the weight room. As a high school freshman, he bench pressed 205 pounds. As a sophomore, he benched 315 and ran the 100-meter dash in 10.42 seconds.

He’d return from football practice and work out for another hour on an Olympic weight set in the attic. Of course, his football acumen was already sharp. When Jones started playing running back at age 10, Tom ordered tapes of legendary backs from NFL Films and reviewed them with his son.

‘The first time I saw (Jones), I couldn’t believe it,’ Randall said. ‘I’ve never seen a high school guy with that physique, those arms.’

Jones now bench presses 380 pounds and squats 570.

‘Without (my dad),’ Jones said, ‘I wouldn’t be the player I am now.’

Which is to say, a possible No. 1 NFL draft pick.

‘Physically, he’s ready,’ Hite said. ‘No question about it. From talking to a number of pro scouts who have been through here, he has a chance to be a very high pick.’

Jones and Hite talked extensively over the past year about Jones’s pro future, Hite said. Once, Hite told Jones, ‘If you have a chance to be the No. 1 pick, you ought to go.’

Jones avoids such talk, saying he’s still perfecting his game. He must improve his blocking and catching. To that end, he caught 110 passes every other day over the summer.

‘He’ll continue to get better every week,’ Tech head coach Frank Beamer said. ‘That’s the way he is.’

But he reveals far more about himself in casual situations.

Following the modeling session at the Ladies Clinic this summer, he leaned on a table in the Hokies’ locker room and munched on turkey sandwiches with teammate DeAngelo Hall. They watched BET, which would visit Blacksburg the next week to film a package on Jones.

‘Hey,’ Jones said, nodding to Hall, ‘I’ve gotta figure out what to wear for that.’

He needs to look good. All those eyes focus on him.

Published on October 8, 2003 at 12:00 pm