In a perfect world where the college football season goes off on time, Wednesday, May 27 marked 99 days till NC State’s season and ACC opener against Louisville, a Thursday night, road game that should be nationally televised, although a formal announcement on the network has yet to be made.

Each day, The Wolfpacker will do a countdown to the season with a reflection on the significance of that number to NC State.

You can make an argument that the greatest NC State player to ever wear No. 99 is Mike Jones. In fact, in The Wolfpacker’s magazine article in 2017 of the best players to don each jersey number, Jones received the nod.

Jones was also recently featured on The Wolfpacker’s All-NC State NFL Defense Team.

Prior to getting to the pros however, Jones was a force for the Pack front from 1987-90. He had to wait his turn however. He played most of his career behind a couple of NFL players in Ray Agnew and Derrick Debnam, but he told The Wolfpacker before the 1990 season that he was ready.

“My main goal is to show the public that the job can be done without Ray Agnew and Derrick Debnam,” Agnew said.

Jones was right.

He was second-team All-ACC as a senior when he had 10 sacks. Jones broke a school-record at that point that was held by four other former NC State players who had eight sacks on the way to becoming the first Wolfpack defender to register a double-digit sack year.

His 21 career sacks still is tied with Manny Lawson for sixth most in school history.

“I think he had an outstanding senior year, and he has a great opportunity to continue playing,” then-Pack head coach Dick Sheridan said after the 1990 regular season. “He hit another gear his senior year.”

Jones finished that season by making four tackles, including two for loss, to help NC State defeat Southern Miss, quarterbacked by future NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre in his final college game, in the All American Bowl.

After leaving the Wolfpack, Jones played nine years in the NFL. He was a second-round draft choice of the then-Phoenix Cardinals and played in two Super Bowls — captaining the New England Patriots squad coached by Bill Parcells in a loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 31 and on the Tennessee Titans team that lost a heartbreaker to the St. Louis Rams three years after that.

Jones married session vocalist Javonda Jones, and one of their four children is Coco Jones, who became a successful actress and singer.

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