The NC State football team is hoping the old saying “father knows best” rings true with the development of USC transfer and junior linebacker Levi Jones.

Jones, who likes to go by Vi, is the son of former East Carolina and NFL star linebacker Robert Jones, who was a guest on The Wolfpacker’s podcast this past Tuesday. The younger Jones was a product of Austin (Texas) Westlake High and had the dream to go to the biggest school possible coming out of high school.

Rivals.com ranked him No. 79 overall nationally and the No. 9 outside linebacker in the class of 2017.

“He had so many schools from Alabama to you name it. Schools like East Carolina or NC State didn’t even have a shot. It wasn’t that they were bad schools, but he wanted to go to a SEC school [or national power],” Robert Jones said. “We visited LSU, Florida State, Florida, UCLA and he went to Oregon by himself because I wasn’t going to fly all the way out there.

“I allowed him to pick the school he wanted to go and he obviously picked University of Southern Cal.”

Jones played in 22 games in two years at USC and finished with 28 tackles.

Jones, whose older brother Isaiah “Zay” Jones played wide receiver for ECU and is now with the Buffalo Bills, ran into frustration during his sophomore year at Southern Cal and elected to transfer. The second time around, Robert Jones ran his recruitment.

ECU was going through a coaching change that resulted in the hiring of former James Madison coach Mike Houston. The coaching transition didn’t mesh with Jones’ timing to enroll for the second semester of school last January, and that eliminated the Pirates. He ultimately picked NC State over Central Florida.

Vi Jones will redshirt this season and have two years of eligibility remaining.

Robert Jones did use a former personal relationship from his East Carolina playing days, and that paid off handsomely for NC State. NCSU defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Dave Huxtable was Robert Jones’ linebacker coach at East Carolina for two years (1990-1991).

“I said, ‘If you want to play at the next level, I need to know who is coaching your position,’” Robert Jones said. “The winning thing was Levi was here and I could drive six miles to see him.

“Coach Huxtable was the linebackers coach but not the defensive coordinator [at ECU]. The way he ran it, the linebackers are the quarterbacks of defense.”

Robert Jones recalled that Huxtable’s attention to detail is what helped him become a first-round NFL Draft choice by the Dallas Cowboys.

“Football was more run-oriented than it is now, where it’s more pass oriented,” Robert Jones said. “He’d say ‘Look at our keys’ and at that time, it was offensive linemen. There were only three or four things offensive linemen would do to help us know where the ball is going. He made the game easier. I became a great player by those standards.”

Jones weighed in the 190s while at USC, but is now listed at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds. Working on his body has been the primary objective since he arrived to his new home area — his parents had moved to nearby Cary, N.C.

“It didn’t work well for Levi and I don’t want to say anything negative about the program [at USC],” Robert Jones said. “Levi was not becoming the type of player or person that I knew his potential to be. After two years I just had enough.”

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