PREP PREVIEW: Jones confident in Billingsley's offense this season

Billingsley quarterback Landon Jones has confidence the Bears will turn around their fortunes this season. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

For three years, Billingsley senior quarterback Landon Jones has been working with his receivers, particularly junior Kyle Boice.

Jones doesn’t want to come across as cocky, but when the Bears need to move the ball on offense, he’s pretty sure he can throw it in Boice’s direction and get however many yards he needs.

“It’s not that I feel like it’s going to happen, I know it’s going to happen,” Jones said. “We don’t lose anything (from last year’s team as far as skill personnel). We’ve got everybody back. It starts with our offensive linemen. If we didn’t have them and them do what they do, then me and Kyle wouldn’t even be able to get the ball.

“It’s just a confidence thing. When I snap the ball and it’s a pass play, there’s nobody guarding Kyle. That’s what is in my mind. There’s nobody, especially in our area, that’s going to be able to stop it.”

 The Bears didn’t have a particularly good record last year, struggling to keep leads and losing eight of 10 games, but Jones spent much of the last half of the season as the top passer in Class 1A and Boice was one of the classification’s top receivers, finishing with 800 yards on just 42 receptions, an average of 19 yards per catch.

 “We don’t plan that,” Billingsley coach Lanny Jones said. “I think 75 percent of our pass game is off our running game anyway or it’s going to be a pre-check. We probably call 75 percent run plays, but we have an RPO system so it allows for (Landon Jones) to get the ball on a run play. It’s just about us seeing what people are giving us and him being really smart at being a quarterback and the knowledge of the game that he’s been able to grow in the game.”

 Landon, son of the head coach, started his varsity career as the starting quarterback at Gulf Shores as a freshman before his father was hired as Billingsley’s football coach in 2022. Landon took over as the Bears’ starting quarterback, but the football team was predominantly underclassmen in 2022. Two years later, Jones is the only senior on the team, but there is enough experience around him to showcase his talents.

 Last year, he finished as the third-rated passer in Class 1A behind Lynn’s Cale Tittle and Leroy’s Brayden Huebner. Despite the difficulty in securing wins, Jones was able to complete 62.6 percent of his passes (117 of 187) for 1,805 yards and 21 touchdowns (with nine interceptions). He also rushed for another 677 yards and nine touchdowns on 103 carries.  

 “We have three or four ways in our system to check to, to get what we want,” Lanny Jones said. “If you can do that, in any classification but especially 1A, you have a chance to put up good numbers.

 “We hope they have to put (extra defenders) in the box to stop the run. Then we hope we can take advantage of them putting safeties down in the box because we feel like Kyle, anybody one-on-one, we’ve got a really good chance with it.” 

Boice, like Jones, believes the chemistry between the two make them almost unstoppable.  

“I just know when you need to get that first down,” Boice said. “We have multiple signals. Hey, throw me the ball. As soon as it’s man coverage, just call something. I know he’s going to get the ball to me and I know I’m going to be open. We just know.”