“I tossed the ball with him one time and told him he would go pro one day,” Jones’ father, also named Greg Jones, said. “Ever since then, it stuck with him, even though he didn’t know what I was saying, what I was talking about.”

Although not a pro yet, the senior linebacker shared what he called a “special moment” with his father, the man who introduced him to football, Monday when MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio presented the linebacker with a plaque to be put on the wall of Skandalaris Football Center for being named a first-team All-American last season.

Last season, Jones recorded a Big Ten leading 154 tackles and nine sacks on his way to earning All-American honors. He also won awards for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and MSU Male Athlete of the Year.

Jones said he was excited to get his name and picture on the wall with MSU’s other All-Americans, but more importantly, he was happy his dad could be there to share the day with him.

“It’s really special,” Jones said of joining the other Spartan greats. “But I think even more special is to have my father see me do that.”

Thinking he only was coming to East Lansing from his home in Cincinnati, Ohio, to visit his son on Father’s Day, Jones’ dad had no idea what was planned for Monday. Jones said he purposely didn’t tell his dad what was going on, hoping to give him a belated Father’s Day present.

“I told him we had a meeting with (Dantonio), and it was going to take a few minutes,” Jones said smiling. “I’m just happy he got to be here for it and he got to experience this whole thing.”

Dantonio said he was completely on board with the idea of bringing Jones’ father in and surprising him with the presentation of his son’s All-American plaque.

“We wanted to make it special, but we wanted to make it personal too, so we didn’t want to do it as a team,” Dantonio said. “Greg is very humble so he didn’t really want to go beyond this, but we wanted to have his father here, close to Father’s Day, and make it special.”

With Jones being a part of Dantonio’s first recruiting class at MSU, Dantonio said it was a special day for him as well. While he still was the head coach at Cincinnati, Dantonio said he noticed Jones at one of his camps and knew then he wanted him on his team.

After making the move to MSU, Dantonio and his staff were able to entice Jones into leaving his hometown for East Lansing to play for the Green and White.

“We were very excited when we came to Michigan State that we were able to attract him to here,” Dantonio said. “It’s exciting. He’s our first All-American from the time that we’ve been here.”

With one season left, Jones’ 359 career tackles puts him in eighth on MSU’s all-time tackles list, and Dantonio said it’s tough to find any Spartan better than Jones.

“I think he can certainly point to being one of the greatest linebackers that have ever played here,” Dantonio said. “He’s been unblockable, and when you put on the highlight films of him, he speaks the truth.”

Along with being a favorite to repeat as an All-American, he goes into next season as one of the players to watch for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which is given to the best defensive player in the country.

Jones said the individual awards are motivation for him going into the 2010 season, but they are secondary to what he came back to accomplish at MSU as a team in his senior season.

“It makes me very hungry,” Jones said of his personal goals. “I feel like I’m hungry for that, but more importantly, I’m hungry for a Big Ten Championship, and I feel like my teammates are also.”