Notre Dame, Ind (UHND) - Julius Jones was on the field for the first time Saturday against Washington State since the final game of the 2001 season against Purdue, Bob Davie's last game as head coach of Notre Dame. Jones as we all know missed the 2002 season because he was academically ineligible. He spent the 2002 season at Arizona State as a student only and came back to Notre Dame to finish what he started. Saturday was an excellent start to that for Jones.

Things didn't start off that great for Jones in his return however. He came in the game in the first quarter and on his second carry fumbled the ball. He was trying to turn the corner and had the ball in his inside arm. Washington State stripped the ball and recovered immediately. He didnt see much action after that until the second half and especially the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter Jones came alive. He had two tackle-breaking hard nosed runs in the fourth quarter that set up one touchdown and went for a touchdown of his own. His first big run came as he was trying to turn the corner. It looked as though Washington State was going to swallow him up for a loss when Jones turned on an extra gear and flew through the pack of defenders to set up Rhema McKnight's touchdown catch. The second run gave Notre Dame its first lead. Jones again flew through a pack of defneders breaking tackles on his way to the end zone with a 19 yard run.

On the day, Jones ran for 72 yards on 11 carries for an average of 6.5 yards a carry. He also had the one touchdown and the one fumble. Jones also looked like the Julius Jones we saw in 1999 when he was a freshmen. He did not go down easy. On one occasion Jones got the ball on third and two and saw only a gang of defenders. Jones lowered his head and pushed his way forward for a first down when he should have been stopped for at most no gain. He had that electrifying quality to him that everyone saw in him as freshman.

As a sophomore and junior, Jones appeared to have a lost a step. He put on wieght in training and it slowed him down. He also suffered numerous injuries that hampered him as well. After training with his brother, NFL running back Thomas Jones, he appears to have regained that step he lost. Durring the telecast of the game a graphic was displayed showing that in 3 seasons, Julius only had 4 runs of 19 yards or more while Ryan Grant had 8 in only two seasons. Jones already added two runs of 19 or more with his 19 yard touchdown run and another run that went for a 20 yard gain. He also had a run of 18 yards.

It will be hard to keep Jones off the field. He showed that he is indeed back. He played extremely well for it beeing his first game in over a year. Ryan Grant played well too. He had 98 yards on 18 carries. 32 of those yards came on one carry though, and at one point he only had 18 yards on 8 carries as well. Grant had 7 more carries than Jones this week, but I would not be surprised if that number was more even next week. Jones hit the holes today with more authority than Grant. Grant is still the starter though and one game won't change that. On the other hand though, Jones showed Irish fans that he is indeed back and will be a play maker for Notre Dame this year.

One aspect of his game that Jones did not really get to showcase was his return ability. Washington State schemed against the Notre Dame return game extremely well. They skwib kicked every kickoff in an effort to contain the return capabilites of not only Jones, but also Vontez Duff. It will be interesting to see if Michigan tires something similar next week.

Jones should also only get better as well. As mentioned earlier, this was his first game in over a year. With a couple more games he will be back in top form a very dangerious weapon for Notre Dame to use and with tough games ahead against the likes of Florida State, USC, and Piitt, he will need to be.

For now though, everyone should be happy for Julius. He went thorugh a lot ot get where he is today and its turning out great for him so far.