Bernadine Jones remembers the gaze of her son.

It was when he was a toddler and looking out on the traffic from the front stoop of their home in Brooklyn.

The cars zipping by captivated Matt Jones, who learned to spot all types of vehicles like an auto encyclopedia.

“Once he would see the logo,” Bernadine said, “he would tell you the car.”

She found it an innocent hobby to indulge, gifting him Hot Wheels toy cars or driving him around the borough in their Toyota Corolla. It was his favorite car.

But football was different. For as much as Matt liked playing the game and pleaded to join an organized team, his parents held off until he reached middle school.

To Ian and Bernadine Jones, immigrants from Caribbean islands, the sport was largely unfamiliar. They instead watched cricket or soccer on weekends. Football felt too brutish for a boy.

“I was afraid at first,” Bernadine said.

Her preference was for him to go out for basketball or soccer and stay away from piles of tacklers.

“Football was so rough,” she said. “I used to say, ‘Imagine one person falls and everyone jumps on them.’ That’s how we used to look at it.”

It took convincing from his older brother, Dwyll, who played in high school, to persuade them to sign him up for their Pop Warner affiliate, asserting it was a valuable activity that could instill toughness.

That decision laid out a decade-long path to his present role as the most tenured offensive lineman at Ohio State, a right guard who remains a critical presence for a rebuilding unit that will shape whether the Buckeyes return to the College Football Playoff this fall.

Matt Jones' road map to Ohio State

Jones enjoyed playing for the New York Warriors, starting out as a quarterback who would run with the ball and flatten potential tacklers.

But the teenager didn’t figure football was in his long-term future. Due to his love of cars, Jones planned to become a mechanic. He was 8 years old when he fascinated by a trip to a shop to fix a broken axle on his father’s Toyota 4Runner.

“I was just so focused on what was going on with the car,” Jones said. “I spent the time watching the details of how to take it off, how to put it back on. It was just interesting to me.”

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Since the garage was run by a family friend, he spent his summers there rather than at camps. His parents also held blue-collar jobs. Ian worked in construction on bridges around New York. Bernadine babysat.

Then, when he was in the 8^th grade, he met Danny Landberg, the coach at Erasmus Hall High School. Landberg was encouraging and told Jones that he could be great on the football field, a bet that showed promise early on.

Schools in the Northeast, from Rutgers to Boston College and Syracuse, began offering him scholarships after his freshman season at Erasmus.

“It kind of caught me by surprise, honestly,” Jones said.

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He was at first at defensive tackle, an interior lineman who could blow up an offense’s plans. But Landberg later lined him up more often on the offensive line as he spearheaded the ground game.

Jones, who became the top-ranked center in the nation in his recruiting class, was so dominant at Erasmus that he since prompted Landberg to start a tradition of handing out his No. 55 uniform number to the program’s top offensive linemen.

“Only the best of the best wear Matt’s number,” Landberg said, “because of Matt.”

Tunde Fatukasi, a tackle at Bowling Green, donned the number, as did Carmello Michel, a guard at Navy, during their time with the Dutchmen.

Ohio State stood out in his recruitment, as it had been a spot for other players from Erasmus, most notably former wide receiver Curtis Samuel.

“They had an inside track in getting to know him,” Landberg said.

When Jones enrolled at Ohio State in 2018, he toiled for two seasons as a backup, including redshirting in his first fall with the Buckeyes.

“It was rough,” Jones said, “but at the same time, you have to sit and learn from the vets. You take every tip and trick to things. That’s something I soaked in and enjoyed.”

A breakthrough came in 2020 when Jones started at left guard for the Buckeyes in the playoff, replacing Harry Miller after he tested positive for COVID-19.

But he didn’t latch on as a full-time starter until last fall. With only one full season starting, he used his extra year of eligibility given to all players as a result of the pandemic to remain at Ohio State rather than enter the NFL draft.

“I felt like it wasn’t me to rush,” Jones said. “There’s always room for improvement, to get better. That’s why I took it upon myself to come back.”

His parents encouraged similar patience.

“They said it’s going to be there,” Jones said, “so follow your heart and do what you think is right.”

Jones is described by those close to him as quiet and laid back. He’s maintained his enthusiasm for cars and works on vehicles in his spare time. At an auction in Brooklyn a few years ago, he bought a 2009 Subaru damaged in a crash and repaired it.

Fishing is another relaxing pastime, something he and his dad first did together off of the piers in New York, though he misses the Atlantic Ocean’s waters.

“I try to fish here,” Jones said. “It’s terrible. It’s not easy.”

But on the field, a level of intensity rises.

“When he’s locked in,” right tackle Josh Fryar said, “no one is getting around him.”

Buckeyes coach Ryan Day has challenged Jones to channel that into leadership of the line, pushing his teammates as they build chemistry.

“Matt is somebody who’s been around and has to continue to lead up front and bring guys with him,” Day said, “not only by setting an example, but having the voice to hold guys to a certain standard.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on Facebook and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He can also be contacted at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Matt Jones' path to becoming veteran Ohio State offensive lineman