GOING HIS OWN WAY : Deacon Jones’ Nephew, Harold, Is Building a Reputation as Starting Linebacker in the Titans’ Rebuilding Defense

It doesn’t much matter who Harold Jones’ uncle is, he can’t help him on the bench press.

Some things a man has to do for himself.

“I did everything on my own,” said Jones, a starting strong outside linebacker for Cal State Fullerton. Emphasis on the strong .

The Titans have nobody stronger than Jones, who at 6-feet-2 and 245 pounds, bench presses 475 pounds.

His uncle? That would be David Jones--Deacon Jones might ring the bell--a Hall of Famer and one of the Ram defensive linemen in the 1960s known as the Fearsome Foursome.

Naturally, people like to ask Jones about that.

“Sometimes,” he said. “Reporters, mostly. I don’t think about it.”

He spends more time thinking about the Fullerton defense, and a season that begins Saturday against Northern Illinois in DeKalb, Ill.

When he looks around the Titan defense, Jones sees a lot of people he didn’t know very well a year ago. But he figures they’re going to be all right.

“They’re coming along,” he said.

What Jones likes most is a closeness he says he didn’t see last year, a season in which even Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy was disappointed by what he considered a lack of team unity.

“We should have played like one,” Murphy said again and again. “Instead we played like a hundred-and-one.”

Jones says things look different this year, with the defense rebuilding now that eight of the guys he played alongside last season are gone, three of them to the National Football League. When Fullerton opens its season there will be three defensive starters in their first games as Titans.

“I think the defense is a lot closer than we were last year,” said Jones, who is one of three returning starters, along with outside linebacker Chris Wright and free safety Mike Schaffel. “Everybody is helping everybody. . . . We’ve all pretty much banded together, able and willing to help each other out. It’s not like one guy is leading and the other guys are following.”

Most of the attention last year--deservedly--went to end A.J. Jenkins, linebacker Jerry Leggett and nose guard Alex Stewart.

Jones had a good year himself, when he was healthy. But he missed three games with a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, finishing with 31 tackles in eight games, including six tackles for losses.

This is the year he wants to make his mark.

Last season was Jones’ first as an outside linebacker. Until then, he had played nose guard. He went to the coaches and asked for a change.

“I thought I wasn’t getting big enough to play nose guard,” he said. “I had to keep bothering them about it. They didn’t take me seriously at first.”

But the move was made, and it has been a good one.

With a new season ahead, and a healthy ankle, it is still early enough for Jones to have hopes.

“I’d be disappointed if we lose a game,” he said. “I honestly think we can go undefeated I thought we’d have a good record last season, that we’d be better. But as the season went on, you could tell we were coming apart. People put the blame on other people.”

Titan Notes

Wide receiver Tony Dill, who has been out with a hamstring injury, began practicing again Tuesday. . . . Kicker Phil Nevin, who has a sore kicking foot, said it hurts but that “nothing will keep him out” of Saturday’s game . . . Former Fullerton offensive lineman Matt Fitts was cut from the Minnesota Vikings Monday. . . . Mary Ann Tripodi, an assistant athletic director at the University of Akron, was appointed director of athletic department operations Wednesday, and will oversee the ticketing and management of all home athletic events. Tripodi has been an assistant professor at Akron and also coached the women’s basketball team for 11 years and the women’s volleyball team for fives. . . . Robin Hall, a graduate student and member of the athletic department staff for two years, has been appointed administrative assistant to Walt Bowman, the Titan Athletic Foundation executive director. Hall had worked with the Titan Athletic Foundation on an interim basis since January. He also has been an assistant in the athletic business office.