JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Looking back on his first two years in Alabama's football program, when strangers and people he knew were skeptical of him evolving into an impactful quarterback, Mac Jones didn't let any of it faze him.
Not that The Jacksonville Bolles School product totally dismissed the criticism sometimes directed to his face, on social media or subtly mentioned in conversation, but Jones knew the best response was to focus on the grind of daily improvement. In other words, trusting in coach Nick Saban's mantra of "process," no matter how cliche or tiresome it sounded.
So Jones immersed himself in the playbook. He often referred to the goals his father, Gordon, outlined in detail on several pages that covered every aspect of his football-related responsibilities. He learned from watching how former starting quarterback Jalen Hurts and the future campus rock star, Tua Tagovailoa, went about their business.
And most important of all, Jones stayed patient, not allowing himself to even think about transferring or earning any other starting job except the one he now operates for the nation's top-ranked program.
"People might say things (critical) to your face, I really don't care," Jones said in a Wednesday phone interview. "People will say all sorts of things, in person and out of person, I never really bought into it, but it's definitely motivation in its own way.
"Whatever you do, people are either going to criticize you or praise you too much than you deserve, so you have to be just down the middle. If you buy into it too much, then you get put in a corner and you're not in the right mental state. You just got to kind of roll with the punches."
Somehow, it has all come together for Jones in rather spectacular fashion this season. Not only has he earned the starting job for a college football blueblood — first replacing Tagovailoa last year when he got hurt and was later shelved by a hip injury — but now he's flourishing beyond most anyone's expectations.
Jones is considered one of the top Heisman Trophy contenders, along with Florida quarterback Kyle Trask, Ohio State's Justin Fields and Clemson's Trevor Lawrence, all of whom are putting up big numbers in this truncated, COVID-19 season.
While Trask has thrown for a remarkable 34 touchdown passes in UF's more pass-heavy offense, Jones has been dominant in his own right. He owns a 76.2 pass completion percentage, a 23-3 TD-interception ratio, a nation-leading 208.0 efficiency rating and averages an eye-popping 12.0 yards per attempt.
Just that part of his resume alone is enough to get Jones in the Heisman conversation. But the 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback also has eight touchdown passes of 40-plus yards, a testament to his deep-ball accuracy and 'Bama receivers making yards after the catch.
Though he and Trask are considered slight Heisman favorites at this point, Jones prefers to sidestep his name being attached to any individual award.
"Allow myself to think about (the Heisman)? Not really," Jones said. "Coach Saban really does a great job of keeping us focused on what we have to be focused on and everything will take care of itself."
But when pressed about whether he ever thinks about being a Heisman recipient, Jones acknowledged: "I try not to think about it, and it's hard. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard to just ignore it all. But at the same time, the only important part is helping your team try and win games. And if you win games, then good things happen for everybody."
