 Those plans were thwarted when, at first, the Notre Dame athletic department refused to release Jones from his scholarship, but later they gave permission for him to speak to Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly, and Jones joined the Bearcats shortly thereafter.After sitting out the remainder of 2007 at Cincinnati due to NCAA regulations, Jones was unable to unseat the Bearcats' starting quarterback Tony Pike and opted instead to play the middle linebacker position.In two years as a reserve, he recorded 36 tackles and an interception.