Liberty North's Greg Jones leaves for Oregon Ducks

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Liberty North's head football coach, Greg Jones, is making the jump up to the college game.

After 30 years coaching high school football, including 24 as a head coach, Jones will join his former colleague Dan Lanning at the University of Oregon.

Jones made his announcement Wednesday morning via Twitter.

Lanning was hired the Ducks' head coach in December. Lanning, a North Kansas City native, played linebacker at William Jewell from 2004 to 2007 and student taught under Jones at Kearney High School during that time.

While Jones was at Kearney, he led the bulldogs to nine district titles, six conference titles and two state championships.

"We've stayed in touch ever since he student taught for me in Kearney," Jones said. "... I have watched him and admired him from jump to jump to jump that he's done. No matter what college he was at, I'd go see him and watch him coach. We've always stayed in contact."

Since joining Liberty North, Jones led the Eagles to a 39-19 record in five seasons. He led the program to the Missouri Class 6 state championship game and a runner-up finish last fall.

"It's been an awesome ride," Jones said. "... (The players) really got this thing snowballing in the right direction. Ever since then, we haven't looked back."

Now, Jones takes his coaching skills out west to be a defensive analyst for the Oregon football staff, where he's excited to coach in the Pac-12.

The Ducks finished 10-3 overall and 7-2 in conference last season, winning a Pac-12 North title.

"I've watched a lot of Pac-12, because Coach Lanning was at Arizona State for a while and I visited there so, it's just good football," he said.

Liberty North tweeted following Jones' announcement saying they will announce the new head football coach in the following weeks and the Board of Education immediately released Jones from his contract with with Liberty School District.

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