SEALY, Texas -- For a little more than a quarter, Sealy (Texas) High School receiver Ricky Seals-Jones was himself again, making big plays and taking over a football game.
After seven weeks on the sideline, the result of a dislocated kneecap suffered on Sept. 6, the 6-foot-5, 230-pound ESPN 150 receiver showed no ill effects of the knee injury that kept him out of action. He showed the trademark explosiveness on Friday night that has made him one of the nation's most coveted prospects while catching a touchdown pass and returning an interception for another score.
And he even raised some eyebrows with his choice of gloves -- Adidas maroon-and-white adizero Smoke Texas A&M gloves -- before he was sidelined again, this time with an injury much less serious than his last.
The injury, which Seals-Jones suffered while catching a fourth-down pass on a slant route in the second quarter, doesn't appear serious enough to keep Seals-Jones from missing another game, at least not in his view.
"It was great just being out there and hitting someone new for a change," Seals-Jones said. "It was great but it ended early when I sprained my ankle. I just have to get back to the doctor, get back strong and get ready for next week.”
Seals-Jones has LSU and Texas A&M in his final two, and his choice of hand wear will undoubtedly have Aggies fans buzzing.
"I was just in the locker room and I had them and a lot of my teammates were like 'Just wear them, just wear them,'" Seals-Jones aid. "I was like 'Man, I don't know.' So I decided to just throw them on. They said it was going to be cold, I didn't know it was going to come down to be this cold so I just threw them on to have something over my hands and just went with it."
Seals-Jones said fans shouldn't read into it and that he was just having fun with it all.
"I was just having fun with it," he said. "I was just wearing the gloves because they looked nice and everybody likes the inside of them. So I decided to throw them on."
Seals-Jones is coming off a recent visit to Aggieland, having attended Texas A&M's 24-19 loss to LSU at Kyle Field. He enjoyed that trip and is heading to Baton Rouge, La., to see LSU host Alabama on Nov. 3.
"[I'm excited about] just going down there and seeing the stadium," Seals-Jones said. "They said Death Valley is something like Kyle Field, but coach T-Mac (special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey) was saying that it's a little bit better so I've got to go out there and check it out and see how it goes down there."