ATHENS -- David Pollack got a text message the other day from Mark Richt. It was about Jarvis Jones and something dear to Pollack.

“He’s gonna break your record,” wrote Richt, the Georgia head coach.

That certainly seems possible. And Pollack wouldn’t mind at all.

“I hope he does it,” Pollack, the former Georgia defensive end and now an ESPN commentator, said Wednesday. “I hope he has a great season, and I hope he’s a high draft pick. He’s a great kid. Records are gonna fall.”

This is when it is pointed out that Jones isn’t just a sack specialist -- as his interception return at Missouri on Saturday can attest. But he also had two sacks in that game, bringing his season total to 3.5 through just two games and 16 in just two seasons at Georgia.

So what makes him so good at it? How is it that Jones keeps finding ways to disrupt the backfield -- even while being double-blocked, and game-planned against?

That’s the question that continues to baffle SEC defensive coordinators.

“He’s so explosive,” said Pollack, who holds Georgia’s single-season sack record with 14. “He gets off that ball quick. Really, really quick first step. He’s really a sensational athlete. That’s part of it. But he plays really hard. That’s one thing I really admire about him.”

That burst upon the snap is also what Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham talked about. But like Pollack, Grantham said it’s only part of what makes Jones effective. Fundamentals are also on his side.

“He is very explosive off the ball,” Grantham said. “But he has really improved his hand play to create separation to get around those guys at the end and finish. That’s probably the biggest improvement I’ve seen from him.”

Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel was asked Wednesday what advice he would have for Georgia’s future opponents.

“Block better. And get more people around him,” Pinkel said. “They did a great job with him because they move him all over the field too. He’s on the wide side of the field; he’s short side of the field; he’s at linebacker sometimes. So it’s not like you can sit there and say he comes from this spot every time.”

Pinkel said his offense had success moving the pocket or having quarterback James Franklin on the run to get away from Jones. It worked for much of the first half, and a few drives in the second half.

But in the end Jones was too much. He was credited with five hits on Franklin, and even more pressures.

“He’s a great player, he had a great game,” Pinkel said. “ We certainly had offensive line injuries, that didn’t help us, but even if we didn’t he’s just a great, great player. You can keep more people in to block him, but you’ve gotta find out where he’s at.”

That has been the key for Grantham and Jones the past two years -- moving Jones around to put him in best position to make plays.

Technically, Jones is an outside linebacker. But his position before the snap varies, as Pinkel alluded. He usually is coming from the edge, in a position to rush the quarterback, but even then he alternates between hand on the ground or standing up. Occasionally he starts in the middle of the field and rushes. Sometimes he stays back in coverage.

“Some plays I was just out there moving around,” Jones said of the Missouri game. “They didn’t know what I was doing. I just made it look like I was doing something different. So I was just moving, by the time he was ready to snap the ball I got in place.”

A lot of this is to account for the attention he’s getting from blockers. Pollack recalls that after his sophomore year, when he set the sack record, he was double-blocked and isolated away from a lot of plays. His sack total went down to 7.5 for his junior year.

“For me it became really frustrating. I wanted to make an impact so bad and I felt like I couldn’t because there’s constant pressure on you,” Pollack said. “It’s real, it’s definitely real. Once you become a marked man, you see more double-teams and more line protections come your way.”

But Jones is being helped by the presence of nose tackle John Jenkins, who like Jones has a chance to be a high pick in the NFL draft. The Bulldogs also have Cornelius Washington and Abry Jones as defensive ends, a pair that combined for nine sacks last year.

But ultimately, the consensus is Jones’ sheer will and determination will be enough.

“I’ve always had a feeling he had a high ceiling,” said Grantham, whose arrival at Georgia three years ago coincided with Jones’ transfer from Southern California. “He’s really instinctive, he’s really relentless on the field. And he has above average play strength for his size against tackles and things like that. And you combine that with his athletic ability and you’ve got a guy that can make a lot of plays.”