Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

UCLA football legend Maurice Jones-Drew has ran his way from Jacksonville, FL, to Los Angeles, CA, to work on finishing his education at UCLA.

Jones-Drew was sighted by students and fans on Twitter on campus — UCLA twitter is basically a large hunting group that looks for celebrities on campus at any and all times, we suppose — and it was later discovered that Jones-Drew was back in Westwood to take classes.

He confirmed as such on his personal Twitter account:

2 classes down one to go. #studentlife — Maurice Jones-Drew (@Jones_Drew32) January 15, 2013

And UCLA athletics caught up with the UCLA great as well:

Another great Bruin returns! Look who’s back in school @jones_drew32 twitter.com/UCLAFootball/s… — UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) January 15, 2013

Overall, it’s pretty cool that star running back MJD is back in school taking classes with the rest of us, and even cooler that he’s coming back to earn his degree. When most athletes leave college for the pros early, they seemingly don’t normally take the time out in their offseason — filled with time away from family for months at a time — to earn a degree which is essentially meaningless in the short-term financially. (After all, MJD is due for a large contract, hopefully, and he’ll probably make more in a year than we’ll make in a decade.)

But this shouldn’t be surprising. Because while UCLA is an elite school for athletics — count the 108 NCAA championships, if you don’t believe me — it’s also an elite academic institution that ranks among one of the 20 best colleges in all of the United States and one of the 50 best colleges in the entire world.

When you go to a school that good, why wouldn’t you want to take the time and finish up your degree?