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Oklahoma's Spencer Jones wins HOTY Award

Jones is OU's second winner of the Mortell Award as college football's Holder of the Year

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma's Spencer Jones wins HOTY Award
Oklahoma's Spencer Jones wins HOTY Award /

Oklahoma has yet another HOTY.

Spencer Jones won this yearโ€™s Mortell Award for the Holder of the Year.

Former Sooner Connor McGinnis won the HOTY Award in 2017.

The award is mostly tongue-in-cheek, almost a parody of college footballโ€™s multiple awards and is named after its inaugural winner, Pete Mortell, who claimed it in 2015.

Spencer Jones (and Gabe Brkic)
Spencer Jones (and Gabe Brkic) / Pool photo

JONES' OU BIO

Almost immediately, Jones received congratulations from his kicker, Gabe Brkic.

Jones even had a video prepared (see above tweet), including an acceptance speech, for his โ€œvictory.โ€

โ€œWhile weโ€™ve been called RBU and QBU, today, we can now be called Holder U,โ€ Jones said.

โ€œI know my draft stock has risen tremendously over the past season, but thereโ€™s still more to be done for Sooner Nation. So with that being said, I am announcing that Iโ€™ll be foregoing the NFL Draft and will be coming back for my sixth year.

โ€œLaces out, and Boomer Sooner.โ€

Jones, a transfer from Liberty University and a Nashville native, is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 member and was the Sooners' 2018 Scout Team Player of the Year.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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