Texas Football: Brandon Jones named Semifinalist for Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year

The Texas defensive back is coming off one of his best games of the year against Kansas State

Texas Sports Information Department 

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas defensive back Brandon Jones was named a semifinalist for the 2019 Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award, the Witten Award selection committee announced Wednesday. Jones joins former Longhorn captain Andrew Beck (2018) as semifinalists for the honor, which was first awarded in 2017.

Jones, a native of Nacogdoches, Texas, has played in and started all nine games for the Longhorns as a team captain this season. He has made a team-high 61 tackles, and has also recorded 4.5 tackles for loss, three pass breakups and intercepted two passes. He was a preseason watch list candidate for both the Bronko Nagurski and Lott IMPACT trophies, as well as a member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Jones lost his father to liver disease when he was in seventh grade and has worked hard to provide a foundation for his mother and four brothers. Besides being a frequent participant in Texas’ team community activities, such as hospital visits and rebuilding a local playground, Jones built a special relationship with a young cancer patient he met at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin.

Jones recently gifted Jayden Morton, the friend he met through his time at Dell Children’s, one of his jerseys as a token for the impact Morton has had on Jones’ life.

The Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award will announce three finalists on Monday, Dec. 16. The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on Feb. 18, 2019, at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Last year, Wisconsin’s D’Cota Dixon won the award. The inaugural Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award was presented to Shaquem Griffin of UCF in 2017.

The award, presented by Albertsons and Tom Thumb, is the first college football honor to focus primarily on a player’s leadership, both on and off the field.

The winner of the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year will also receive a $10,000 contribution in his name to his school’s athletic scholarship fund. The contribution will be made by Jason Witten’s SCORE Foundation, the official charity of Jason and his wife Michelle. The SCORE Foundation, founded in 2007, has positively impacted tens of thousands of children and families in Texas and Tennessee over the last 12 years. The foundation operates its nationally-recognized SCOREkeepers program, which places trained male mentors on staff to work with children at family violence shelters, at nine shelters in the two states.