Texas Football: Is D’Shawn Jamison the nation’s best return man

Junior Texas football special teams threat/cornerback D’Shawn Jamison is truly one of the most versatile and unique weapons at Tom Herman’s disposal.

Definitely the best returner that Texas football has on their current roster is the junior former highly touted four-star recruit and special teams weapon/cornerback D’Shawn Jamison. In multiple ways in the latter portion of the regular season, Jamison was an absolute game breaker for fourth-year Texas head coach Tom Herman and this team.

Jamison is a major driving force for the Longhorns on multiple sides of the ball. He makes a difference returning kicks and punts, and in pass coverage. Jamison served as the primary cornerback for most of the season (and for the latter portion of last year) for Texas while making the enormous impact that he does on special teams.

In his three years playing for Texas so far on defense, Jamison registered 64 career combined tackles, four tackles for loss, no sacks, three interceptions, nine pass breakups, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery. While his production did improve down the stretch this fall, Jamison’s best defensive season on the Forty Acres to date came last season.

In the kick return game, Jamison has nearly 1,000 career kick return yards, 29.1 yards per kick return, and two returns for a touchdown. His two kick returns for a touchdown came in the last two seasons (one in each campaign).

And in the punt return game, Jamison registered 329 career punt return yards, 12.7 yards per punt return, and one return for a touchdown. His sole punt return for a touchdown came during his freshman campaign, back during the 2018 season.

There’s a good argument that Jamison is one of the best and most explosive special teams return men in the entire country this year. He ranks in the top five in the country in yards per kick return (more than 34), and sits at the top of the Big 12. He’s also ranked in the top six in the Big 12 yards per punt return in each of his three seasons on the Forty Acres.

Jamison is also one of less than a dozen special teams return men in the FBS this fall that has a kickoff return for a touchdown, and that has two in the last two seasons. It just adds more credibility to his resume as a top tier punt/kick returner around the college football landscape that he has a punt return for a touchdown from back in 2018.

So the question is, where does Jamison rank among the nation’s best return men in 2020?

He would surely run into some stiff competition against the likes of Kansas State’s Phillip Brooks, TCU’s Derius Davis, Boise State’s Avery Williams, and Louisiana’s Chris Smith, among other. Even Baylor’s Trestan Ebner has two kick off returns for touchdowns this fall.

Brooks and Williams tend to be two of the more notable return men in 2020. Brooks registered nearly 24 yards per punt return so far this season (best average in the FBS) and two touchdowns. And Williams has five career kick returns for touchdowns and three more punt returns for touchdowns.

It would be difficult to place Jamison ahead of a few of those other elite return men around the country. But he definitely belongs on a list that would be a tier or two down. And he’s maybe just one or two more special teams returns for touchdowns away from joining that top list that could have an argument for best in the country.

Where Jamison does really stand out is with how clutch a lot of his returns for touchdowns were. He had a game-changing kick off return for a touchdown in the Longhorns overtime upset win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys on the road back during Halloweekend.

And he came up with a game-winning punt return for a touchdown during his true freshman campaign to beat Kansas State on the road in Manhattan. That was the first win for Texas in the “Little Apple” in more than a decade, at the time.

All in all, if Jamison does return for his senior campaign next year, he will come back as one of the most well regarded special teams weapons in the FBS. He’ll be in a truly elite tier with a few other special teams threats from the Big 12, including Ebner, Davis, and Brooks.

Texas wrapped up the regular season, after their scheduled Dec. 12 matchup with the winless Kansas Jayhawks was canceled in the wake of novel coronavirus related issues, with a record of 6-3 (5-3 Big 12). They now await their postseason fate after their last game resulted in a dominant 69-31 road win over Kansas State back on Dec. 5.