Herd's Harrison earns pair of national honors

By GRANT TRAYLOR

Associate Athletic Director of Strategic Communications

HUNTINGTON – Marshall Football kick returner Jayden Harrison earned a pair of national accolades this week for his efforts during the 2023 season.

Harrison, a redshirt junior from Antioch, Tenn., was named as a 2023 CBS Sports / 247Sports All-America First Team selection and also as a Jet Award finalist.

Harrison’s nomination as a 2023 CBS Sports All-America selection marked the first time a Marshall player had been named a First-Team selection from CBS Sports since the late Johnathan Goddard was named as a defensive lineman in 2004. Marshall great Vinny Curry was also named a CBS Sports All-America Second Team selection in 2011.

Harrison led FBS in kickoff return average at 31.9 yards per return. He also had a pair of kickoff returns for touchdown on the season – a 94-yard kickoff return against James Madison on Oct. 19 and a 98-yard kickoff return that opened the game in Marshall’s 38-33 win over Georgia Southern on Nov. 11.

In addition to the CBS Sports All-America nomination, Harrison was named as a 2023 Jet Award finalist on Monday.

The Jet Award is given annually to the nation’s most outstanding return specialist. The award is voted on by a media panel made up of members of the Football Writers Association of America.

Harrison joined USC’s Zachariah Branch and UNLV’s Jacob De Jesus as finalists for the award, which was released by The Jet Award Foundation.

The recipient of this 2023 Jet Award will be announced in January and the official presentation of the award will be made at The Jet Award Gala in Omaha, Neb., on April 4, 2024.

The Jet Award was founded in 2011 and proceeds from the Gala go to the Johnny Rodgers Career and Technical Scholarship. The Jet Award has helped raise money for more than 200 scholarships since 2018.