BATON ROUGE — Donnie Jones, one of the most prolific punters in LSU history, is one of 32 players from across the country named to the Ray Guy Award watch list, the Greater August Sports Council announced on Thursday.
The Ray Guy Award is given annually to college football’s top punter and will be announced on Dec. 11, 2003 in Orlando, Fla., as part of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show.
Jones, a senior from Baton Rouge, enters his fourth year as LSU’s starting punter. In three with the Tigers, Jones has earned Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll honors three times as well as being a Second-Team All-SEC selection in 2002. Jones was a member of the Freshman All-SEC team in 2000.
Last year, Jones averaged 44.0 yards on 64 punts, including a school-record boot of 86 yards against Kentucky. Jones averaged 43.7 yards per punt in 2001 and 38.1 as a freshman in 2000.
For his career, Jones has a 41.9 yard average on 168 punts.
Jones enters his final season with the Tigers ranked second in school history in career punting average (41.9) and total punts (168) and third in punting yardage (7,041).