Maryland
Maryland WR Jeshaun Jones, a South Fort Myers High grad, to play in Saturday’s Hula Bowl
Former University of Maryland football standout Jeshaun Jones, a South Fort Myers High School alum, will be among the college football players competing in Saturday’s Hula Bowl All-Star Football game in Orlando.
Jones, a wide receiver, wrapped up his Terrapins’ career in December, catching three passes for 43 yards in Maryland’s 31-13 victory over Auburn in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. As a graduate student in 2023, Jones led all Terps receivers in receptions (56) and yards (790) while also catching four touchdown passes.
A 2018 graduate of South Fort Myers High, Jones spent six years at Maryland after knee injuries cost him nearly two full seasons. Despite the physical setbacks, he finished his career as one of the best wide receivers in the program’s history.
Here are some additional things to know about Jones and the Hula Bowl.
What were some of Jeshaun Jones’ best moments at Maryland?
Jones burst on the scene as a true freshman in 2018, recording a passing, rushing, and receiving touchdown on his first three touches in an upset win over Texas. Jones became the first FBS player to accomplish this feat since Marcus Mariota did it for Oregon in 2014 and was named the CBS Sports National Freshman of the Week. He ended his freshman year with seven touchdowns and his five receiving scores were the most for a Maryland freshman since Stefon Diggs.
From 2018: South Fort Myers’ Jeshaun Jones on his historic debut with Maryland
A torn ACL cost Jones the entire 2019 season and another season-ending injury knocked him out of the second half of the 2021 season. As a redshirt senior in 2022, Jones set career marks with nine catches for 152 yards and a touchdown in Senior Day against Rutgers. His touchdown reception allowed Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa to break the program’s all-time passing TD mark.
Last season, Jones became only the 16th Terp to surpass 100 career receptions. He also became only the eighth Maryland player to have 100-yard receiving games in three different seasons when he caught six passes for 121 yards in a win over Indiana. Jones also reached the 2,000-yard mark for his career when he had 70 receiving yards at Rutgers. With a victory in the Music City Bowl, Jones helped Maryland become one of just four Power 5 schools to win bowl games in each of the past three seasons.
What awards did Jeshaun Jones win at Maryland?
Jones, who earned a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, earned All-Big Ten Academic honors three times. He was also a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar award recipient in 2021-22 for maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. Jones was named to the preseason watch list for the Paul Hornung Award, given to the most versatile player in major college football, in both 2021 and 2023.
How does Jeshaun Jones rank among Maryland’s wide receivers?
The 6-foot-1, 188-pound Jones finished his Maryland career fifth in program history in both receptions (149) and receiving touchdowns (14) and sixth in receiving yards (2,403). Those totals place Jones among other Terps receiving luminaries such as current NFL players Stefon Diggs (Buffalo Bills), D.J. Moore (Chicago Bears) and former NFL standouts Jermaine Lewis, Torrey Smith and Darrius Heyward-Bey.
What is the Hula Bowl?
Established in 1946, the Hula Bowl All-Star Football Classic began as a matchup between college football players and a local Hawaiian Islands team. For a brief period, NFL players joined the Hawaiian team to create a more competitive game.
In 1960, the Hula Bowl transitioned to an All-Star game that featured only NCAA college players in an East vs. West format. The game remained in Hawaii until moving to Orlando in 2022.
The teams will be comprised of NCAA college players from all divisions, along with international players from Japan. The game will also include Polynesian players with ties to Hawaii.
Who gets invited to the Hula Bowl?
Each year, 100 of the top college players are invited by the Hula Bowl Selection Committee, which is made up of former college and professional football players and coaches. Players must be college seniors or recent graduates. Invitations are based on a player’s potential to make a professional team’s roster. Scouts from the NFL, UFL, and CFL will attend the game.
Notable players who participated in past Hula Bowls include NFL Hall of Famers Reggie White, Dan Marino, Eric Dickerson, Marcus Allen, Tony Dorsett, and Deion Sanders.
How can I watch the Hula Bowl?
This year’s 78th annual edition of the Hula Bowl will be played at the University of Central Florida’s FBC Mortgage Stadium. Kickoff is at noon. The game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
Maryland
First-of-its-kind research leads to new discoveries about Maryland’s first permanent colony – WTOP News
Using a groundbreaking method, researchers have likely identified the lost remains of the second governor of the colony of Maryland.
Using a groundbreaking method, researchers have likely identified the lost remains of the second governor of the colony of Maryland.
They’ve also found 1.3 million genetic relatives of Maryland’s first colonists who are alive today.
“Then we have 9,000 people who are close enough that they’re very likely direct descendants or very close relatives,” Éadaoin Harney, a senior scientist at 23andMe Research Institute, told WTOP.
She is the lead author of a study published last week in the journal Current Biology.
In addition to the genetic testing company 23andMe, the study involved scientists from the Smithsonian, Harvard University and St. Mary’s City, Maryland.
Their work was built on previous studies and the discovery over decades of dozens of bodies in a graveyard in St. Mary’s City. Established in 1634 in what is today St. Mary’s County, it’s recognized as the first permanent English settlement in Maryland.
In 2016, through genetic testing, it was revealed that remains found in three lead coffins in the city’s Chapel Field cemetery belonged to the colony’s fifth governor Philip Calvert, his first wife and a son he had with his second wife.
The latest study was aimed at identifying the remains of 49 other people buried in the graveyard.
“Our goal was really to learn about the ancestry of these individuals, to learn about their genetic legacy. So, who in the United States are they related to today? And our big goal was really to see if we could use DNA to help re-identify these historical individuals,” said Harney.
Researchers compared DNA from those bodies with those of more than 11.5 million people in 23andMe’s genetic database.
When they found two living people with strong DNA connections to one grave, they asked for and received permission to study their family trees.
They discovered their family trees overlapped in three places, and after an incredible amount of additional digging made a blockbuster discovery.
They determined the likely identities of three previously unknown people laid to rest in the cemetery, including Maryland’s second governor, Thomas Greene, who lived from 1609 to 1651.
It’s the first time ancient DNA has been used in this way to identify people in a situation where researchers had no idea who they might be.
“There have been ancient DNA studies where they will say ancient DNA has helped to identify some historical figure or some historical person, but those have always been based on the archeology, based on the history, researchers have had a very strong prior hypothesis about the identity of that person. In this case, we had no idea who these individuals might have been. We had no hypothesis. We just let the DNA guide us,” Harney said.
The colonists who arrived in St. Mary’s City sailed there from England aboard the Ark and the Dove, but another thing this study determined was that most of them likely originally lived in western England, Wales and Ireland.
The study also found genetic evidence backing up historical accounts that many Maryland Catholics moved to Kentucky between the late 1700s and early 1800s for reasons which included escaping religious bias.
Harney is excited about what this new method could lead to in the future.
“Potentially we can apply this to lots of other sites, to lots of other historical people to try to figure out and re-identify people from the past,” she said.
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