Markell A. Jones (born September 26, 1996) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname is also used as colloquial designation ...

. He rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown on twelve carries (6.0 yards per carry) in his first college game on September 6, 2015.

Early years

A native of

Columbus, Indiana Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. The population was 50,474 at the 2020 census. The relatively small city has provided a unique place for noted Modern architecture and public art, commissi ...

, Jones attended

Columbus East High School Columbus East High School (CEHS) is one of three high schools in Columbus, Indiana, United States. East is a member of the Hoosier Hills Conference in athletics and has a total of 5 IHSAA state championships. It was founded in 1972 due to the ...

in that city. As a high school junior in 2013, he rushed for over 2,600 yards and 42 touchdowns while helping Columbus East to a state championship. On June 24, 2014, Jones committed to playing football at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

with an announcement on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Jones stated, "Just because there's no other place, another school that is better for me than Purdue." Jones also announced his plans to enroll at Purdue in January, 2015. As a high school senior in 2014, he rushed for a state record of 3,565 yards and 60 touchdowns and completed two passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns. Jones' record-shattering year concluded with the winning of the Indiana Mr. Football Award.

Purdue University

2015 season

Jones' early enrollment helped him earn repetitions with the first and second teams prior to Purdue's season opener. On September 6, 2015, Jones appeared in his first game at Purdue. Jones ran for 72 yards and scored a rushing touchdown. Jones set a true freshman record with 875 rushing yards and 11 total touchdowns at Purdue.

2016 season

Prior to the start of the 2016 season, Jones was named to the

Doak Walker Award Since 1990 the Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. It is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Football Lea ...

watch list.

Statistics

Source:

References

External links

Purdue Boilermakers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Markell Living people 1996 births American football running backs Purdue Boilermakers football players Players of American football from Indiana People from Columbus, Indiana