D’Shawn Jamison discusses improved team chemistry in 2022

As D’Shawn Jamison approaches his fifth season at Texas, he’s been forced into more of a leadership role in the defensive backs room. During his career, he’s appeared 48 games with 31 starts and is a multiple-time Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week – a true veteran of the Forty Acres.

These accolades are experiences are not lost upon his teammates, and Jamison has taken action to help bring him and his teammates closer to one another ahead of the 2022 season.

“We’re looking way better just from doing a lot of things together, coming together. We also been having a lot of meetings with each other, just to center brand communication up to point,” Jamison said. “With the leadership thing, I just tried to make sure everybody’s on in the right path. Just making sure that everybody is doing everything right and we try to keep each other going in the right path.

“I feel like the love for the game is there. S lot of us wasn’t together [during last season], so now it’s like we’re a team that wants to win. The one thing that we did as a team, as a group was just try to get to know each other better knowing that nothing happened last year, we can’t let that happen again.”

On the field, he leads by example. Jamison averaged 26.6 yards per kickoff return, which is second in all-time in program history behind Ramonce Taylor (27.0), and ranks fourth all-time in UT history in career kick returns (54) and kick return yards (1,435), while returning 42 punts for 358 yards for an average of 8.5 yards per return. 

The senior set a UT single-season record in 2020 with a 31.7 yards-per-return average on kickoffs, while his 564 kickoff return yards rank as the third-most in a season in school history.

On the defensive side, he notched 114 total tackles (88 solo), four tackles for loss, four interceptions, 10 pass breakups, one forced fumble and two recovered fumbles. Last season, Jamison played in and started all 12 games, notching career highs with 48 tackles and 34 solo tackles, and had one interception, one pass breakup and one fumble recovery. He also had over 500 yards in the return game as well.

Now in his final season of collegiate eligibility, the defense is playing behind his leadership and expects that to be on full display during Texas’ season opener against ULM on Sept. 3.