Syracuse Football: Kingsley Jonathan is a semifinalist for leadership award

Syracuse football defensive lineman Kingsley Jonathan continues to thrive on and off the field.

Syracuse football senior defensive end Kingsley Jonathan has gotten named a semifinalist for the fourth-annual Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year.

By becoming a semifinalist for this recognition, Jonathan is part of a 20-person group of the nation’s top leaders in college football. A press release announcing the semifinalists says that these players “have all demonstrated a record of leadership by exhibiting exceptional courage, integrity and sportsmanship both on and off the field.”

The Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award is deemed the first honor in the sport “to focus primarily on a player’s leadership, both on and off the field,” the announcement says.

Seventeen seniors and three juniors comprise the semifinalists. The Southeastern Conference, with six semifinalists, has the most among all leagues nationwide, followed by the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Pac-12 Conference with three each. Three finalists will get unveiled Wednesday, Dec. 16, with the winner announced on Feb. 16, 2021.

Syracuse football senior Kingsley Jonathan is in contention for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award.

The 6-foot-3, 264-pound Jonathan, who originally hails from Lagos, Nigeria, attended the Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore prior to starting his career on the Hill.

An information management and technology major at the ‘Cuse, Jonathan has maintained over a 3.7 GPA, a press release from the Orange athletics department says.

He founded the Syracuse SAAC Hoodie Drive, which provides hooded sweatshirts for the homeless in Central New York during the winter months. Jonathan is also a nominee for the Wuerffel Trophy and was a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy.

He is one of 15 Division I student-athletes who have voting power in NCAA rule changes, the cuse.com statement says. Moreover, Jonathan is one of five student-athletes on the advisory board in the search process for the next ACC commissioner.

A member of the Syracuse Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Jonathan has also served on the newly created Diversity and Inclusion Student-Athlete Board, which cuse.com says “strives to be a force for change that inspires and provides a forum for student-athletes to speak up for what they believe and how they feel.”