The Jet Award, named in honor of 1972 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny "the Jet" Rodgers, is awarded to the top return specialist in college football beginning with the 2011 season. Joe Adams was announced as the first winner on March 29, 2012. Beginning with the 2012 award ceremony, in addition to being given to the annual award winner, the Rodgers Award will be presented retroactively one decade at a time, starting with the 1959–1969 winners.
Winners Year Winner School 2011 Joe Adams Arkansas 2012 Tavon Austin West Virginia 2013 Ty Montgomery Stanford 2014 Tyler Lockett Kansas State 2015 Christian McCaffrey Stanford 2016 Adoree' Jackson USC 2017 Dante Pettis Washington 2018 Savon Scarver Utah State 2019 Joe Reed Virginia 2020 Avery Williams Boise State 2021 Marcus Jones Houston 2022 Derius Davis TCU 2023 Zachariah Branch USC 2024 Kaden Wetjen Iowa 2025 Kaden Wetjen (2) Iowa
Legacy winners Year Winner School 1959 Billy Cannon LSU 1960 Pat Fischer Nebraska 1961 Paul Allen BYU 1965 Mike Garrett USC 1970 Joe Washington Oklahoma 1971 Cliff Branch Colorado 1972 Terry Metcalf Long Beach State 1974 Rick Upchurch Minnesota 1975 Billy "White Shoes" Johnson Widener 1983 Mel Gray Purdue1985Erroll TuckerUtah1997Tim DwightIowa 1999 Dante Hall Texas A&M 2000 Aaron Lockett Kansas State 2002 DeJuan Groce Nebraska 2006 Ted Ginn Jr. Ohio State
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