Giles’ long college career ends at a place he calls home in TSU
Before finding his way back home to Texas Southern, Jonathan Giles caught touchdown passes from Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech, and later at LSU, Giles wore the coveted No. 7 jersey, given to the team’s top playmaker.
It’s been a long journey for the slot receiver who starred as a quarterback at Elkins before taking his talents to Lubbock in 2015. Following stops at two Power Five schools, including a 1,158-yard receiving year as a Red Raider in 2016, the 6-foot, 195-pound seventh-year senior is set to finish his college playing career at TSU.
Giles spent a great deal of his childhood on the Texas Southern campus, where his father Lonzo, who played football at Houston in the mid-1970s, has been head athletics video coordinator for two de
cades. The younger Giles began hanging around the school’s athletic department at age five, later regularly watching football practices as well as shooting baskets at the H&PE Arena.
“During football season I’d be on the field running around, during basketball season I’d be on the court being a ball boy,” said Giles, who holds degrees at both LSU and TSU in sports management. “I wanted to go to TSU after high school but when Kliff Kingsbury is the head coach somewhere and looking at his style of offense, I wanted to be in a spread offense, so that’s the reason I went to Tech.”
Over his two seasons at Texas Tech starting in 2015, Giles impressed. Especially in 2016 as a sophomore when he was one of the nation’s leading receivers, ranking in the top 50 nationally in five receiving categories and being the main target of Mahomes. That year he caught 69 passes, 13 for touchdowns.
“Learning Kliff Kingsbury’s style of offense and being around Pat every day, it was unbelievable,” Giles said. “I think about those days every day.”
At TSU Giles plays inside receiver as he did at Tech, where he left following the 2016 season. He redshirted at LSU in 2017. Things didn’t work out as well on the field at LSU. In his one year in Baton Rouge, La., in 2018 he had only 10 catches for 59 yards over eight games.
Before Giles ever played a down in the regular season at LSU, that spring he was given the prestigious No. 7 jersey, which has been worn by Leonard Fournette, Tyrann Mathieu and Patrick Peterson.
When Giles arrived at TSU in summer of 2019, he fit in immediately with teammates and the coaching staff. He was a medical redshirt that year but upon arrival he quickly became aware he had an understanding of the TSU offense under coordinator David Marsh.
“This is basically Kliff Kingsbury’s offense,” Giles said. “It’s crazy because when I first got here, I didn’t realize how similar the offense was to Kliff. When I got here it only took me two days just to just learn the different terminology they use. I knew all the plays so it was easy to adjust and adapt to the schemes coach Marsh had put in.
“I believe in this whole system because I’ve seen it work at Texas Tech, and we got a great quarterback in Jalen Brown.”
As expected, a great deal of buzz preceded Giles at TSU, just as it did when he shined in spring ball at LSU the previous year. Giles took a medical redshirt in 2019 at TSU. In the fall of 2020, SWAC teams opted out of playing football because of COVID-19, attempting to play a sixgame league schedule in the spring of 2021. But the Tigers got only two games in — losses at Prairie View A&M and to Southern. Giles caught a touchdown pass among his six catches.
It’s clear Giles is in a good place physically as well as mentally at TSU, which opens its 2021 football season on Saturday at BBVA Stadium at 7 p.m. in a key SWAC Western Division game against rival Prairie View A&M.
“You watch him at practice, he comes running out like he’s still a 7-year-old going to little league football,” said Marsh, who coached Christian Kirk when the Arizona Cardinals wide receiver was in high school in Arizona, and who sees similarities between the receivers. “They don’t necessarily move exactly the same but there’s a lot of times that I feel like I’m back on the field in Arizona with Christian.”
There’s a comfort level at TSU for Giles, who is a team captain. It shows in practices and how he conducts himself. As for his role on the 2021 Tigers, Giles will primarily line up in the slot. But he’s a mature player who will move around the football field. Make no mistake about it, Giles will be targeted heavily this season.
“We hope he’s our playmaker,” said Clarence McKinney, starting his third season as head coach of the Tigers. “We’re going to try to give him the ball, get the ball in his hands quite a bit and watch him make plays for us, keep us going.
“He’s really good with the ball in his hands. He runs good routes and he understands how to get open. He’s a guy who we feel we can go to when we need a play to be made.”
A student of the game and someone who has an appreciation for academics, Giles desires to be a high school football coach when his playing days are over. Until then he’s finishing his college football career at a place he has a comfort level and feels at ease.
“Some people might look at TSU as a small school, doesn’t have the facilities,” Giles said. “I grew up at TSU. All I’ve known of TSU was to be home.”
As a grad transfer looking for a new place to play, Giles, who has played in big games, turned down a number of high-major schools, going with his heart to complete his journey to Texas Southern. Much to the delight of McKinney.
“He had graduated, he wanted to finish out his year at home, give his family and friends an opportunity to see him play and we welcomed him with open arms,” McKinney said.