Football Sports

Football and Music: UH football’s Marcus Jones’ two passions

Junior Marcus Jones breaks loose on a punt return in Houston's 2020 season opener against Tulane | Courtesy of UH athletics

UH football junior Marcus Jones breaks loose on a punt return in Houston’s 2020 season opener against Tulane. | Courtesy of UH athletics

Sitting at Pro Football Focus’ fourth highest-rated defensive back in the country and tallying a total of 317 punt return yards, which leads the FBS and is a single-season American Athletic Conference record, are just a few of the many accomplishments for junior Marcus Jones in his first season with Houston.

But the 5-foot-8-inch cornerback has another talent off the field that not a lot of people know about — producing and recording his own music.

The Enterprise, Alabama, native has a musical background as his father mixed music on turntables as a hobby throughout Jones’ childhood.

“I’ve messed around with music for a long time,” Jones said. “My dad always had turntables in the house, so I just play around with music and just do it as a hobby whenever I’m not doing football.”

He described his father as a master on the turntables, which helped spark his interest in pursuing music in his free time.

When creating his music, Jones does everything from producing it and making the beats to singing and rapping on the tracks.

He also has dipped his toes into various musical genres, including hip-hop, pop and R&B, and has released some of his songs on mainstream music streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube.

While Jones says he does not personally play his music around others, his teammates know about his musical talent and have taken a liking to the songs he releases, often playing it on the speakers when with Jones.

“I don’t play it, but my teammates play it,” Jones said. “Whenever they play it I can’t tell them not to. And I’m not saying that they can’t, so whenever they play it I just let them play it.”

But it is not only Jones’ teammates who like his music, as head coach Dana Holgorsen has also been impressed with the songs Jones puts out.

“He’s a pretty good artist. He can sing now. He can rap,” Holgorsen said. “He’s talented. He’s got some music out there that’s really really good.”

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