The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
01.23.2024 | Football
Junior place-kicker Bert Auburn and junior offensive lineman Jake Majors are the 26th and 27th Longhorns to earn Academic All-America honors.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Football junior kicker Bert Auburn and junior center Jake Majors were named to the 2023 Academic All-America Second Team on Tuesday, as selected by the College Sports Communicators.
With the selection of Auburn and Majors, Texas has had three players earn Academic All-American accolades over the last two years, with the duo joining EDGE Ovie Oghoufo, who earned second-team honors in 2022. It marks the first time Texas has had an Academic All-American in back-to-back seasons since 2009-10 and the first time with multiple honorees in the same year since 2009.
A first-team All-Big 12 selection by the league's coaches and the Associate Press from Flower Mound, Texas, Auburn has appeared in 28 games during his three seasons on the Forty Acres, connecting on 50-of-61 field goals (82.0%) and all 114 of his extra point attempts. His career field goal percentage is the fourth-best in program history, while his 294 points scored rank ninth in Longhorn history and are the seventh-most among UT kickers. In 2023, he was successful on 29-of-35 field goals (82.9%), establishing Texas single-season records for field goals made and attempted, including a streak of 19-straight successful attempts that set UT and Big 12 records. On the year, he scored 143 points, the third-most for a Longhorn in program history and a record for Texas kickers. In the regular-season finally against Texas Tech, he equaled the Texas record with five field goals made while setting a single-game record for a UT kicker with 21 points scored.
Auburn is an economics major with a 3.72 grade point average. A four-time member of the Big 12 Commissioners' Honor Roll, he was a first-team Academic All-Big 12 honoree in 2022 and a member of the 2021-22 Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team. Auburn is the first Texas kicker to earn Academic All-America distinction since Kris Stockton in 2000.
A Joe Moore Award semifinalist from Prosper, Texas, Majors has appeared in 42 career games with 41 starts for the Longhorns. Last season, he played in and started all 14 games at center for the Longhorns with an offensive line that blocked for Doak Walker Award semifinalist Jonathon Brooks and Davey O'Brien Award semifinalist Quinn Ewers. He helped open holes for running backs Brooks (1,158 yards), CJ Baxter (659 yards) and Jaydon Blue (339 yards), with Brooks and Baxter forming the fifth running back duo in UT history to have a 1,000- and 600-yard rusher in the same season. Texas ranked ninth nationally in total offense (477.5 ypg) and 15th in scoring offense (35.8 ppg), while averaged 289.1 yards per game passing (17th/FBS) and 188.4 yards per game on the ground (24th/FBS).
Majors is a management major in the prestigious McCombs School of Business with a 3.60 grade point average. A member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Majors was the Big 12 Student-Athlete of the Month for October 2023 for Texas. He is a seven-time member of the Big 12 Commissioners' Honor Roll, a two-time first-team Academic All-Big 12 honoree and was a member of the 2020-21 Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team. Majors is the first Longhorn center to be selected an Academic All-American since Dallas Griffin in 2007.
Auburn and Majors are the 26th and 27th Longhorns to be named to the Academic first or second team and bring Texas' total to 36 Academic All-America honors in program history.
