Notre Dame football once had the Four Horsemen. Livingstone College has the Five Horsemen HBCU Athlete of the Year.
Linebacker Jaden Echols earned the first-ever award by that name earlier this year. It was given out by Five Horsemen, an Atlanta-area philanthropy group that supports high school and college student-athletes in their pursuit of excellence (read more about them here).
Echols, from Griffin, Ga., has been excellent on the field and in the classroom during his three years at Livingstone.
North Carolina Football News turns its D2 Spotlight today on the Blue Bears’ reigning defensive player of the year, who was an obvious choice for the All-CIAA preseason team announced last week.
Echols has led Livingstone in tackles two of the past three seasons. He finished the 2023 campaign with 80 tackles, including 54 solo hits, to earn first-team All-CIAA honors.
In a mid-season game against Virginia State, Echols made a whopping 16 solo tackles. The next week, helping the Blue Bears to a win against Bowie State for the first time in a decade, Echols amassed 12 tackles, 1.5 tackles-for-loss and a sack. He has 190 career tackles, per Livingstone’s official stats.
Echols told BET in a story on HBCU football last fall that most college programs passed on offering him a scholarship coming out of high school. But he stayed patient throughout the process.
“God was telling me to wait because I was going to get my offer,” Echols told BET. “When [Livingstone associate coach Mark Williams] gave me the offer, it was time to go show why I got it, and show everyone else that they should have offered me when they had the chance.”
Echols, who made the CIAA’s all-freshman team in ’21, has stayed loyal to Livingstone — and coaches like Williams and head coach Sean Gilbert, who took over the program in 2020.
He is a Dean’s List student with a 3.4 GPA, majoring in math education.
Echols has has already spent time in the classroom, helping math teachers in the Rowan-Salisbury district. He also volunteers with Salisbury parks and recreation, coaching youth football and tutoring young students in math.
Livingstone won four of its last six games last season, including a second-straight triumph over traditional power Winston-Salem State. The solid finish has Echols and the Bears thinking positive heading into 2024.
He’s hoping to spend time chasing another dream when his Livingstone playing career comes to an end.
“I want to play at the next level. I am going to work for that,” he said at last week’s CIAA media day.
Livingstone opens the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against visiting Charleston (WV). The Blue Bears play their first three games at home, also hosting Virginia University of Lynchburg and Allen University.
#1 Jaden Echols
- Position: Inside Linebacker
- Height: 6-2
- Weight: 235
- Class: Senior
- Hometown: Griffin, Ga.
- High School: Griffin HS
2023 Highlights: Earned the school’s 2023-2024 Troy Veale Livingstone College Defensive Player of the Year Award, given at the school’s athletic banquet … One of three first-team All-CIAA linebackers … Tallied 80 tackles, with 54 being solo hits, along with seven tackles for loss … Had five games with at least eight tackles, including a 17-tackle game (16 solos) against Virginia State and a 12-hit game against Bowie State
Other Livingstone Highlights: Livingstone team MVP 2021-22 … football team academic athletic of the year 2021-22.
High School Highlights: Averaged 8.4 tackles per game in 2019 for Griffin High in Georgia. Also had nine tackles for loss and four sacks … Played goal-keeper on Griffin’s varsity soccer team.
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