Brandon Jones Picks Up Offers From Purdue and Michigan State in Matter of Minutes

[Updated 11:59 p.m. CDT]

Nacogdoches safety Brandon Jones picked up his 16th and 17th college football scholarship opportunities within minutes of each other Wednesday and later picked up offer No. 18.

Big Ten rivals Purdue and Michigan State offered Jones within 10 minutes of each other Wednesday afternoon and then Louisville rounded out a big day for the safety, the leader of all scholarship holders in East Texas' sophomore class.

Jones confirmed a scholarship from Purdue via his Twitter account at 1:16 p.m. Michigan State must have called right after the tweet because the safety revealed a Spartans offer exactly 10 minutes later.

He announced his offer from Louisville on Wednesday evening.

The two new Big Ten offers give Jones three total scholarship opportunities from the conference. Nebraska also is actively recruiting him.

He also now has two ACC offers with Louisville and defending national champion Florida State in pursuit.

Additionally, Jones has five Big 12 opportunities, three SEC schools in the mix, two Pac-12 pursuers and an invitation from Notre Dame on top of scholarships outside the power conferences from Houston and Louisiana Tech.

Many of those schools like other parts of Nacogdoches' defensive backfield.

Louisiana Tech has offers out to fellow 2016 Dragons safety Corey Lane and 2015 cornerback Jaylon Lane who holds 34 scholarship opportunities and is East Texas' leader in terms of total opportunities.

Louisville has reached out to Jones and Jaylon Lane.

Aside from Louisville and Louisiana Tech, Jones and Jaylon Lane share common offers from Arizona State, Florida State, Houston, LSU, Mississippi, Notre Dame, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Washington State and now Michigan State.

The Spartans are fresh off a Big Ten championship, a Rose Bowl win and ranked fourth in total defense in 2013.

Purdue's offer to Jones was its first to an array of 26 Class of 2015 and 2016 players from East Texas that already had Division I opportunities.

The Boilermakers are rebuilding after a 1-11 campaign last year.

Louisville experienced a coaching change this winter with Charlie Strong moving to Texas. Bobby Petrino is now in control of the Cardinals program with a team that ranked 23rd in total defense last season and worked its way out to a 12-1 record with a Russell Athletic Bowl victory over Miami.

Jones will run on Nacogdoches' 800 meter relay team this weekend at the Texas state championships in Austin.

2016 East Texas Football Players With Division I FBS Offers