Daniel Jackson added one final piece of hardware to go along with Georgia baseball’s historic 2026 season — the Golden Spikes Award.
The award is annually presented by USA Baseball to the best amateur player in the sport, essentially serving as baseball’s version of the Heisman Trophy. Jackson became the second Georgia player to ever win the award, the first being Charlie Condon who won just two years ago. Jackson beat out fellow finalists Roch Cholowsky from UCLA and Landon Hairston from Arizona State.
Nicknamed “The Rhino,” Jackson slashed .379/.473/.803 while appearing in all of Georgia’s 67 games and adding a monster 1.276 OPS. His 32 home runs tied for second in all of college baseball, and he earned the “triple crown” by leading the SEC in homers, batting average and RBIs. While Jackson’s incredible stats at the plate likely could have won the award alone, his 2026 campaign is further boosted by the fact that he spent the majority of the season at catcher, which is generally considered to be the most challenging and physically demanding defensive position.
The Golden Spikes Award is the penultimate individual honor in college baseball — yet it is just one of many awards Jackson won in 2026. He also won SEC Player of the Year, the Dick Howser Trophy, which is similar to the Golden Spikes but awarded by a different body to specifically college-level ballplayers, and the Buster Posey Award as college baseball’s top catcher.
Jackson led the Bulldogs to its winningest season in program history. Georgia won the SEC in both the regular season and the conference tournament, and then won its Regional and Super Regional as hosts. That sent the Bulldogs to Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series, the first time they had made it since 2008.
Jackson’s season ended with a small blip as he struggled in Omaha, only batting for 3-for-19. Georgia went 2-2 and was eliminated by Oklahoma, the eventual champions.
Despite falling short of the ultimate goal to claim the national championship, the Bulldogs’ 2026 season won’t be forgotten any time soon, and it likely would not have been possible without their Golden Spikes-winning superstar.