Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Jackson Weighs Options, Signs With Tech

Kyle Jackson, as many of the state's elite high school football players, spent many months weighing his college options before this month's national signing day.

Unlike most of the state's top players, Jackson's options were curiously limited.

While college coaches court the biggest and fastest from near and far, holding their breath over grade point averages and entrance test scores in the quest to find players who trouble finding their way to class, the pleas and promises telling of Jackson's talents fade unwanted into the bitter winter air.

Despite being selected to the Texas Coaches Academic All-State team and the Texas Sports Writers Association first team All-State lineman; stepping into a 4A Texarkana Texas High program and helping the Tigers win the 1999 district championship as a junior; moving as a senior  dad Eddie Jackson is a coach  and earning the MVP offensive line award; being an honor student (4.0 GPA) who has drawn inquires from renowned academic institutions, football schools somehow have no use for Kyle Jackson.

Such is recruiting, football's second season, where players are often pursued for potential, not proof; where some are sought even as academic shortcomings will knowlingly send them shuffling off to junior colleges, carrying iffy returns about the players returning to the university they originally signed with; where we hear talk about getting players that are good students while ranking dead last in graduation rate; and here is a guy who has made a 26 on the ACT, a member of the national honor society and has been admitted to Stanford University.

The next question is "Can he play?" He is six feet and 3.5 inches tall and weights 310 pounds and has good feet for an offensive lineman. The knocks on Jackson are not uncommon.

Too short? Too slow? In the 40-yard dash, which is highly overrated for offensive lineman, he runs between a 5.4 and 5.6, depending on the wind and who is timing! Naturally, a passing offense likes to have tackles that are 6.5" and 6'6", but the NFL is full of centers and guards who are 6'2".

Some of the key elements of a winner, such as heart, determination and character, cannot be measured. Still, when NCAA Division I recruiters are finished with their tape measures and stop watches, Jackson apparently doesn't measure up.

Jackson the younger is not the only player ever scorned by college recruiters. Most high school coaches will swear they have had several who didn't fit the profile. College coaches talk all the time about separating production from potential  you have to play the guy who produces. Yet when it comes down to recruiting them, they often do just the opposite.

Now What? Kyle is ready to put some closure to his disappointment from being listed by some recruiting services in the top 100 Texas recruits last fall to no Division I offer. He considered going as an academic walk on at his beloved home state university (University of Arkansas) and probably would have if they had handled the situation differently.

He had the option of playing junior college ball and taking chance on being picked up by a Division I school. He has settled on a Division II school that plays a good brand of football, but in the back of his mind, and many other football people, there will always be that question of Division I coaches overlooking another a solid player who could contribute on the field, would handle himself in the right manner off the field, and will get his degree as a student-athlete.

Kyle is the son of Eddie and Kathy Jackson, formerly of Prescott.