Brooks: Pac-12 Gives Jackson Reason To Reassess His View Of SEC

BOULDER – As a kid growing up in Atlanta, Leo Jackson III fell in step with his peers, sharing their assessment of college football and what region of the country, what conference, reigned.

Of course, it had to be the SEC; Jackson and his friends lived in the epicenter of Southern football, and to think outside of this particular box would have been heresy.

A dozen or so years later, Jackson still carries a healthy respect for the SEC. But his horizon and his geography have been broadened. He was pretty sure football – very good football – was played north of the Mason-Dixon Line and west of the Mississippi River, and the last couple of months have confirmed it.

Jackson is in his debut season in the Pac-12, starting at defensive end for the Colorado Buffaloes. Any lingering beliefs about SEC football being on an untouchable level have been tempered by his four starts in the Pac-12.

“I used to think (the Pac-12) was second to the SEC just growing up in the SEC,” Jackson said. “Coming out here and actually playing in it is giving me a different perspective . . . the guys we're going up against are big and fast, pretty much like the SEC. It has changed my thought process a lot. The Pac-12 is serious.”

But then so is Jackson, a junior college transfer with an atypical football resume. A self-described late-bloomer at North Atlanta High School, Jackson had none of those SEC football powers he followed as a youngster lining up to offer him scholarships.

In fact, there was no line at all; not one offer was extended, sending Jackson on the JUCO route to Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif. Foothill played bad football, but Jackson didn't. In his team's 2-8 season – his only JUCO year – Jackson started eight games and posted 22 solo tackles (34 total) which included 10 for losses and 6.5 quarterback sacks. He pressured QBs a dozen times, broke up four passes and forced two fumbles.

Those scholarship offers that didn't materialize in high school began appearing. CU assistant Klayton Adams noticed Jackson and successfully recruited him. After signing with the Buffs the previous winter, Jackson waited until last spring to enroll and then slowly began making himself known in the D-line.

“I knew coming in it was going to be a bit of a slow road, because I had been a year out of football,” he said. “I needed a little time to develop. I think I'm coming on pretty well.”

SO DOES CU D-LINE COACH JIM JEFFCOAT: “He is a tremendous athlete, I mean a tremendous athlete,” Jeffcoat said. “He's got to work on really being physical and he's learning what the Pac-12 is. But he's working hard and getting better – and that's all I can ever ask.”

Continued Jeffcoat: “He's just like everybody else (in the D-line); he needs to be square and stout and physical at the line of scrimmage. With young guys, that's how it is. They've got to understand leverage on the offensive linemen. But he's getting better each day.”

In seven games this season, Jackson, an impressively cut 6-3, 280-pounder, has recorded 27 tackles (15 solo), including a pair of sacks and three QB pressures. He's made four third-down stops and forced a fumble, and according to senior tackle Justin Solis, has “definitely been a key player for us. Coming from JC he didn't have the experience at this level and didn't know D-line football in the Pac-12.

“But he's starting to get his find his way and get his feet under him every week. He works hard. It means a lot to him to make plays. He gets upset when he misses assignments. That's a good thing. He's definitely improving.”

If Jackson ventured far out of his Southern comfort zone with his choice of colleges, the Buffs immediately made him feel at home. There was no problem assimilating with his new teammates, said Solis, mainly “because he's a nice guy . . . he's been good for us.”

Jackson called the transition “easy, because we have a great team. Everyone was inviting and that was from the coaching staff all the way down to the equipment managers. Everyone was extremely inviting coming in so it made it feel like a family. There was really no transition period.”

At least not in the locker room, but not so on the field. If he wasn't aware of it, Jackson is learning that the Pac-12 is brimming with strong-armed and efficient quarterbacks and that applying pressure is a weekly mandate for a D-line.

But this weekend underscores that assignment. CU plays at UCLA on Saturday (1 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Networks), offering the Buffs their first look at Bruins freshman quarterback Josh Rosen. He's within one game of setting school records for consecutive 300-yard passing games (three by Brett Hundley in 2012) and 350-yard passing games in a season (three by Cade McNown in 1998).

Rosen is completing 61.5 percent of his passes (158-of-257) and has thrown 15 touchdown passes against seven interceptions. He's also benefitting from an offensive line that improved from last in the Pac-12 (No. 118 nationally) last season in sacks allowed to first in the conference this season (No. 26 nationally) at 1.29 a game.

“They're very athletic in the offensive line,” Jeffcoat said of the Bruins front. “We've got to get off blocks, bring it to them and press that pocket. But they're playing together really well and executing well.”

Pressuring Rosen, said Solis, is a must for the Buffs: “Every week we're facing great quarterbacks, but we really need to step up our pressure this week. We're going to be coming from different angles and with different pressures as well. We're working on different pass rush schemes just to try and collapse the pocket and get him off his spot. It's something big in our game plan – something we're focusing on.”

But containing Rosen can't be CU's sole focus. UCLA's backfield also features junior tailback Paul Perkins, who's fourth in the Pac-12 in rushing (107.7 yards a game) and has run for eight touchdowns in seven games. Perkins ran 19 times for 180 yards and two TDs (92, 24 yards) in UCLA's 40-37 double overtime win last October in Boulder.

In last weekend's 17-13 win at Oregon State – a victory that snapped CU's 14-game conference losing streak and 13-game conference road losing streak – the Buffs allowed the Beavers 202 yards rushing. Of that total, 122 were gained by Ryan Nall.

JACKSON AND THE BUFFS HAD PROBLEMS putting Nall, a 6-2, 255-pound redshirt freshman, on the ground. He powered out of several tackles that could have been for losses, which perturbed Jackson.

“It was very frustrating to be honest with you, not even because of stats, but it could have made the game go a lot quicker (and) be a lot easier,” he said. “It gave them a lot more drives because after the missed tackles he was gaining about 10 more yards before anyone else was hitting him. It put a lot more pressure on the defense than there needed to be.”

UCLA's Perkins offers a different running style. The 5-11, 210-pounder is powerful but also can shift gears and turn missed tackles into game-changing mistakes. Jackson calls Perkins “a more dynamic back than the back we had last week. He's a lot quicker, he's real shifty and he has a lot of speed so he can get out quickly. So that's our main thing: we need to wrap up.”

Among Jeffcoat's linemen, Jackson's 400 snaps are second only to fellow JUCO transfer Jordan Carrell's 494. Jackson admits to his play total being “a bit surprising” for a first-year player. “But I said, 'The heck with it; let's go. I'm here now.'”

Before past games when head coach Mike MacIntyre approached him and asked three times how he was feeling, Jackson said he took it as a forecast: “That's when I'd know I'm going to have to play a lot of reps this game. I'm kind of used to it.”

In what became a weekly ritual in junior college, Jackson still outfits himself for each game in what he calls his “hybrid poncho.” It's a roomy black, Nike “dri-fit” shirt with “Man Up” printed across the chest. It's not sleek or form-fitting and it's hardly a fashion statement. It's not intended to be.

It offers on-field, every-down inspirational for Jackson, who says when fatigue begins to wear on him or when he needs “to get out of my own head about the last series or last play, I hit my chest three times and take a deep breath. Basically, I'm telling myself to 'calm down and man up.'”

It's a personal message, and it's how he wants to play in the league that is measuring up (and then some) to the one he watched as a kid in the Deep South.

“I'm taking it game-by-game,” he said. “I'm taking the coaching, and really engulfing myself in watching film and turning into the Pac-12 player that I need to be.”

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU