Player Profile: Jakarie Jackson

Jackson tackling Nova's Chris Whitney.

We finished our 9th team preview in our 2010 CAA Football Preview series last week. We’ll still probably tackle ODU and Georgia State, who aren’t full fledged CAA members, but will be in the coming season. That means we’re down to the Dukes for the 2010 CAA teams. Todd and I haven’t really figured out how we’re going to tackle it, so in the meantime I thought I’d profile one of my personal favorite Dukes, Jakarie Jackson.

Jackson is a 5’11”, 185 pound free safety. He’s a sophomore who played on last year’s team as a true freshman. For any of you who don’t pay attention to these sorts of things, trust me when I tell you that is highly unusual. The overwhelming majority of JMU players redshirt. Transitioning from high school to college football is really tough for most players, so the coaches give them a year to adjust. Jackson was thrown on the field immediately however and from day one he showed that he belonged.

Mickey Matthews was quoted in the Richmond Times Dispatch last week saying that Jakarie “is a star in the making.” I couldn’t agree more. Any Dukes fan who actually sat through the train-wreck of a football game against William & Mary last year, probably walked away thinking three things. 1.) What the %@#! is up with the offense? 2.) Arthur Moats > Adrian Tracy and 3.) Jakarie Jackson is going to be a stud. For those of you who erased that game from your memories, it was awful. The Dukes’ D was on the field the whole game. Jackson played great though and had 10 total tackles, including 8 solo.

Jakarie finished the year with 41 tackles and 3 interceptions. He’s not the biggest guy on the field, but he is an amazing athlete. Check out these highlights from his high school days. The kid is just sick. He played QB, receiver, and safety and was honored as the 2008 Baltimore Touchdown Club MVP and Offensive Player of the Year prior to becoming a Duke. We already saw what he could do when he focused on just playing defense in year one. There’s no telling how good he’s going to be over the next three seasons.