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The Big Break: How Jared Jackson went from obscurity to special-teams ace

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One year after earning his first real playing time, Florida State juior Jared Jackson (No. 87) has become a special-teams ace.
One year after earning his first real playing time, Florida State juior Jared Jackson (No. 87) has become a special-teams ace. (Jeff Romance/FSU Sports Information)
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On one side of him are senior cornerback Marquez White and highly touted freshman Carlos Becker. On the other are two of the highest-rated linebackers Florida State has signed during the Jimbo Fisher era -- former five-star prospect Matthew Thomas and four-star recruit Dontavious Jackson.

They are just a few of the headhunting speed demons lined up on FSU's highly selective kickoff coverage unit, and there he is in the middle -- a walk-on wide receiver from a tiny private school in a small town; a young man who had exactly zero scholarship offers coming out of high school.

This is the surreal life of Florida State junior Jared Jackson.

Coming out of Aucilla Christian Academy in Monticello, Fla., Jackson wasn’t given much of a chance to be here. Truth be told, there was a time that Jackson was a longshot to be on any college football roster.

“I started thinking, ‘Maybe he’s not as good as I think he is,’” said Jackson’s father, David, himself a former Division-I athlete and professional golfer. “We couldn’t get anybody interested. It was very frustrating.”

Despite an outstanding senior season, which saw him rack up more than 1,200 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns on offense and 101 tackles and five interceptions on defense, Jared was not recruited by any major college programs. And when no big universities came calling, the Jackson family visited several smaller schools in hopes of finding an opportunity.

There was Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C., a school that was just launching a Division-II football program. The coaches there seemed impressed by Jared and said they would call with an offer once they ironed out their recruiting class. The call never came.

Then there was Wingate University, a more established D-II school in North Carolina. The Bulldogs’ coaches said they would love to have Jared in their program, but only as a walk-on. And the hefty out-of-state tuition made that a non-starter.

With just a few months remaining before he would need to leave for college, Jared’s best opportunity emerged from a football program in nearby Tallahassee -- but not Florida State. It was an offer to walk on at Florida A&M.

“He really wanted to play, and that was the plan,” David said.

That was the plan until it wasn’t -- thanks in large part to a chance meeting between Jared’s high school coach and retired Florida State assistant coach Jim Gladden.

Gladden, who coached at FSU for 27 years and is still a regular visitor at practices, had seen Jared play in high school and was impressed by his ability.

“Where’s that Jackson kid going to college?” Gladden asked.

When he was told that Jared was heading to FAMU as a walk-on, Gladden quickly suggested that he consider Florida State instead. The former coach then took Jared’s high school film to FSU wide receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey, who coordinates the walk-on program, and asked Dawsey to give it a look. Dawsey liked what he saw as well and then showed the film to FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher.

“Coach Dawsey called my coach and told him I could be a preferred walk-on here,” Jared explained. “I was like, ‘I think I’ve got to jump on that.’ I did, and I’m glad I did it.”

'Totally out of the blue'

The life of a walk-on college football player can be brutal.

Scratch that -- it’s almost always brutal.

Not only do walk-ons have to pay their way through school, but they don’t receive many of the amenities that the scholarship players enjoy. And then there are the practices and games. While the highly recruited athletes get every opportunity to earn playing time, the walk-ons typically are an afterthought.

In most cases, they serve as little more than tackling dummies on the scout-team offense or defense, running the schemes of the opposing team so that the scholarship players can see formations and plays in action.

“It is definitely different at first," Jared said. "You don’t get a lot of respect. You definitely have to earn it through practice."

It can be a humbling experience, and Jared’s first couple of years at FSU were no exception. Even though several of the Seminoles’ brightest stars -- Jameis Winston, Jalen Ramsey, Dalvin Cook and others -- went out of their way to be supportive, it was the encouragement of defensive coordinator Charles Kelly and his assistants that really kept him motivated.

Each time Jared made a big play for the scout-team offense or had a solid day, the defensive coaches would take notice.

“Coach Kelly would say some good things to him,” David Jackson recalled. “A lot of the defensive coaches said good stuff to him, so that kind of encouraged him and kept him going.”

Until finally, almost exactly one year ago, things started to change.

After weeks of impressing the coaches with his performance on special teams -- routinely making plays against FSU’s starters -- Jared finally broke through. The Seminoles were heading to Georgia Tech that week, and special-teams coordinator Jay Graham decided to place him on the travel roster.

Jared hadn’t played in the first six games of the season and had no inclination he would see the field all year. His father still remembers the phone call.

“Dad, I’m traveling to Georgia Tech,” David recalls his son saying. “It was out totally of the blue.”

In that game against Georgia Tech, Jared was a starter on the punt return unit. He did well enough that he soon would be on kickoff coverage and other segments.

“I was lucky to just keep doing my job and keep doing things right, and they kept putting me on other stuff,” Jared said.

Now, he is just about everywhere on special teams. If the Seminoles or their opponents are kicking the ball, there’s a good chance No. 87 is on the field.

Through six games, he has registered six tackles. That’s only one less than starting defensive end Josh Sweat and one more than highly touted freshmen Levonta Taylor, Kyle Meyers and Emmett Rice.

“It’s awesome,” Jared said of his expanded role. “It’s a dream come true.”

Jared Jackson wraps up a Charleston Southern player earlier this season.
Jared Jackson wraps up a Charleston Southern player earlier this season. (Phil Kelly/FSU Sports Information)

A sense of belonging

Although he grew up in Monticello, Fla., just 30 miles east of FSU’s campus, Jared Jackson didn’t grow up with hopes of playing for Florida State.

His father, David, was an All-America golfer at the University of Florida. The family attended many more games in "The Swamp" than they did Doak Campbell Stadium. So seeing Jared suit up in garnet and gold took some getting used to -- especially since David wasn’t convinced his son would ever get a real chance to play for the 'Noles.

“I wasn’t super-excited,” said David, who played briefly on the PGA Tour. “I thought maybe after a year or two, maybe they would help place him at another school.”

That notion couldn’t be further from the minds of anyone in the Jackson family anymore. Not only is Jared a key contributor on special teams, he also continues to make progress at wide receiver.

At the end of the 2015 season, he and quarterback Deondre Francois were two of three players who shared “Scout Team MVP” honors on offense. He has played so well in practices that teammates believe he one day could become part of the receiver rotation.

“He gives us a great look,” junior safety Trey Marshall said. “If one of the other receivers goes down, he can definitely step in.”

There was a time when not even Jared thought that was possible. After being overlooked as a senior in high school, it was little more than a fantasy to think that he might one day line up at receiver for Florida State.

But that was then. This is now.

“I’m happy to be out there with those guys,” he said. “But at the same time, I feel like I belong out there. When I started playing on special teams, I was like, ‘I can play with these guys now.’ I’m dying to play receiver now.”

* Also See: Matchup Analysis -- Florida State vs. Wake Forest

In some ways, Jared Jackson is the same player who wasn’t pursued by even Division-II schools, but in others he is completely different. As a senior in high school, he was 6-foot-1 and a rail-thin 175 pounds. These days, he is listed at 6-2 and 199.

“In high school, he just could not put on weight,” David recalled. “He drank the milkshakes, the protein shakes, hit the weights … the whole deal. But FSU has done a great job with him. He’s gotten bigger and stronger and has not gotten slower. He’s actually increased his speed.”

Said Fisher: "Jared's a guy who said, 'I want to continually fight and play at this level,' and he kept raising his game, conditioning, getting bigger and stronger and got used to the guys around him ... said, 'I want to be one of those guys.' He has developed himself now so he can be a very good contributor."

As a redshirt junior, Jared will have one more year of eligibility remaining after this season. Even if he never gets the opportunity to play meaningful snaps at wide receiver, it has been a remarkable ride.

He owns a national championship ring and got to experience one of the greatest runs in college football history. During his first three years on campus, he saw 29 straight victories, consecutive ACC championships, a College Football Playoff appearance and that 2013 national title.

It’s no wonder that the Jacksons feel indebted to FSU’s coaching staff, particularly Graham, who gave Jared his big break on special teams.

“There’s a few of those schools that I’d like to call and let 'em know what they missed,” David said with a laugh. "We're as proud of him as we could be. And he’s thrilled. I mean, gosh … how many rings is he gonna leave with? He might leave as the most decorated player in FSU history.”

And the Jackson family, which used to bleed orange and blue, is soaking up every minute.

“It was tough for him at first,” Jared said of his father. “He said he wasn’t going to do the warchant or anything until I got on the field. So last year, he had to start doing all that stuff. It was awesome.”

The transition wasn’t easy. When FSU played Florida during Jared’s first year on the team, David admits he wore a Gators shirt under his Seminoles shirt. He had no idea how he’d ever bring himself to do the Seminole chop instead of the Gator chomp.

But those days are long gone. When the Seminoles host Wake Forest for Homecoming on Saturday, David will be 100 percent Seminole.

Just like his son.

“I can do it now, brother,” David said of the chop. “It just took a little while. I told him if he got on that field, I would have no problem. Believe me, when he starts playing, it ain’t tough. It ain’t tough pulling that tomahawk down.”

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