Justin Jackson wasn’t supposed to be there, especially against this opponent.
Our Lady of Good Counsel already had a daunting task facing Caleb Williams-led Gonzaga before two-way standout Cam Hart — a Notre Dame commit — got hurt. Enter Jackson, a reserve who admitted he wasn’t expecting to play much. It showed early: Jackson, nervous as ever, got called for pass interference almost immediately.
“I’m like, ‘Damn, my mom’s in the crowd, too,’ I’m like — excuse my French — ‘Damn, I’m f—ing up already,'” Jackson said. “He can smell blood in the water.”
It looked like things would get worse. Gonzaga was marching again when Williams lofted a ball for 6-foot-2 Navy commit John Marshall. Then came the play of a lifetime.
“It looked like it was a sluggo route,” Jackson remembers. “So it looked like it was a slant at first. Then he went to the corner, and … all I remember, I went up for it — and the receiver was definitely bigger than me — but I just went up for it and I just came down with it.
“After that pick, though, I started feeling myself. I was like, ‘Oh yeah.’ You know once you get in that zone, you feel like you can do anything.”
He could indeed do anything. Later in the game, Jackson stepped in front of another Williams pass and returned it for a touchdown, his ledger now including a touchdown saved and a touchdown scored. Good Counsel won, 38-31, and Jackson was named USA TODAY Super 25 Top Star beating out Taulia Tagovailoa, among others. The plays are the first two highlights in Jackson’s junior season highlight tape.
Jackson, who went on to be a long jumper at Pitt-Johnstown, doesn’t watch them often, though he admits he’ll probably show them to his kids one day. For now the entire experience remains a cherished memory — the nerves, the coverages, the interceptions, the win the big man on campus status that followed.
“Ain’t nobody knew of me, they were picking on me,” he said. “But they picked with me the wrong day.”
Courtesy of Justin Jackson
Before he was the shoo-in to go No. 1 in the NFL Draft, before he won the Heisman, before he transferred to USC, before he turned college football on its head by leading Oklahoma to the largest Red River Showdown…
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