MORGANTOWN – T.J. Jackson has enjoyed his lone season on the West Virginia University football team so much, he’d love to find a way to play another one.
“For the past five, six weeks, I’ve been trying to find a way I could appeal and come back for another year,” Jackson said with a chuckle last week, “but I can’t do it. … That’s how much I love the culture here.”
The Mountaineers would love to have Jackson back. All he did in his one season in Morgantown after transferring from Troy was be named an All-Big 12 first-teamer by the conference’s coaches. Jackson arrived in Morgantown and made an immediate and significant impact.
One would think he wouldn’t have much left to prove to anyone who questioned his decision to jump from the Sun Belt to the Big 12. Yet Jackson said doubters still remain, at least in his mind, so he continues to barrel full team ahead – into WVU’s Frisco Bowl matchup Tuesday with No. 25 Memphis (9 p.m., ESPN) and into the NFL draft process, where scouts may see an undersized defensive lineman, but he sees someone who is ready to erase any preconceived notions.
“I try to keep myself humble,” he said. “Because even if I’ve done all that, there are still going to be doubts from a lot of people.”
Jackson admitted he was betting on himself after he entered the transfer portal following a junior season at Troy where he was a two-time All-Sun Belt honoree. Not everyone was convinced he would be able to make the transition from the Group of Five level to the power conference level.
He said a coach who was recruiting him even advised him to stay at that lower level, that he would struggle among the big boys.
“That lit a whole different fire inside of me,” he said. “I was like, all right, I have to prove you wrong. And if you think that, there are a whole bunch of other people thinking that, so I have to prove them wrong, too.”
That mission was accomplished quickly. Jackson has played in all 12 games for WVU so far this season, starting nine. He has recorded 38 tackles, 20 solo, with 6½ sacks, ranking him fifth in the Big 12. He also has 13½ tackles for loss and a fumble recovery. He is currently No. 1 nationally in run defense grade (90.6) by PFF College and tied for No. 25 nationally (82.3) among edge rushers overall.
Yet a lot of the time, Jackson said he focuses not so much on the plays he has made, but more on the plays he hasn’t been able to make. That striving for more motivates him even further.
“I probably lead the nation in missed (tackles for loss),” he said. “I could probably have, like, 20 TFLs, but I missed them. So I can never really be satisfied with what I’ve got.
“It’s like with sacks. I missed four in the Pitt game, maybe two or three in the Penn State game,” he continued. “So I really can’t be satisfied with what I did, because when I sit back and look at it, I’m like, how did I miss that?”
Chasing perfection should help him in his quest for the next level, where he feels he’ll still be an underdog. As productive as he has been on West Virginia’s defensive line, his dimensions – he’s listed at 6-foot-1 and 282 pounds – are something he feels could knock him down a few notches in the eyes of pro scouts.
It’s one of the reasons that he’s playing in Tuesday’s game. Jackson said he doesn’t have the luxury of sitting out to avoid injury. He needs as much tape against top competition as he can, and he looks at the chance to face the Tigers as something that could make scouts sit up and take notice.
The other reason he’s playing, he said, was because he wanted to thank WVU for the opportunities he has been given. The experience of traveling from Alabama, where he said he had never left until this year, to the Mountain State was an important eye-opener. And the resources he has been given in Morgantown has helped him provide for his young daughter.
So Jackson will do all he can to help the Mountaineers until his final play in a WVU uniform.
“I might even bring my daughter back up to watch a couple games,” he said. “I was talking to a couple of the other seniors and I was like, ‘we’ve got to come back for some of these games.’ This has been a cool experience for me. It’s been awesome since I’ve been here.”
— Story by Derek Redd
