Sooners Stayed on Jackson's Mind
Mark Jackson’s call to Oklahoma defensive line coach Diron Reynolds may not have gone quite how he’d imagined it.
“I called and told coach Reynolds (I was committing) about 30 seconds before I announced it, but he saw it on the internet already,” Jackson groaned.
However according to the 6-foot-3, 235-pound four-star defensive end committing to Oklahoma may have always been what he was imagining.
“(Oklahoma) always kind of sat on my heart. Going into my sophomore year that’s when I got my offer, it was my very first offer,” he said. “I was kind of puzzled, why would they want to offer someone like me?
“They trusted me from the very beginning when a lot of schools said ‘you aren’t prepared yet, you probably aren’t going to pan out’.
“It wasn’t just an offer though, they made contact with me, talking to coach (Bob Stoops) my sophomore year. Really, talking to the entire staff, even after coach (Bobby Jack) Wright retired and (Jerry) Montgomery went to the league.
“It was constant contact, I wanted to pull the trigger back then, my family and I decided we were going to go through the process and see what was out there and enjoyed the entire process.”
Obviously part of that process included committing to Texas A&M who most felt he picked directly over the Sooners last May. However even after his choice Reynolds never quite gave up hope and Jackson never quite got the Sooners out of his head.
“We went through it all and I felt like A&M might have been the choice for me and we committed there. As time went on we felt like (some visits) could be an insurance thing and we checked out every other school,” he said. “And really, I had only been to Oklahoma one time back when I was a sophomore.
“I went through the season and came out the other side and decided to take my three visits and found an environment that would best suit me.”
So what was it about Oklahoma that made it the best environment for Jakcson?
“It’s a college town, you talk to the players there, the people there, it’s almost like a big high school,” he said. “I’m not looking to be babied or anything, I’m looking to grow as a person as a student and a player. I felt like Oklahoma would help me with that.”
During his visit to Norman last weekend Reynolds and the Sooner staff were able to show Jackson and his family the renovations currently ongoing as well as plenty of further work set to begin in Norman in the coming years.
“They talked about it a lot honestly, the renovations and they had a whole reception about it as well. I also talked to the strength and conditioning coach [Jerry Schmidt], he has a lot of people that he has trained, made great players out of them.”
When word broke early on about his decision there was some talk that the Sooners had sold him on his role in Norman being very different from how he would be put to use in College Station.
And the Sooners made it very clear how they want to use him.
“I would kind of fit into a Demarcus Ware kind of scheme, playing a 3-4 outside linebacker and also I can play defensive end in 4-3 packages. I’ll probably sit around 245-pounds my first year and try to stay lean but I’m just looking forward to it all,” he said.
Jackson, who expects his signing day ceremony to take place around 10 a.m., says that his choice came down to what he felt was best for him rather than those around him.
“It was truly my decision at the end of the day. I had to choose what was best for me, my parents aren’t going with me, I had to sit down and think it out. I had to go with my parents and had to get some confirmation. It was something I honestly had to find the school that I thought about the most.”