Jackson chose SMU after receiving interest from Arkansas, Rice and Harvard (photo by SMU athletics).

Admit it: a year ago, you couldn’t pick out Jason Jackson without a game program. As a redshirt freshman, the walk-on linebacker from Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock, Ark., was nearly anonymous to even the most dedicated PonyFan.

Jackson wasn’t a regular in the SMU defense. In fact, he was limited almost exclusively to special teams duty. Ardent devotees of the Ponies’ kickoff return team, punt return team and kickoff team were very familiar with his work ... and even they most like were lying if they said they knew him.

So what is Jackson doing here in preseason camp, holding down the starting WILL (weakside) linebacker spot in the Ponies’ new defense?

“Jason has gotten so much better since last year,” SAM (strongside) linebacker Will Bonilla said. “He does a lot of different things well. He has changed his body up – he’s a lot leaner, a lot stronger – and he studies very hard. He knows this defense as well as anyone. He’s going to surprise a lot of people this year.”

That he seems to have locked up one of the starting spots as the season approaches is a surprise, in and of itself, for some. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound Jackson said part of his emergence in the Ponies’ defensive rotation stems from the equal footing on which all of the players started with the new coaching staff.

“From a playbook standpoint, it was like everybody was a freshman” when the new coaches arrived, Jackson said. “I spent the spring working at the SAM spot, and now I’m at the WILL. I just had to prove that I belonged.”

Limited to special teams duty in 2007, Jackson is running with the first-team defense at WILL linebacker (photo by Webmaster).

For Jackson, having to fight for his spot was nothing new. A star at Episcopal Collegiate, Jackson earned minimal attention from Div. I schools. While in high school, he attended camps at Rice and Harvard, and received a little interest from Arkansas, but none materialized into a scholarship offer.

“I realized I had to choose a school where I could walk on,” he said. “That experience made me a better player. It made me tougher. Character-wise, emotionally – I’m different than I was before. I’m tougher than I was. You have to push through a lot of things when you’re a walk-on.

“I didn’t know diddly-squat. I was a big guy in high school, and all of a sudden, I’m on the scout team. It helped me realize how much I had to learn.”

OLDER AND WISER

Jackson has learned a lot. If preseason workouts are any indication, Jackson should be in the starting lineup along with Bonilla and Justin Smart in a couple of weeks when the Ponies open the season Aug. 29 at Rice.

“Jason has done a really good job picking up what we’re teaching,” linebackers coach (and assistant head coach/defense) Tim Hundley said. “He’s very good playing in space, which is why we moved him to the WILL spot (opposite from the side on which the opposing offense employs its tight end). When he gets some space and has room to run, he can be very effective.”

While he toiled away on the scout team, Jackson studied and learned. He got visibly stronger, and took a more serious approach to his work. Now, he says, he has some of the skills needed to be an effective player at his position.

“I have pretty good feet and good hands,” he said. “When an offensive lineman is said to have good hands, they’re talking about the ability to get ahold of a guy and lock him up. With a linebacker, it’s just the opposite – if we have good hands, it means we can get off those blocks and create separation.”

Jackson said it was his redshirt year that made him realize he had to improve his workout regimen if he was going to get on the field for the Ponies’ defense.

“In my redshirt freshman year (2007), I played only on special teams,” he said. “I was pretty strong then, I guess, but I wanted to take it to the next level. I started working out harder and eating better. When you go face-to-face with a lineman who’s a lot bigger than you are, you need to be in the best shape of your life.

“I try to work hard every day, to be better every day than I was the day before. That’s kind of my motto now: to be better than yesterday. If I keep that motto up, I’ll get better every year.”