The Basics
School: Glenbard North (IL)
Position: RB
Height/Weight: 5-foot-11/180 pounds
Stars: 4
Other offers: Arizona State, Boston College, California, Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, Purdue, Syracuse, Toledo, Vanderbilt
247 Profile
Twitter: @J_ManPrime21
What You Should Know
You could make a pretty good argument that Jackson is the best get for Northwestern in the 2014 class, and he'll join a very good group of running backs when he arrives on campus.
Jackson's accolades speak for themselves: He was the 2013 Gatorade Player of the Year in Illinois, and he received a four-star rating from 247Sports, along with a number of solid offers. Then there are his stats: 3,171 yards and 38 touchdowns his senior year, and 6,584 yards and 84 touchdowns in his high school career. That comes in what the Chicago Tribune calls "arguably the deepest conference in Illinois." Some of Jackson's better single-game outputs over the course of his career are even more insane:
Against Glenbard East: 351 rushing yards on 12 (!!!) carries and one kickoff return for a touchdown
Against Wheaton North: 339 rushing yards on 43 carries, 4 touchdowns
Against Naperville Central: 405 rushing yards (a conference record)
Against Naperville North: 319 yards on 43 carries, 4 touchdowns
Sure, it's high school, but those numbers are flat-out impressive at any level.
NU has a very good situation at running back in 2014, with Venric Mark, Treyvon Green, Stephen Buckley and Warren Long all coming back, plus Jackson and fellow 2014 recruit Auston Anderson coming in. It's unclear if either Jackson or Anderson will redshirt, but it will be exciting to see what Jackson can do at the college level, no matter when he hits the field.
Quotable
“Coach McCall does an excellent job of changing the offense according to what players he has,” Jackson told InsideNU. “I’ve watched film with coach Mac [running backs coach Matt MacPherson] and the offense was a lot clearer to me.”