Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep has the latest with unranked junior EDGE CJ Jackson at Tucker High School. He has no stars or rankings as of now, but he does have an offer from the national champion and top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
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CJ Jackson has no stars. No rankings. No ratings.
As of this morning, there was not even a prospect page for him across the major recruiting services. That never stopped him from having a dream like all of the other kids.
Now he has hope. Hope to one day get his hard-working mother off her feet at the beauty shop.
Hope that drives away a few dark days after an eviction while playing on a talent-loaded team waiting for one offer to come his way.
Hope that he now has the educational piece to move him closer to his dream of becoming a commercial pilot after his days toppling quarterbacks are done.
The 6-foot-4.5, 220-pounder now has two offers. Indiana came out of the blue on October 10. Nothing else came right after that.
Until last night.
Christopher “CJ” Jackson picked up an offer late Thursday evening from the defending national champions and top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
“Not even ranked and now I have a Georgia offer,” Jackson said. “That’s crazy. That is just crazy.”
He plans to visit Clemson this weekend. Jackson will also be in Athens next week for the Georgia Tech game.
These stories make this high-stakes Wild West world of recruiting coverage still very sweet. And still special and timeless.
Check out this junior film.
Make sure to notice the obvious talent and size, speed, length and explosion.
In a world where players get the rankings and offers before they stack up anywhere near this level of production, it feels good to write about the CJ Jacksons of the world.
They are still hoping and waiting to be found. Jackson stacked up a reported 11 sacks this fall at that height and weight. He did it in 10 games in the middle of a major media market in Atlanta.
Yet he remained hidden for this long.
Jackson was on a loaded Parkview team last fall. Those players are now 5-star junior Mike Matthews, 4-star junior Jalyn Crawford and 3-star senior Zion Taylor. They were all there among many other college prospects.
“Last year it was crazy,” he said. “I think last year coming out of Parkview my film was good enough. I felt like I had what it took to where I am trying to be right now. But it wasn’t coming. So I kept my head down. Kept grinding. Came back home. Tucker was where I originally originated from going to middle school and all that.”
He can not honestly say he knew it would work out like this.
“Keeping my nose down,” he said. “Grinding. Really just seeing it out. It is amazing, man. Not to say I knew it was coming, but I believe that hard work pays off and it sure is paying off right now.”
Jackson started some at Parkview in 2021. He played at 205 pounds. He was in the rotation, but then added about 15 pounds of good weight and muscle to his frame for this fall.
He looked like an All-American this fall. He was also invited to the 2024 Under Armour All-American Game this morning. It is just that obvious what he can do on Saturdays.
CJ Jackson: What this Georgia football offer now means to him
Georgia outside linebackers coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe offered him at eight o’clock on Thursday night.
It was something that he and his mother Karima Jackson will never forget.
“My mom and me we actually cried together,” Jackson said. “All the sacrifices she made. All the hard work we’ve been putting in. I couldn’t hold it in. We just let it out. We hugged for a good five, six or seven minutes just straight hugging and just balling our eyes out. It was just that type of time for us.”
Jackson knows the Georgia offer is big. He might be new to all this big-boy recruiting stuff but he is wise enough to know that this ‘Dawg offer will open all the doors.
“It is a little bit of both for me,” he said. “Just being from here and growing up and watching Georgia anybody from here wants to be a part of that. So it is kind of like getting that offer is huge. But then at the same time getting that Georgia offer means that once Georgia offers you know that everybody else is coming behind it.”
“It is Georgia at the end of the day but the feeling is a little bit of both for me right now.”
Jackson grew up a Georgia fan. Clemson and Ohio State were two other schools on his radar. It sounds like those schools, should they offer, will undoubtedly gain major consideration. He already knows about the aviation program at Ohio State.
He didn’t play his first year at Parkview due to transferring too late for to be eligible. That was also in the middle of the pandemic recruiting cycle. It helps to explain why he has been under the radar for so long.
“I’ve been through so much at home during that time,” Jackson said. “It was just me keeping myself motivated and positive for when I finally get these unexpected blessings. You never take them for granted. You stay hungry when it happens to you this way. It makes you want to work way harder.”
“Way harder. Way way harder.”
Uzo-Diribe told him he liked his explosiveness and his speed off the ball. The ‘Dawgs feel he can make plays out of a two-point or a three-point stance.
“Like a hybrid,” Jackson said. “Those hybrid EDGE guys you see nowadays. Just like my way to get after the quarterback and my bend. Not a lot of guys coming out of high school have that bend.”
He said he “can’t wait to get up there and to experience Athens” next weekend.
“They will most definitely be right in the middle of my recruiting thoughts,” Jackson said. “It is Georgia. For a team like that which has never seen me in person to offer. Just off my film. I’ve definitely got respect for that and just it being Georgia and them believing in me and my abilities from not even seeing me one time in person.”
“I will most definitely never forget that.”
Brandon Lang, his defensive coordinator and position coach, is a Tucker alum. He played college ball at Troy and got one year in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers.
“He emphasizes bend and he’s been on that level and been in the league and we trust him on that,” Jackson said. “That’s something we really work on.”
Former Georgia DB Glenn Ford has been a mentor and a trainer, among many others. He also brought up local trainer LaShae Lowe. He’s thankful for all their help to get to this point.
CJ Jackson: He wants to take care of his Momma
“My why is my Mom, man,” Jackson said. “She’s done so much for me. Moving into the Parkview district was tough. As I said, I’m not from there and housing over there is expensive. As a single mother, I just watched her do it all by herself. Watching her do it for me and my little sister it just makes me go hard.”
When he gets home, he sees how tired she is. Her hands. Her feet.
“It makes me want to do more so we can get out of that situation,” Jackson said. “Not saying it is a real bad situation because my Mom she really makes it work. She makes it work very well but just looking at how hard she works. Her drive. She’s a cosmetologist. She does hair. Seeing how hard she works it is like if she can do it then I can do it for us, too.”
“Days I don’t want to get up. Days I don’t want to work out. She uses her hands all day standing up on her feet all day. I’m just like ‘Man if she can do it then I can for sure do it’ for us.”
The low might have been his sophomore year. They were evicted from their apartment.
“That didn’t stop her grind,” he said. “She didn’t stop her one bit. She kept going and I’m looking at her wondering how she was going to react.”
Jackson was 15 years old. The football offers weren’t there yet.
It was tough. There’s no other way to describe those times.
“Mom kept grinding,” Jackson said. “She was like ‘We have got to do this. There are no excuses. Life is going to throw stuff at you. You just have to keep going’ and we did. We kept grinding. I feel like if I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t even be where I am right now.”
When his playing days are up, he plans to be a commercial pilot. He wants to study aviation in college. His grandmother was a flight attendant so he was exposed to that life a little bit at an impactful age.
“I grew up getting to fly on the planes and getting the little pins from the pilot,” Jackson said. “I was like ‘Dang, I want to do that one day’ for somebody like Delta or another airline. Traveling the world.”
He was No. 21 at Parkview., but changed to No. 7 for this season.
“It is a lucky number but not to say it was just luck there with this,” Jackson said. “But we needed some luck maybe. Just lucky number 7. I just now feel like this was my year with the way it all came out.”
“Sometimes you are placed into the perfect situation in life but you don’t even know it yet. That’s how it was for me this year with that lucky seven.”
Jackson’s future is taking off. He’s on his way to wearing that Delta cap one day. There’s a clever line that we can all think of with that symmetry.
The young linebacker with all the promise in the world is now seeing it validated.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on DawgNation.com)
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- Demarcus Riddick: How the nation’s No. 2 LB grew up a ‘Dawg living in Alabama
- BREAKING: 4-star Miami CB prospect Daniel Harris has backed off his Georgia commitment
- LOOK: Priority 5-star Georgia target Sam M’Pemba rocks Kirby Smart jersey on photo shoot
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- Ellis Robinson IV: Nation’s No. 1 junior CB is not sure how his feelings can get stronger for UGA
- PHOTOS: Check out the historic day for recruits as Georgia whips Tennessee
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- Georgia football: The recruiting tale of the tape gives the ‘Dawgs a major edge over the Vols
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- BREAKING: Georgia adds a cornerback with 4.38 speed to the class in Chris Peal
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- Eddrick Houston: The 5-star junior already feels like a must-get for the ‘Dawgs in 2024
- Electric 5-star junior ATH Mike Matthews shares what he likes best about Georgia
- LB commit Raylen Wilson on schools hoping for a flip: “They’re trying but I’m not replying”
- Lawson Luckie: The real reason this remarkable young man committed to Georgia will touch your heart
