Jackson has heard from Minnesota, Rice, Kansas and Illinois.
Darius Jackson, a 6-foot athlete from Sparta (IL) High, visited Minnesota this past weekend. The under-the-radar senior had a good time on his visit, putting the Golden Gophers in a strong position to land the safety. GopherHole.com caught up with Sparta head coach Edmund Jones, who has unique relationship with the Minnesota program, to learn the latest on Jackson’s recruitment.
Jackson rushed for nearly 1,100 yards as he played quarterback and running back on offense and safety on defense. He was named first team All-conference on both sides of the field and was an academic All-State choice.
GopherHole.com caught up with Sparta head coach Edmund Jones to learn the latest on Jackson’s recruitment.
GH: What was Darius’ impression of the visit?
Edmund Jones: He loved it. What is not to love, it is a great American city. It is a Big Ten University. An outstanding academic university. Coach Kill and his staff are just outstanding people and leaders and teachers and role models and things of that nature. I have a little bit of insight. My son (E.J. Jones) went there for two years (before transferring to Illinois State). I know that the athletic department has been run by a very fine man in Joel Maturi. I’ve had at least ten to twelve conversations with Joel Maturi over the years and I have a lot of respect for him.
GH: Who else is looking at Darius?
Edmund Jones: It is kind of funny because Kansas was looking at him and their staff just got fired. Rick LaFavers, the Recruiting Coordinator (and Running Back Coach) at Rice, was looking at him and he just left. Illinois was just beginning to show some interest and then (Ron) Zook got terminated. I know that his dad lives down in Texas and SMU has started to show some interest, but I hear June Jones may be leaving as well. He has had the craziest recruiting I have ever seen. He was virtually an unknown going into this year until I took him up to Chicago this past summer where he had some outstanding times. A lot of the MAC schools knew about him, but none of the Big Ten schools knew anything about him. Northwestern was interested. They just want him to have a little higher test score. His recruiting has been very peculiar for a guy that is this talented.
GH: Do you think that he would make a decision soon or would he take some more visits?
Edmund Jones: I know that the first school to offer him a scholarship was Northern Illinois, so I know that he wants to make a visit there and he is also an outstanding baseball player (center field), so they are going to allow him to play football and baseball. He is definitely going to make a visit there. I don’t know what he plans to do after that.
GH: He had also played basketball in the past. Is he playing this season?
Edmund Jones: No, he chose because of recruiting, to not play basketball. He was a solid basketball player, but football and baseball were his two better sports. He is going to put in some work in the weight room this winter and bulk up a little bit, so he chose to not play basketball this winter.
GH: What do you see as his strengths as a player?
Edmund Jones: Very intelligent and very tough. Highly intelligent football I.Q and extremely tough and again, he runs a 4.4 (40 yard dash), so he is fast. I asked him how his visit went and he said ‘that he meet with Coach Kill, they (the coaches) couldn’t believe how much I knew.” I am a former division I football coach myself and we play a system and we do things the same way that they are going to do them at the next level. That is his advantage having played in a college system.
GH: What are some things that he needs to continue to improve on?
Edmund Jones: He did play at a 3A school here in Illinois (6A is the biggest), but I think that he will make a quick adjustment to play against athletes more like himself on a daily basis. That will be something he will make a quick adjustment to. He has not seen the type of speed that you will normally see in the Big Ten, but he will adjust to it without a problem, but that will be something that he will have to get used to.
GH: Has he talked much about a field of study in college?
Edmund Jones: No, he has not.
GH: What are your impressions of Darius just as a kid?
Edmund Jones: Twenty-four years of coaching and a son that played college football, I have never been around any kid who is more deserving of what it means to play in the Big Ten. When you have a 3.5 GPA, that speaks for itself. I am a dean of student here and I can go back four years and there is not a blemish on his record. Nobody has worked harder and the way that he carries himself. I have been around some great young men, including my son and nobody is more deserving of what I think a Big Ten student-athlete should be about.