Next in line? NC State’s Savion Jackson ready for breakout campaign
Savion Jackson had somewhere he wanted to be, perhaps to catch a glimpse of where he wants to go.
He wasn’t rushing and didn’t act impatiently — he would have sat through an hour of questions if that’s what it took to get a media interview completed. Jackson was giving his time in the Murphy Center, but his mind might already have been next door at the Close-King Indoor practice facility.
And though he didn’t say it, N.C. State Sports Information Director Annabelle Myers did, mentioning Jackson wanted to get over to Pro Day, where his former teammates Cary Angeline, Joe Sculthorpe and fellow defensive lineman Alim McNeill — one of his best friends on the team — were performing in front of NFL scouts.
Jackson wanted to go support his teammates, but he also wanted to get a closer look at the process — the drills, the interaction with the NFL brass, everything that went along with getting to the next level.
In the future, Jackson, a sophomore defensive end, hopes to put himself in a position where scouts will come watch him workout.
“Me and Alim are super close,” Jackson told The News & Observer. “Just hearing the stuff he does, it inspires me and gives me motivation to be in that position one day.”
If Jackson continues on his current trajectory, that day will be here soon enough.
High expectations
Jackson was the prized recruit of coach Dave Doeren’s 2019 class. The former Clayton High School standout was labeled a four-star recruit by 247Sports, the No. 3 player in North Carolina, and the top player out of Doeren’s group.
When Jackson and company arrived on campus, one of N.C. State’s best defensive lines, featuring Bradley Chubb, B.J. Hill, Justin Jones and Kentavius Street, weren’t that far removed from campus. The quartet was selected in the 2018 NFL draft.
Fairly or not, many observers immediately dubbed Jackson and his class of defensive linemen — which included C.J. Clark, Josh Harris and Terrell Dawkins — the heirs apparent to Chubb and company, thinking they would jump right in and fill those shoes.
“I know the guys that came in that class, we were definitely strong,” Jackson said. “We knew we could be at that level at some point.”
“At some point” didn’t mean right away. But in the back of his mind, Jackson could feel the pressure to live up to those guys.
“They left a long history,” Jackson said. “That whole defensive line that came through, so we felt we definitely had to uphold that standard.”
That didn’t all fall only on Jackson, but as the top prospect in the class, he was the face of the bunch. He was also the one who got the most snaps that season. Dawkins, Harris and Clark all took a redshirt year in 2019. Jackson played in eight games as a true freshman, finishing with eight tackles.
He was the freshman defensive lineman carrying the torch from one great defensive line unit to the next. Jackson enrolled early and was named a preseason freshman All-American by the FWAA.
But, looking back, the game was moving too fast. Beyond the speed, Jackson was always worried about making a mistake whenever he got on the field. Thinking too much made him a step slower than everyone else.
“He’s a pleaser, a kid who doesn’t want to make mistakes,” Doeren said. “Sometimes when you’re in that mindset you don’t play as fast.”
Street, Doeren said, was the same way.
“Starting out super young you want to do everything right,” Jackson said. “And as soon as you get on the field you’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to mess this up.’ ”
The game between his ears affected his game on the grass. Jackson admitted he didn’t play as well as he wanted as a sophomore, even though he appeared in all 12 games with four starts. He had 20 tackles in 425 snaps as a sophomore. The game slowed down more and more with each rep.
But Jackson still wasn’t the player he wanted to be. He still wanted a more concrete breakthrough with his confidence, no matter how many snaps he took. Jackson stayed focused thanks to daily conversations with his mother, Renada.
“I think it’s safe to say that his confidence might have wavered slightly at some point,” Renada Jackson told The News & Observer. “But he is always able to pull back, refocus, then keep it pushing. I try to keep him motivated and remind him that he can do anything he wants to do.”
More confident
Something looks different about Jackson this spring, and it jumps off the screen — literally.
In photos and videos, his shoulders touch each side of a computer screen, busting out the frame. Jackson enrolled at N.C. State at 260 pounds, and is now pushing a lean 300. At 6-foot-3 he carries the extra weight effortlessly, and Doeren said he’s “moving well.”
Jackson believes he’ll be a different, more confident player this season because of the work he put in with strength-and-conditioning coach Dantonio Burnette.
“I’m getting a lot stronger and a lot more confident when I’m on the field,” Jackson said.
From the first day they put on pads in spring, Jackson could tell the difference when he went head-to-head with the baddest dude on the offensive line.
“It was a big jump from last year to now,” he said. “Me and Ikey (Ekwonu) go against each other all the time at practice. It’s definitely an iron-sharpens-iron thing. I really felt how much stronger I got, and more explosive.”
With Daniel Joseph returning for another season, as well as the emergence of Dawkins, a spot won’t be handed to Jackson. But the way he has been playing this spring, it’ll be hard for Doeren to keep him off the field.
“He’s cut it loose,” Doeren said. “He’s let that fear of failure go and he’s making a lot more plays. He’s a lot more disruptive, and he’s been fun to watch this spring.”
