Where will McKinnley Jackson play college football? Here are his final four options.
Even before McKinnley Jackson played a down of football at George County High School, there was an ongoing debate over where he would play college ball.
At 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday in Lucedale, the 6-2, 327-pound defensive tackle will let the world know where he’s headed. He is expected to choose from Alabama, Texas A&M, LSU and Auburn, former GCHS head coach Matt Caldwell told the Sun Herald on Tuesday.
Jackson’s announcement will bring an end to a recruiting process that’s almost four years old. He picked up his first FBS scholarship offer at the age of 14 from former Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Mark Hudspeth during a summer camp in Ocean Springs.
A rare combination of agility and size, the 2019 Sun Herald Player of the Year was a dominant force in each of his four seasons of high school football. As a senior, he had 76 tackles, 10 sacks and 37 tackles for negative yardage.
Ole Miss became the first SEC program to offer Jackson in February 2017 and the offers have poured in from that point forward. Clemson, Florida, Florida State and Georgia are among the schools that didn’t make the final cut for Jackson.
Jackson verbally committed to LSU in November 2017, but he re-opened his recruitment in February 2018.
Texas A&M and Alabama are considered the favorites to land Jackson by most recruiting services, but Jackson has mostly remained quiet this year as he narrowed his list.
The last week has been a busy one for Jackson with coaches from Ole Miss, Texas A&M, LSU, Auburn and Alabama making the trip to visit him in Lucedale. He made an official visit to Texas A&M over the weekend.
Jackson was photographed at a Lucedale restaurant on Jan. 30 eating with Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Pete Golding.
Alabama has always been in the mix for Jackson, but Texas A&M has long been discussed as one of his top options. Ole Miss fell out of the competition when Matt Luke was fired as the Rebels’ head coach in December.
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Where will McKinnley Jackson play college football? Here are his final four options.."
