| College Football Senior Spotlight |
| By Fred Perdue July 1, 2013 How time flies. Just yesterday it seemed as though just yesterday i was Andrew Jackson light up Florida Atlantic running back Alfred Morris who is now a starter for the NFL's Washington Redskins. Jackson hails from Lakeland, Florida where he was a graduate and leader at Kathleen Senior High school where Coach Irving Strickland is the much beloved head coach. As a Senior and team leader for the Hilltoppers, Jackson has shown that not only can' he be an elite college linebacker while garnering praise from Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban but is also proving that he is in the mix to be one of the top linebackers for next years NFL Draft. A ferocious tackler and full of energy Andrew shows flashes of what former Kathleen Senior High Linebacker, Miami Hurricane, and Super Bowl Champion Ray Lewis showed during his days on the college gridiron. While not the pure athlete that Lewis was, Jackson is every bit of the charismatic silent killer that Lewis was. Faced with the decision to return for his senior campaign or go on the NFL, Jackson chose to stay for one more year in hopes of improving his draft stock and that he did. According to CBSSports.com he is the No. 1 Senior LB on the board going into the upcoming season. As with any year, this is just a preseason ranking and the real results will show once the games are played but the motivation to be on top will spur Andrew on to play at a high level. While Jackson draws comparison to high school alumni brother, they are only comparable later in Lewis's career after the need to gain weight was needed. Jackson has a complete game as a linebacker but his recent gain in mass has seemed to slow him own a bit and hindered him slightly in down field coverage.. A slight drop in weight would help him tremendously. While he hold the weight well, it was apparent in the bowl game against Central Michigan that he had become slower and as a result wasn't getting in the backfield as much ultimately turning into a two down inside backer to stop the run, Going forward his value will seemingly drop if this trend keeps up. Jacksons NFL comparison at this point is more comparable to Brandon Spikes of the New England patriots . While this is not so bad the value in the NFL is not as high. A drop in weight and increase in speed should help Jackson in coverae as well as stopping the run quickly. In the end Andrew is a good overall kid and has no known charter flaws that could hurt him going forward and looks to to have a productive season with the Hilltoppers. |
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