Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush Feature: Anxious Moments
9/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 7, 2011
This article was originally published in the August 2011 edition of Gold Rush.
By Sam Walker
Anxious may not be a strong enough word to describe how Justin Jackson feels about getting back into camp and ready to play football for Wake Forest this fall. He's waited more than long enough to prove himself, and now that injury seems to be mostly out of the way, he's ready to show what kind of inside linebacker he can be.
Jackson has paid his dues and then some. He came to Wake Forest knowing that he'd redshirt his true freshman season and then get a chance his redshirt freshman year to work his way onto the field by proving himself first on special teams and then by gradually being given playing time as he proved reliability and consistency.
The stage was all set for Jackson last season when he was a redshirt freshman. He stood on the field ready to begin his collegiate football career in earnest on the kickoff team, and when the whistle blew, it virtually marked the beginning and the end of his season. The first play of the game, Jackson tore the ACL in his knee. Although he tried to continue on (he said there was no real pain), he noticed his knee and leg moved in atypical directions, and that's when he was pulled of the field.
"I didn't know it was torn, but I knew something was wrong because it rocked backwards," Jackson said. "So as long as I didn't straighten my leg out, I was fine. But when I tried to run, I tried to keep it halfway bent. I told my coach my knee was bothering me, but I thought I was fine. I didn't want to come out. But on the second kickoff, it did the same thing again, and I just laid down and said, `I guess I'm done.' "
There was certainly excitement and expectation that Jackson, a 6-1, 228-pound linebacker from N.C. football power Richmond County High School could be an impact player and bolster what was a talented but perhaps thin core of linebackers.
As a high school senior, he went out as a state champion and brought with him a resume of 123 tackles as a junior and 191 as a senior, with eight sacks and 18 tackles for loss. He also runs a 4.53 40-yard dash, which meant he could drop back into coverage, cover speedy receivers and agile tight ends. But the day after last season's opener against Presbyterian, Jackson had an MRI and a subsequent sobering phone call from assistant coach Steve Russ that he won't soon forget.
"It didn't hurt until I put ice on it," Jackson said of the injury when it happened. "I thought I would just shake it off, but I had an MRI the next day, and Coach Russ called me that night. He said, `Justin I guess you've heard,' and I said `no.' He said `you tore your ACL.' That's when I started to cry. I was just hoping I was going to be able to come back and play. Coach Russ told me it was a year injury, and that I wasn't going to play until this year."
Jackson began the rehabilitation process under the guidance of Tyson Rose of Wake Forest's Sports Medicine staff and basically had to retrain his stiffened knee to bend.
"We started out with wall slides where I laid on the floor and slide it up the wall," he said. "After I got back my range of motion, we did a lot of leg press exercises and hamstring curls to build back strength, and then we added balance drills where I stood on a board and caught balls. There were multiple balance drills. Then we went to running, which at first was weird."
Jackson was slowly making his recovery, and it was purely a random selection when he registered for a dance class entitled Movement for Men last spring as he was recovering from his knee injury.
"I found myself liking it and am pretty good at it," Jackson said.
He even went on to say that he feels it has helped in his overall recovery. Of course, limitations were set, conversations were held between Rose and Nina Lucas, associate professor and director of dance at Wake Forest, but for the most part, Jackson was not very limited in anything he was asked to do in class.
"I feel like it kind of helped me get a little more agile," Jackson said. "There were some other guys from the team like Terence Davis and Joel Oglesby who are also dance minors."
Last April, Jackson put to use what he had learned in Movement for Men at the Take the Lead Winston-Salem, a community-wide dance competition. Local dancers teamed with professional dancers for an event similar to the popular television show "Dancing with the Stars," with a goal of raising $150,000 for the Bethesda Center for the Homeless. According to the Take The Lead website, the Bethesda Center for the Homeless is the largest shelter for men and women in Forsyth County. Bethesda served more than 600 of the community's homeless during 2010 and has assisted 250 men and women in moving from shelters into their own housing during the last four years. So even in his quest to rebuild an injured knee, Jackson was contributing to his community.
In continuing to pursue his minor in dance, Jackson said he would take ballet, modern dance and a history of dance classes. "I've already taken movement for men, I've taken jazz, and I've taken Hip-Hop," Jackson said.
So who is the best dancer on the team? Jackson said Davis usually gets mentioned but that he's not far behind. "It'd be kind of hard to beat out Terence," Jackson laughingly said.
He claims he's almost back to being 100 percent healthy and looks forward to dancing around the field and getting ready for the 2011 season. He's waited a long time and said he has complete confidence in the decision to move into a 3-4 defense, which Wake Forest plans to implement this season under new co-defensive coordinators Brian Knorr and Tim Billings.
" My job will be stopping the run between the tackles, cover tight ends and covering middle pass drop," Jackson said. "The rehab process is difficult. It's hard, and you don't feel like you're getting anywhere, but then you set little goals and reach them and get happy. When I got to start running again was a big day. They've always talked about playing me a lot, and now I just want to get back to where I was and at full speed.
"Everybody needs to get a mindset that last year was a lesson and play with a chip on our shoulders. I feel comfortable stepping up, but I won't until I re-establish myself on the field and show them I'm back. Then I can establish myself as a leader if that's where I need to be. Right now Kyle Wilbur and Cyhl Quarles are the leaders of this defense."
Before each game, Jackson said he tries to visualize the plays he will make in the game based on film study, practice and preparation. He reviews what he is going to do in each situation, each offensive set. Finally, visualization can be translated to participation, and it's something for which Jackson has waited for two years.
Name: Justin Jackson
Class: Redshirt Sophomore
Major: Communication
Position: Linebacker
Hometown: Rockingham, NC
Why you chose Wake Forest: " My coming to Wake Forest had a lot to do with Coach (Brad) Lambert (the first head football coach at UNC-Charlotte). Of course, he's gone now, but he had emailed my dad the night before and then dad picked me up at school the next day and we drove up to Wake Forest. It came down to Wake Forest and Virginia Tech, and he (Coach Lambert) offered me as soon as I got here. It was my first offer, but I felt like Wake wanted me more, and this was the best place for me."
Top athletic achievements: Helped Richmond County win the N.C. state 4- AA title in 2008 with a 38-35 win over Fayetteville Jack Britt; led Richmond to a 12-3-1 record as a senior and a 12-2 mark as a junior; earned AP first-team all-state honors as a senior; named first team all-state by NCPreps.com: named the Mid-Southeastern Conference's Defensive Player of the Year in 2008; named to the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas squad.
