Boulder – A smile on his face and a new playbook in tow, Bernard Jackson has something else he had been missing for nearly three years.
Peace of mind.
“I’m a quarterback,” Jackson said. “It’s official.”
He was asked if it felt good to say that.
“It does,” he replied.
The Colorado junior’s name is listed among five who will compete for the Buffs’ starting quarterback in 2006, and that’s where it will stay heading into spring workouts that begin Monday. He no longer will be shuffled from one position to another. He finally has a real chance at the position he wants to play.
“I want to be considered something considerable,” said Jackson, who was recruited as a quarterback out of Santiago High School in Corona, Calif., but was moved to wide receiver, running back and kick returner under the previous coaching staff.
“I don’t want to bad-mouth anybody, but I don’t think they knew what they really had as far as me,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if they were sure of playing me at quarterback. I want to accomplish being looked at as a possible candidate for the quarterbacking job.”
New CU coach Dan Hawkins is running his first spring drills here and has thrown every position wide open. There is no depth chart. While that will make for intriguing battles all over the field, the position all eyes will be focused on first is quarterback.
Five quarterbacks are on the scholarship roster – Jackson, senior James Cox, junior Brian White, and redshirt freshmen Patrick Devenny and Mack Brown.
Cox returns with the most experience, but White opened eyes with an effective fourth- quarter performance against Clemson in last season’s Champs Sports Bowl. Devenny and Brown haven’t taken a collegiate snap, and Jackson isn’t much more experienced than those two behind center.
Jackson has perfect passing stats – 2-for-2 for 59 yards in the 2004 season. He has been the ultimate spring athlete, getting the reps and making the plays that get observers salivating in April only to sit on the bench all fall.
That won’t be the case this season, said CU offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mark Helfrich. The coaching staff is looking for the person who moves the ball downfield most effectively and consistently.
What benefits Jackson, and all the candidates, is that none has to fit into a formula. The coaching staff will evaluate who plays best and tailor the offensive system to him.
“We’ll start with what the quarterback can do, and what the offensive line can do,” Helfrich said. “We had guys at Boise State that people would definitely perceive as run-first types of guys that are athletes. In the last couple of years (at Arizona State) we’ve had (effective) guys both on the receiving end and on the passing end. That was their strength.
“We have enough variety in our offense that there’s no set formula for what type of player that guy has to be. He just has to be consistent and productive. We’re going to go into it with that goal in mind.”
Helfrich said the staff will want to narrow the field to no more than three going into the fall, provided a clear-cut choice doesn’t emerge by the end of spring drills April 15.
In preparation, Jackson has kept his head in a playbook that he said is much easier to comprehend than the previous staff’s. He also has pulled wide receivers over from time to time for extra throw-and-catch sessions.
“When it comes to throwing me into game situations in practice, I want to execute to a T,” Jackson said. “I want to get out there and have a good spring. I want to go out there and make sure everybody has the understanding that, ‘Hey, he’s for real.”‘
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
