Background: Jackson was one of the many blue-chip California recruits coach Pete Carroll has hauled in to build his Pacific 10 powerhouse. Jackson was a SuperPrep All-American at Inglewood (Calif.) High, where he had 57 sacks for his career, including 11 his senior year in 2002. He’s so good, Carroll started him at defensive end his red-shirt freshman year. All he did was get six sacks to lead the Trojans to the national title and followed that with 10 last season. He had 24 tackles for loss his first two seasons.
Stat line: He leads USC’s 21st-ranked defense with four sacks and nine tackles for loss along with 35 tackles.
What’s up: Jackson isn’t your average defensive end. Besides the fact that Carroll says he will be the best defensive end in the country next year, Jackson is also a philosophy major who talks like it. And we’re not talking the philosophy of Tupac, either. He leans more toward Martin Luther King and Malcolm X but goes beyond politics. “I have a philosophical point of view,” Jackson told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s just the way I look at things. There’s a black and white but there’s also a gray area that not everybody focuses on, but it’s there.” He writes poetry, often inspired by his upbringing in rough-and-tumble Inglewood. It has inspired him enough that he aspires to return to the inner-city and show people the way out. “Philosophy is not just about mind and body and soul,” Jackson said. “It’s analyzing situations and coming up with solutions.”
Next: Third-ranked USC (9-1) hosts No. 6 Notre Dame (10-1) Saturday at 6 p.m.
Henderson’s take: If Jackson can come up with a philosophy on life in the inner city, he’d better come up with a philosophy on how to make Brady Quinn’s life miserable in the inner city Saturday night. Getting a pass rush on Notre Dame’s Heisman Trophy candidate will be key in a game that could help launch the Trojans into the BCS title game. USC hasn’t had much of a pass rush. Its 23 sacks are 50th in the country. And Quinn has been deadly when he gets time. Jackson only had four tackles a year ago in USC’s 34-31 win at Notre Dame, and he and his linemates had better put more pressure if USC is going to win what’s expected to be a shootout. A USC win should jump it ahead of No. 2 Michigan in the BCS rankings and then the Trojans must only beat 6-5 UCLA the following week. Notre Dame’s only hope to reach the title game is if No. 4 Florida loses and the Irish pummel USC so impressively voters will move them ahead of Michigan, which pounded them 47-21 in Week 3. Not likely.
