It was getting to be too much.
When Amarion Jackson got to Penn State last winter, he was a defensive back.
But when spring practice rolled around, coach Matt Campbell and the staff decided to switch him to receiver.
A combination of Jackson’s talent at the position (50 receptions, 900 yards, 16 touchdowns as a senior for Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska) and Penn State being shorthanded at receiver (veterans Chase Sowell and Brett Eskildsen were recovering from injury during spring camp) led to the move. By the end of the spring, Campbell told reporters he felt Jackson was one of the best overall performers among the freshman class. Jackson kept pushing himself in the summer. It got to the point where his veteran teammates told him to slow down.
“We had to tell him like, ‘Hey, you need to chill out,’ Sowell told reporters at Penn State’s local media day Friday. “We’re about to get to camp. Like you need to make sure your body’s feeling good. Like we’re kind of going a little too crazy, you know?’”
In the words of former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, “I’d rather say ‘woah’ than ‘sic ‘em’”.
As fall camp rolls on, Sowell has noticed Jackson trying to find every possible way to get better.
“Whether it’s a release, whether it’s a route, whether it’s just how he catches the ball, how he’s turning up the field,” Sowell said. “Like, he’s just finding different ways, and he’s starting to truly look like a vet, honestly.”
Campbell took the last line one step further.
“Amarion Jackson is not a freshman,” Campbell said Friday. “He is (technically), but he looks like a guy that’s going into his junior year. He looks like a guy that’s got such maturity for a young guy.”
Part of that may have to do with Jackson’s drive in the weight room.
At 6-foot-3 and 203 pounds, the fifth-year senior Sowell looks the part of a DI receiver.
When Sowell was with Campbell at Iowa State, Cyclone Fanatic wrote that he “worked assiduously to fully activate his quick-twitching muscle fibers, pulling sleds and executing Olympic-style lifts to perfect his physique.”
Jackson was a freshman in high school when Sowell was a freshman in college. So there’d be no shame in being behind him in the weight room.
Well…
“Sometimes we’re doing the same weight,” Sowell said, “and it’s like ‘okay.’
Now, Jackson needs to keep it up.
The current projection is that Sowell and Eskildsen will occupy two of Penn State’s starting spots, but there are a lot of people competing for No. 3. Penn State fans have been waiting to see what Koby Howard can do, and the sophomore is certainly in the mix.
So are Karon Brookins (Iowa State transfer), Zay Robinson (Iowa State) and Keith Jones Jr., who transferred in from Grambling.
But after hearing the feedback Friday, it’s hard to imagine Jackson doesn’t have a chance, true freshman or not.
“How does that continue to show itself?” Campbell said. “It showed itself all spring practice. I think it showed itself early in the first couple days of practice we’ve had so far. But we know we got a long fall camp. We got a real… man, what does that look like? Can you keep stacking days and prove that you should get on the football field to help our football team?”
Complacency has led to the downfall of many great athletes, and Sowell said he’s advised Jackson not to fall in.
“I don’t want you to get complacent because you’ve had early success,” Sowell said he told Jackson via text recently, “and I’ve seen a lot of guys do that. I want you to keep going and like chase that goal of being the best to ever come through here because you have the potential to do it.”
