Iowa’s Nick Jackson gives linebacker room ‘breath of fresh air’

Editor’s note: Second in a 9-part series looking at each Iowa football position group ahead of the 2023 season.

IOWA CITY — Iowa linebackers Nick Jackson and Jay Higgins were not quite in alignment on one question at Iowa football media day earlier this month.

Who is the best basketball player on the Iowa football team?

“Me,” Jackson first said.

“Me,” Higgins countered. “It goes me, Cooper (DeJean). Nick might be top eight.”

“I didn’t touch a ball in like four years, and I think I gave you like 30,” Jackson reminded Higgins.

Fortunately for the Hawkeyes, Jackson’s football ability and leadership have drawn more respect than his hardwood prowess since transferring from Virginia.

Iowa linebackers coach Seth Wallace described Jackson has a “breath of fresh air in regards to just the type of young man he is.”

“Obviously he’s a college graduate, high academic kid,” Wallace said. “He’s accomplished a lot in his career. He’s been through a lot.”

Wallace has been especially impressed with Jackson’s “unselfishness” and “ability to come in and be a part of the team.”

“That’s not easy to do in this day and age with transfers,” Wallace said.

Jackson is coming from a place where he experienced adversity that no athlete would want to face.

Someone shot and killed three of his teammates, including one of his fellow linebackers, on the way back from a class field trip in the fall.

“If you guys think about all the stuff that went down at Virginia last year and some of the experiences that he’s had, you’re talking about a maturity that’s on a different level,” Wallace said.

It is something in Jackson’s mind “every single day” and remains difficult to talk about.

“It’s one of those things, man, you really can’t put into words,” Jackson said.

Jackson now is working with a “world-class coach and some world-class players” and particularly bonded with Higgins. He recalled the time they were bored and had nothing to do, so they saw “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” at Coral Ridge Mall.

“It was almost like a double date,” Jackson said. “It’s just me and him eating some popcorn. I think we might have shared a large or something like that.”

On the field, Jackson is continuing to pick up on defensive coordinator Phil Parker’s scheme.

“He's learning everything,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It's like drinking through a firehose a little bit, but he is a pretty cerebral guy, and he is picking it up fast.”

Jackson was finishing his degree at Virginia during spring practices, so the learning curve has been especially fast as he learns as much as he can during fall camp.

“Coach Parker’s defense — it looks simple to the outside, but obviously we got some things going on in the inside,” Higgins said.

He joins a linebacker corps that lost three starting caliber linebackers — Jack Campbell, Seth Benson and Jestin Jacobs.

Wallace believed “the cupboard was not bare“ after those losses. After all, Iowa had players who had been in the program for a while like Jay Higgins and Kyler Fisher.

“I will be the first to admit that I myself as a coach wasn’t necessarily going out, pursuing the transfer portal,” Wallace said. “However, I knew that bringing somebody in that had some snaps under their belt and had that veteran-ness to them was going to be a benefit to the room.”

There is no doubting Jackson’s credentials as a college football veteran.

He has taken 2,305 defensive snaps over the last four years, per Pro Football Focus. Higgins, in comparison, has 267 defensive snaps in his career, and he is Iowa’s next-most experienced linebacker.

Jackson led the ACC in tackles per game last season with 10.4. His 9.0 percent missed tackle rate, per PFF, was the lowest among Cavaliers with at least 200 snaps last year. (For perspective, Iowa star linebacker Jack Campbell had an 8.9 percent missed tackle rate.)

“He’s a sideline-to-sideline guy,” Higgins said of Jackson. “He’s got crazy speed.”

Higgins and Jackson seem to be getting on the same page on the field, too — something that obviously matters much more to the Hawkeyes’ success than their basketball opinions.

“He lets me know what he sees, I let him know what I see and we eventually come to an agreement on what we want to do,” Higgins said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com