DE Demetrius Jackson said Tuesday at a Cane community outreach event that he “feels great.”
Jackson, who underwent surgery for an LCL tear midway through last season, says he was cleared to practice this spring but was held out of contact work as a precaution.
“I feel stronger, things are going good - I’m down to about 262 right now,” he said. “I’m feeling great, feeling strong, feeling confident.”
Jackson had 7.5 tackles for losses and 3.5 sacks before the injury last season.
“It felt good to get that clearance - I wanted to do more things during the spring but had to listen to the coaches and look at the bigger picture,” Jackson said. “We weren’t going to win a championship in April, May. We’re going to win it in December, January.”
Jackson made it clear his expectation for this team: “come December I’m very confident we’ll be seeing Clemson again,” he said.
“My expectation hasn’t changed - last year my goal was to win the ACC championship and we have to take it one step at a time, then get to the playoff,” Jackson said.
He adds “I’m very confident we’ll have a good squad. … We have a group of guys that can really go get it done.”
Asked what it will take to get past a team like Clemson, Jackson said, “No disrespect to Clemson - watching on the sideline with my crutches (last year) they didn’t do anything spectacular. They’d been there before. They just came and played ball and I think we didn’t, you know? It was our first time there. We got a little star-struck and dazed - okay, we’re here! But that’s not the goal. The goal is to get there and win it.
“We were just knocking on the door last time. This time I’m looking for us to get in that door.”
Jackson is working to take on a leadership role and help UM reach its goals.
“These are the hard days, the grind days,” he said. “I want to leave this place passing something along to the younger guys. … I don’t want to have any regrets. This is my last one. Nothing is guaranteed to anybody. So I just want to leave on a high note and give it everything I’ve got.”
