Q&A: Tyson Jackson, DT, LSU

LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson interviewed on All Access Football Radio's Football Friday Show with Ralph Mancini, Daniel Mogollon and Rodney Towe in our Defensive Linemen Special on March 27, 2009

The Draft is basically a month away, are you feeling those butterflies yet and do you have an idea of which teams want you?

Jackson: Right now the butterflies are pretty much just starting to kick in. I am starting to really understand the process and everything I’m going through, so now I am really feeling the pressure of the Draft and everything that comes with it. All in all, it is an exciting time for me and my family and I really have to be thankful for the situation that I am in.

As the Draft (process) and Pro Days are winding down, what are you doing to keep yourself busy?

Jackson: Right now, I’ve had two workouts. Next week is going to a pretty busy week for me. I have to fly out to a few teams. Right now I am just working out with LSU getting back in football shape, getting back wind doing extra conditioning things and just trying to get myself into the best shape possible so that once the Draft is over and I go back to the team, I look good and in pretty good shape.

Any particular teams you want to mention?

Jackson: I met with the Denver Broncos on Wednesday. Today I met with the Seattle Seahawks and next week I go to Detroit, then I go back and meet with the Broncos again. All in all, 3-4 (defense) teams are really impressed with me and even some of the 4-3 teams really like me as a defensive end and on third downs, I can go inside and play three technique so I’m pretty useful throughout the whole series of a game. I can be an every-down defensive lineman.

You began your college career like a house of fire but then you started facing more and more double teams. What did you learn from that and how did that make you a better player?

Jackson: I learned that once you start standing out, you’re going to start drawing a lot of attention and guys are going to start focusing on you. It made me a better player because I started to understand the schemes and how offensive coaches think, how they try to go against defensive guys like me. I understand it fully. I was playing left defensive end about ninety five percent of my college career and while I was on that side, guys did not run on my side when I was a senior, for what reason I didn’t know. In all the big games we played this year guys always ran the ball to the right side of the defense. It helped me by showing me that offensive coaches respected me but it hurt me in the sense that my stats were real low because I couldn’t make tackles unless I ran down from the backside of the play. It made me a better player...understanding the defense, understanding what offensive coaches are thinking and just developing my game as a person, trying to be the best that I can be out there.

When I watch you play, one word comes to mind and that’s “relentless”. Where does that drive come from? Are you having fun out there, or do you feel like you really have something to prove?

Jackson: I’m having fun, but I do have something to prove. Coming out of high school I was never rated real high, even coming to the Draft I’m not rated real high and I feel like I am always in that underdog mode. I think it fits me perfectly and I’m just real relentless for one reason. When I was recruited up here, Coach (Nick) Saban was the coach at the time, and that is all he stressed, he stressed relentless effort and he said it didn’t matter how athletic you were, how strong you were—everyone can give relentless effort. That just grew on me and I just take it to the football field all the time. I’m real aggressive, real physical and I try to dominate my opponent every play, by any means necessary, so I bring that approach with me on the field and I think you need it as a good defensive lineman. You have to be that top of the edge guy where you’re aggressive and very physical with the offensive linemen.

We understand you work out with a lot of former LSU players. Talk about your relationship with a guy like Glenn Dorsey and what has he told you about his rookie season and rookie experience?

Jackson: As a matter of fact, me and Glenn were together last night but he really didn’t talk about his rookie season too much. He just let me know what type of things I should be expecting in the next few days, how everything gets real hectic. I guess he’s been around me for long enough and he could tell I was pretty nervous about this whole situation. He was like, “Man you don’t have nothing to worry about. I know you and I know you can play football”. That helped me out so much inside coming from a guy like Glenn. He’s real comfortable with me and he was like “If I had to pick, I’m picking you any day before any guys”, so that made me feel comfortable at that time but he’s given me other types of advice like while I’m at workouts staying low and being really explosive, on bag drills, different ways to flip your hips and stuff like that. He’s given me those tips and pointers that directly relate to football and it helps out a whole lot.

You mentioned that you think you’re still kind of underrated and you should be ranked higher. Are you out there, checking out and reading where people have you and checking out different mock drafts, is that something to pay attention to at all?

Jackson: I wouldn’t even consider that I should be rated real high, I wouldn’t say that. I am just saying that the things that I do, I don’t get respect for it because it’s not glamorous. I don’t go out there and get the big numbers because I play assignment, sound football. I do what I have to do, whatever the coaches ask me I go out there and give it one hundred and ten percent every down, so a lot of times I don’t get to pin my ears back and run up field and try to get sacks, but it is all for the good of the team. Last year we were one of the top defenses in the country and we won the National Championship, so if I reflect back on my college career I know that being real disciplined and being unselfish pays off in championships at the end. I just go out there and get my job done the best way that I can.

Is that something you learned while at LSU, because you played with a lot of talented guys so it was hard for one guy to stand out and be the man, so to speak, be the star...all you guys as a unit kind of learned that it is a team game, huh?

Jackson: Definitely, we learned that a long time ago when we were freshmen. Being at LSU you have a lot of talented guys, from LaRon Landry to Craig Davis to the Dwayne Bowes,’ Marcus Spears...a lot of talented guys walked through that football field, so you have to learn soon as you get to campus that you have to be a real team player and once you buy into that system, championships just start coming. Once you get that collection of talent together and everybody believes in that one common goal, nothing is impossible. We bought into that system since we got out there and from there we’ve been winning championship after championship.

Before you got on the air we were talking about different players and guys like Andre Smith. Who were some opponents that you faced in that tough and rugged SEC that really stood out to you, that were tough match-ups?

Jackson: I always played left defensive end so I wasn’t fortunate enough to go against guys like Andre Smith and Michael Oher, but talking to my teammates, the other defensive ends, they told me those guys were some of the best guys they went against. Believe it or not, I know other guys across the country are getting better recognition than those two guys from the SEC, but I know hands down any day of the week when comes down to real football players, I’ll pick those two offensive linemen over anybody in the country, just knowing who those guys go against every week in and out within the SEC. I know those guys can play football and they’re hard nosed players. Their stats might not look good as far as their forties and vertical jumps and all that, but when you are looking for a football player, who cares how fast an offensive lineman runs in the forty, you know what I’m saying? I didn’t have the privilege to go against those guys but the right tackle from Ole Miss is Peria Jerry’s younger brother (John), he was one of the real good offensive linemen that I went against this year.

So he’s somebody we should keep an eye out for next season? I think he was thinking about declaring but decided to return for his senior year. Tyson, I’m going to have to bust your chops a little bit because heading into last season, we were touting the Tigers on our college football show (College Football Insiders). We were talking about the defense, the ferocious front four, the depth you guys had, the linebackers and then... what happened? You guys had a few games where you gave up thirty-plus points, I was pretty stunned to be honest.

Jackson: Taking a beating within the SEC itself, injuries started to set in here and there on our defense, some that the public didn't know about. Guys weren’t one hundred percent, things just didn’t go our way and I have to give it up to teams in the SEC, real talented teams, teams like Ole Miss. I wouldn’t say they came out of nowhere because they were in our conference and we knew they were real good. This year they just turned it up a notch and games that we had in the palm of our hands, we just let it slip away like (games against) Alabama or Georgia, we let those games slip away. Even Florida—it was 18-21 going into halftime, so we had a lot of games within our reach we just weren’t able to capitalize and finish them off with the young team that we had, but it was all good. I ended my college experience on a real good note, beating Georgia Tech handily. We just dominated those guys in the Peach Bowl. I ended it on a positive note from there and I just hope to keep riding that wave through the draft process.

I hear that. It looked like you guys were a little p’ed off with the way the season went and you really took it out on the Yellow Jackets on December 31st, a good way to end the year. There are a lot of you guys leaving on both sides of the ball (Demetrius) Byrd, Herman Johnson on offense, yourself, (Darry) Beckwith, Ricky Jean-Francois on defense. Who is somebody we should be on the lookout for next year on LSU, a rising star for the Bayou Bengals?

Jackson: That is one thing you can always count on with LSU—you’re always going to have a rising star down there. Guys like Brandon LaFell and Ciron Black on the offensive line, Charles Scott in the backfield, upcoming freshman Jordan Jefferson...we're real talented at quarterback and on defense we have the MVP of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Perry Riley, coming back, and a real solid defensive line led by Rahiem Alem. The defense is going to be real, real strong again. It’s going to be another nice year for the Tigers. I’m expecting a lot of big things from those guys.

Is Rahiem going to be able to do it without you? You took up so much attention, having Tyson Jackson on the other side getting those double teams, how is he going to do next year without you?

Jackson: He is going to fare real good even though I left and I drew a lot of double teams. He’s just a real good guy and real fast off the edge, one of those two hundred and sixty pound players who’s real physical. The only thing I find different between him and guys coming up in this Draft is this guy can really play the run. I saw a lot of guys in this Draft who can play the run, but this guy plays it like he is two hundred and eighty or two hundred and ninety pounds and he’s only two-sixty, a real physical guy, so I’m expecting a lot of big things from Rahiem sack-wise and in tackles for loss. He's a real good football player.

Kirk Herbstreit from ESPN once called you a defensive freak. Did you play other sports in the past and if you weren’t a football player, what kind of athlete would you be?

Jackson: For a long time when I was young I was real tall and skinny. I could reflect back to when I was thirteen or fourteen, I was like six-three two hundred and thirty pounds, a real tall skinny guy and I thought for the longest time that I was going to be a basketball player. My one-time dream was always to play basketball for North Carolina, but once I got to high school I just started developing and started gaining more weight and became a real physical football player. If it wasn’t football I would have to definitely say it would’ve been basketball. I know a lot of time my coaches from high school wanted me to get out there and play baseball as a pitcher but I was so afraid of the ball at that time, I was so scared the ball was going to hit me, so I just stayed away from that sport. Basketball was one of my pastimes, which it still is today.

OK. Tysron...time for three-and-out... First down: Who is your favorite athlete outside of football?

Jackson: Michael Jordan.

Second down: Favorite movie of all time?

Jackson: Rocky.

Third down: Growing up as a kid, who was your favorite superhero?

Jackson: Batman .

Photo Credit: SEC Sports Media