Syracuse announced Derrick Jackson as its new defensive line coach Tuesday, just six days after former defensive line coach Tim Cross left for Minnesota.

Cross left SU for a Big Ten program; Jackson comes from a Big Ten program.

Jackson spent last year as the defensive line coach at Michigan State. The Spartans dismissed head coach John L. Smith on Nov. 1, leaving the coaching staff in disarray. It opened up the door for Jackson to come to the Orange.

‘There were a number of people who had very strong interest in the job and who I had definite interest in,’ Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson said. ‘But I can say that when I got tied in to dealing with Derrick and spending time with Derrick, I felt strongly that it was the right fit.’

Jackson is an intriguing hire, considering his year with a major Division I program. Before MSU, he had a quick rise from the lower levels of college coaching. Jackson entered coaching in 1999 as a tight ends coach at West Georgia, a Division III school. Two years later, he took the defensive line coaching job at Army. After two years at West Point, Jackson spent another two seasons as Eastern Illinois’ defensive line coach. EIU is a Division I-AA school. In 2005, he coached the defensive tackles at Northern Illinois, a Mid-American Conference program. That led to the job at MSU last year.

This came after six years working different jobs in the private sector, including two years partnering in an investment group with former Duke basketball players Brian Davis and Christian Laettner. Jackson met them as a freshman at Duke, where he played football. Jackson played for iconic football coach Steve Spurrier when the Blue Devils co-won the 1989 Atlantic Coast Conference championship. He played safety at Duke, although his coaching career has been entirely on the defensive line.

‘I wasn’t a very good safety, so I think I knew that the closer that I got to the line of scrimmage, the better I was,’ Jackson said. ‘Seriously, I think that just the nature of the business has led me to where the defensive line is the kind of position I have been able to coach. I think having a secondary background has helped me coaching my guys in terms of the importance of defensive line play.’

The path from playing in the secondary to coaching the defensive line is the same Robinson took. His experience coaching defensive lines helped him identify exactly what he wanted in Cross’ replacement.

‘Everything that I have gathered from people who have worked with him in several different places, the same thing kept coming back; ‘You are going to get a person who communicates very well, is very knowledgeable, has attention to detail in the way that he coaches, very competitive,” Robinson said. ‘Going through the process of the interview, I really liked his foundation in the area of fundamentals and techniques of defensive line play. Lastly and not least, he is a strong recruiter. He is a person who really gets to where he develops relationships with young people and is able to reach them.’

The latter note – his recruiting ability – is a particular point of interest. National Letter-of-Intent Signing Day is on Feb. 7, less than a week away. However, Robinson said Signing Day had nothing to do with the quick hire.

‘I think that most of our recruiting is pretty much done other than just a couple of guys,’ Robinson said. ‘I think that it was more of weeding out and going through the process and trying to narrow it down. In my mind, the feeling that I had is that if I felt the fit was right, when I felt that, that is what we would do.’

Published on January 30, 2007 at 12:00 pm