Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/195693
where have you gone? this is the transition I wanted to make, what better way to make it than with people I know? That's why it was easy for me to make that decision." Jackson moved his family back to Canada's west coast in February and started getting up to speed on the few changes the coaching staff had made in his one-year absence. Most of the veteran players he knew from the locker room were still around, but now referred to him as "Sir" and "Coach" in meetings rooms. The only other difference, Jackson said, is the early morning wake-up calls. As a coach, Jackson starts most days at 4:30 a.m. and is in the office before dawn. He said it helps that he's not sore anymore when he rolls out of bed, but putting in the extended hours of a coach was more than he originally expected. Jackson has long been the proverbial first guy in and last guy out during his football career. As a senior at Notre Dame, he helped organize a daily 6 a.m. conditioning session led by the upperclassmen to build team camaraderie in the summer. That was 1998, Jackson's first season as a starter. He returned the following year for a fifth season and was elected as the team's lone captain. The first three years of his career were spent mostly as an understudy to Ron Powlus, a four-year starter for the Irish. The closest Jackson got to the field during his first fall in South Bend was as short lived a promotion as assistant coach Bob Chmiel can remember. Jackson was running the scout team that fall, but Powlus had done something in practice to upset Lou Holtz. The head coach called for Jackson to come over and line up with the starters. "He came running over thinking that he was going to get his shot with the first team. He got under center and whatever it was, he got fired before the ball was snapped and sent back down to the scout team," Chmiel said. "I don't remember what he did, but he never took a snap. He just made a U-turn and went right back to the other field." Chmiel, whom Jackson considers to be a second father figure, played a major role in getting the young quarterback from Tupelo, Miss., to sign with the Irish. The path that eventually led Jackson to South Bend began with another practice in which Holtz was angry with his quarterbacks. That day, Holtz stormed into Chmiel's office and told the recruiting coordinator he wanted a more athletic, mobile quarterback for the future. Chmiel had to scramble through recruiting magazines to find someone who fit the bill. When he found Jackson and got a hold of his highlight tape weeks later, Chmiel pulled Holtz into the film room to watch. Holtz started to prepare his pipe to smoke while breaking down the film, but didn't need long to make a decision. "He was about to light the pipe. He watched maybe two plays and blew the match out. He said that's the kid I want and walked out," Chmiel said. Holtz was gone by the time Jackson got his chance to start for the Irish, but