RENTON — When he was a four-star recruit coming out of Inglewood, Calif., in 2003, 18-year-old defensive lineman Lawrence Jackson was torn between a couple of Pac-10 schools on opposite ends of the coastline.
Jackson didn’t mind staying near his Los Angeles-area home, but he was also tempted to head north and play in Seattle.
The final decision, Jackson said Friday from the Seattle Seahawks’ locker room, came down to a high-profile coaching change that took the University of Washington out of the picture. Rick Neuheisel’s firing as UW coach was a big reason why Jackson chose to go to USC.
If he were in the same situation today?
Let’s just say that the coming Huskies’ coaching change might have sent him up the coast.
Jackson, a rookie from USC, is one of the few people in Seattle who knows what it’s like to play under Steve Sarkisian, currently the Trojans’ offensive coordinator and the man rumored to be the next coach at the UW.
“It was time for him to branch out and go onto bigger things and be in charge of a whole program,” Jackson said Friday. “I think he’ll do a great job.”
While Jackson did not play directly under Sarkisian because he was a defensive player, he knows him pretty well. He said that Sarkisian is a good recruiter who should be able to get players in talent-rich southern California.
“To be completely honest with you, I’m pretty sure his selling point is that you’ll be able to come in and play right away,” Jackson said. “Everybody wants to play right away, and they’ll be able to cash in on that opportunity.”
That selling point probably would have worked on an 18-year-old defensive lineman from Inglewood five years ago.
“Right now, it’s kind of hard because nobody wants to go into a situation where it’s all out of order and out of whack,” Jackson said of the Washington program. “But if it was right now? And I had confidence in my ability and my talent? I would go to a school like that. It’s an opportunity to learn by fire, and the only place to go is up.”
Jackson believes that Sarkisian is the man to take UW there.
“I think he’s a great coach and I hope he turns the program around dramatically,” Jackson said. “I feel like it was a good hire, and I was thoroughly, thoroughly excited.
“… It’s the right place, the right time.”
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