Transfer WR ‘one of the most freakish athletes’
AUBURN | Sam Jackson V played with Payton Thorne in high school. He played against Auburn early last season.
The connections were already there, but Jackson still felt like it was up to him to convince the AU coaches to give him an opportunity once he entered the transfer portal.
Part of that came from Jackson switching from quarterback to wide receiver, a position he hadn’t played since his sophomore season when Thorne was his quarterback at Naperville Central High School in Chicago, Ill.
"I wanted to show them -- obviously I had to sell myself to them,” said Jackson of transferring from California. “It's the SEC; they can get whoever they want. And it's Auburn. It's not any other school. The main thing was just me being prepared for that. I came off two injuries, and I was honestly kind of -- not really shocked, but just surprised that it went so smoothly.
“As soon as I hit the portal, I got to talk to Coach (Marcus) Davis, I got to talk to Coach (Hugh) Freeze. It pretty much went how I wanted it to go. It's going how I wanted it to go now -- just me learning from the guys, learning from Payton, being around a culture like this. I'm loving it so far.”
The transition back to wide receiver has gone smoother than even Jackson could have imagined. Despite wearing a yellow non-contact jersey to protect a previous shoulder injury, Jackson has been consistently making plays in practice.
“It hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be because, obviously, I'm pretty gifted athletically,” said Jackson. “I think the main thing about it is learning the small things, the intangibles: hand fighting at the line with the corners, tracking the ball over my head, making sure the deep ball is coming over my shoulder, adjusting to the ball in the air. Just the little stuff like that.
“The playbook is really easy for me because I played quarterback. I know what Payton is thinking since I played with Payton before. It's been pretty easy for me.”
Jackson’s ability to make a quick transition is one of the things that’s stood out to Davis, who is going into his third season as Auburn’s wide receiver coach.
“You can tell when he played quarterback from that film that he had an extra step, some juice to him,” said Davis. “We knew he had ability and it only helped that he played receiver in the past and he had familiarity with Payton.
“So as far as ability, it was never a question. It was more how confident and how quickly can you make that transition to receiver. There’s still some work to be done, but it’s good to see where he’s at right now.”
As for Thorne, he had no doubts. Jackson caught 50 of his passes for 847 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2018.
“He’s one of the most freakish athletes I’ve seen in my life,” said Thorne. “And I’ve played with some really, really good players and I put him at the top up there with those guys. He’s hungry. He wants it. He’s working hard. I have no doubt that he’ll help us this year.
“He can fly and he has great hands. His hands are huge.”
Auburn will continue spring drills this week with practices Thursday and Saturday. The A-Day game is April 6 at 1 p.m. CT.