Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in a series that will feature some of the area’s top prep football players. These players are expected to receive the most attention from college coaches/scouts. The Dispatch will profile a player each day leading up to the start of the regular season Friday.
MACON — Keymarcus Jackson isn’t one to shy away from a challenge.
That’s why Jackson fits right in with the other 18 seniors on the 2018 Noxubee County High School football team. Armed with their new, Tiger blue T-shirts that say, “New Beginning, Same Ending,” the Tigers are primed to get back to the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A State title game and win the program’s sixth championship, and fourth in the last five years.
To accomplish that goal, coach Tyrone Shorter is going to need Jackson, a 6-foot-1 1/2, 175-pounder, to work with senior cornerback Maliek Stallings as part of a lockdown secondary that will fuel another championship march.
“Keymarcus is a sleeper,” Shorter said. “I tell all the scouts when they come through. I see his size and his ability and he is as sleeper.”
Shorter is convinced Jackson, who hasn’t received any major college scholarship offers, will attract the attention of Division I coaches after they see him play. On Friday night, Jackson had his first opportunity to showcase his talents in Noxubee County’s 17-0 victory against Greenwood in the Louisville Jamboree at Starkville High. The event, which featured the varsity teams in two 12-minute quarters, was scheduled to be played in Louisville, but it was moved due to the threat of bad weather.
Jackson showed he is ready to be challenged by playing an aggressive center field as safety. He went up high to break up a pass down the center of the field in one of his highlights.
Shorter believes there will be plenty more plays like that for a player who led the team with four interceptions last season.
“He is going to open a lot of eyes and impress people,” Shorter said. “He has good size and he can run. He is just like (Kyziah) Pruitt and Stallings. He is just as good as those two guys.”
Pruitt has given a verbal commitment to play football at Mississippi State, while Stallings had made a verbal pledge to Memphis. Jackson hopes he can catch the eye of some of those same college coaches by being a vocal and a lead-by-example member of a young team.
“We just have to get our young guys ready and work hard at practice and get ready to go,” said Jackson, who has started for two years at strong safety.
Jackson said he is working to improve on communication and reading offenses. He feels his knack for anticipating throws and his ability to break on the football have improved after a summer filled with seven-on-seven competition. He hopes that work helps him eclipse the totals he had in 2017 when he recorded 46 solo tackles, which was fourth on the team, and 58 total stops.
Shorter said the Tigers plan to use Jackson in all three facets of the game — offense, defense, and special teams — because he is “special.” The majority of that time, though, will be spent on defense, where Shorter said Jackson has the potential to make an impact. Shorter has that confidence because he said Jackson has matured from last season.
“He is ready to go,” Shorter said. “I think he feels like I am a Tiger, I am a part of this, and I am just as good as these guys. He is more vocal now. This summer he was more comfortable, which is why I think everybody is going to see how good this kid really is.”
Shorter didn’t make the comment to challenge Jackson, but rest assured it will be something that motivates him because his dream is to play college football. Jackson knows he can make it happen if he lives up to Shorter’s assessment.
“I am going to try to lead the team,” said Jackson, who transitioned to defense full time as a ninth-grader. “I talk a lot. I am going to set the example for the rest of the guys in the secondary by doing what is right and showing them the way.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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