Chris Jackson will be re-instated to the Georgia Tech football team if he meets conditions over the summer set by coach Paul Johnson.
Jackson, who left the team last fall and was in considerable academic trouble, met with Johnson last week, according to Rex Robertson, a mentor to Jackson and his offensive coordinator at Henry County High.
“He had to make a lifestyle change and he did that over the last five months,” Robertson said.
Jackson is just shy of the 2.0 GPA he needs to be eligible and is taking summer classes to try to clear that mark, according to Robertson. Jackson was a hotly pursued recruit coming out of Henry County and Alabama, where he played as a true freshman in 2008. He transferred to Tech in 2009 but did not play in the 2010 season after tearing his hamstring and then getting dismissed in November. At the time, Johnson said Jackson was dismissed for a combination of things.
“He and I just didn’t see eye to eye,” Johnson said.
Jackson, who came to Tech as an A-back, would play wide receiver, his high school position. Jackson has been studying video cut-ups of routes provided to him by wide receivers coach Buzz Preston. Jackson would have two years of eligibility starting with the upcoming season.
“We’re grateful to Coach Johnson,” Robertson said.
142 comments Add your comment
sasquatch
May 21st, 2011
8:43 am
when is that engineering program at UGA kickin off? this should be interesting……..
roughrider
May 21st, 2011
8:49 am
Should be no more talk from Tech fans about how Tech always recruits players with the the highest academic standards.
ToeMeetsLeather
May 21st, 2011
9:39 am
TECH recruits Division I players that can qualify to play for the Institute and when they get there they are expected to do the work to stay qualified. What is your point roughrider?
Rodney Dangerfield
May 21st, 2011
9:55 am
If someone makes a mistake, get kicked off the team, goes through some hard times, then decides that what he was doing was a huge mistake, starts doing the extra things to show that he has changed, works hard over a period of time, meets the goals set forth for them, then what is the problem with reinstating him on the team.
Sounds like my college career….I kind of identify with this guy.
Rodney Dangerfield
May 21st, 2011
9:59 am
Some UGA fans are about as dumb as their football team. What does this have to do with recruiting players that are academically eligible and able to attend GA Tech. A 2.0 at Tech is like a 3.5 at UGA.
Time
May 21st, 2011
10:10 am
Supersize that order insect.
Time
May 21st, 2011
10:14 am
Love the hypocrisy though. They love to talk about how superior they are, yet their students have the same problems as every other school. And when they do, everyone is supposed to feel sorry for the guy and not say anything. While they infest the UGA blogs anytime one of their athletes have any problems.
And for the record. I went to Georgia Southern and I’ve two Tech (along with 1 Auburn, and 1 UGA grad) grads working for ME. How you like them apples insects?
OldSchoolTechFanatic
May 21st, 2011
11:17 am
Good luck to ya, school is more important than football !!!
ToeMeetsLeather
May 21st, 2011
11:54 am
No “Time”, the hypocisy is when you bring in JUCOs and funnel players through Hargrave and then claim both schools recruit the same players.
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 21st, 2011
1:09 pm
RE: Brooke’s comment on page 1…the text reads “Johnson said Jackson was dismissed”, not “Johnson said Johnson was dismissed”
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 21st, 2011
1:11 pm
Why have him on the team if he’s going to serve as a decoy in CPJ’s running cube/roll a die and gamble on what number will turn up offense?
Darrell(Chester)Dilbeck
May 21st, 2011
1:17 pm
Everybody deserves another chance.If he wants to play for “The Jackets”He can’t be all bad.GO TECH!!!
Darrell(Chester)Dilbeck
May 21st, 2011
1:20 pm
Enter your comments here
Darrell(Chester)Dilbeck
May 21st, 2011
1:24 pm
Everybody deserves another chance.If he wants to play for “The JACKETS” He can’t be all bad.GO TECH!!!
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 21st, 2011
1:43 pm
Does anyone actually think that Georgia Tech is so stupid that they will employ a head football coach who relegates his starting cube to running only? How long does anyone think Georgia Tech will allow such a denial of reality, pathological ego defense mechanism cube offense to be Tech’s offense. To deny the reality that a cube can pass also is pathological. Tech has Vad Lee coming in, and he’s known for his passing yardage out of a shotgun, as seen play after play on that YouTube vid. If CPJ does not switch to using shotguns, I think he should be let go and see if any team anywhere will believe in his running offense. His running offense does not win unless everything comes together, and this will not happen until he drops the wearing of black as part of the uniforms. Last year the loud appearing saddle oxford pants were how Tech played- they usually lost in them. And why? Well, primarily because “Black is out”. It happens to belong to Georgia as 50% of their colors, stupid. Additionally, Wake calls black and gold their colors, as does Vandy. No, I don’t see where black comes into the picture at Tech, whether used as a black GT on license plates, or for black tongues on whitewall shoes for the players last year. All of it is CPJ’s fault. He needs to hire an offensive coordinator who runs shotguns.
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 21st, 2011
1:49 pm
Darell, he won’t really “play”, he’ll serve as a decoy to draw a defender away from a run to take place near where he was lined up.
BS Patrol
May 21st, 2011
1:51 pm
If there is one place Tech needs help it’s @ receiver. Tech receivers won’t go up high or down low to make a catch. They don’t want to catch it. T-Rex arms.
Everyone criticizes Washington & Nesbitt’s passing stats but it’s the RECEIVERS! How long since you’ve seen a Tech receiver dive for a bomb that’s just a little overthrown? They don’t want to get their jerseys dirty.
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 21st, 2011
1:53 pm
Darrell, excuse me, two r’s, not one.
Student Athlete
May 21st, 2011
1:53 pm
it’s amazing the attention athletes with academic problems receive; they are monitored and tutored daily to keep them eligible; they are given opportunities to regain a scholarship when they fail, very compassionate of CPJ.
On the flip side, what support does CPJ provide academically motivated “student athletes?” i have seen no evidence CPJ gives a rip nor provides any support for these guy’s.
on the other hand he loves having players, and coaches, around him that feel obligated because he helped them through some kind of trouble.
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 21st, 2011
1:56 pm
I criticize Washington, because he’s too short. He’s no short Tommy Suggs either because he doesn’t pass out of the pocket.
GT GRAD
May 21st, 2011
2:48 pm
Welcome back……..I hope everything goes well this time!
gt4ever
May 21st, 2011
4:27 pm
Supersize
I do not follow the 4 and 5 star ratings, nor do I believe they amount to much when it’s all said and done… I do however, correlate how the coach recruits to how they play….. Bobby Ross, George O’leary and Chan Gaily all recruited better than this coach…. It is painfully obvious that highschool players are not interested in playing in this kind of a system…. Yes there are a few exceptions, but not very many…. This coach has NOT recruited any solid players, and all the recruits that Gaily recruited are GONE….. We will be lucky to finish 500 next year, and then what…? You people need to wake up!
GDBurdell
May 21st, 2011
7:38 pm
tek won’t win more than 4 this season, tek just needs to become UGA Atlanta campus and get it over with. That way all of the hs talent can go to a relevant program and these wannabe store bought “nerd” idiots won’t have much to say. except on warcraft
GR82BAG8R
May 21st, 2011
8:52 pm
Tech’s football team has the highest SAT scores of any public university. Period.
Until Tech starts offering some “academic pursuits” like Turfgrass Management, Tech will continue to face problems like this one with players that can’t handle the curriculum.
Tech’s football team will never compete with the upper levels of NCAA Div I until it can offer degrees in less challenging fields. Perhaps that was the plan all along so Georgia would have no in-state competition for the cream of the crop of in-state talent (no help, of course, if they go to Alabama, Florida, USCe, etc.)
superDawg
May 21st, 2011
9:46 pm
If the boy can count to four (4) he is a genious!
superDawg
May 21st, 2011
9:47 pm
now that is sad but true and funny.
TechRedNeck
May 21st, 2011
9:50 pm
Time?>???:”? You got UGA, BAMA, and Tech, grads working for you? Yea sure. I’ve always heard “anyone can say anything they want on the blogs and no one can prove or disapprove”. Are you a preacher? Didn’t you just predict J.C. was comming back on the 21st. and the world would end?
gawgadawg
May 21st, 2011
10:19 pm
supersize has diarrhea of the mouth. he knows everything about Georgia and anything they do is wrong but if techie does the same thing it is ok. that kind of person is just a sorry s-b and there is no hope for him. Deff dumb and blind when it comes to techie. one sorry person
Wes Durham's Gigantic Bottom
May 21st, 2011
11:01 pm
CPJ’s chest is as soft and mushy as my dumper.
Old Blind Dawg
May 21st, 2011
11:55 pm
Good to see you techies supporting a kid that is struggling. How about the same support for the UGA (or any school) guys that struggle. We all seem to forget there are many kids that will struggle either because of a wretched home life or grossly under performing schools and in many cases both. Should we kick them to the curb or try and give them a chance?
As far as GT needing WR’s my only question is why. CPJ would rather get smacked in the mouth than rely on the forward pass. GT will always have trouble recruiting top level WR’s – it’s the system.
Drew
May 22nd, 2011
5:15 am
I personally am pulling for this kid. I was a redshirt freshman/scout team player at the Citadel my freshman year of college before I was dismissed for academic reasons. I got back into school but could not play football anymore and I have always thought about what could have been If I had done what I was supposed to to in the classroom. Tech is a tough school but I believe you can achieve anything you put you your mind to, Its all about the will to succeed and making the right choices. this kid is obviously smart enough to get into tech and good enough to help our team win some games so lets all stand behind him and hope this kid can get it right. We’re pullin for you Chris. Do work son.
Demon Deacon
May 22nd, 2011
7:28 am
For your own safety please travel in large groups around the gt campus.
Lock your doors and consider carrying heat.
ToeMeetsLeather
May 22nd, 2011
9:37 am
This is true, there is a crazy Baptist Deacon with a large head loose on Techwood Ave.
dawgfan
May 22nd, 2011
1:56 pm
“Jackson is just shy of the 2.0 GPA he needs to be eligible…”
LMAO. Tech fans=FULL OF CRAP.
Thanks.
Genius Jacket
May 22nd, 2011
2:20 pm
Gigantic Bottom is hilarious.
GT’s football players are the most intelligent football players in the country.
dawgfan=loser
May 22nd, 2011
8:36 pm
LMAO. I just thought of dawgfan trying to maintain a 2.0 GPA at GT. Epic fail…
Have a nice day sir. Glad to see you made it through judgement day (not that I had any doubts you would still be here =) Sorry… I didn’t notice any judgement day jokes so I figured I would throw one out there
TomAce
May 23rd, 2011
9:29 am
Ramblin Recluse Road- it’s QB not cube. I’ve never seen some refer to a QB with cube before in my whole life. And what is your obsession with shotgun? I feel like you don’t know much about football.
Ramblin Man
May 23rd, 2011
9:31 am
Some of you just do not get what some GT fans mean when they say that academics hurt GT in recruiting for football. First GT DOES have higher requirments for entrance and only allows for about an 8% special admit rate compared to the 90% other schools allow. Second and what most of us are talking about is there is no escape once you are at GT. There is no easy major and there are no EASY classes like many schools offer to keep ones GPA up. A student athlete at GT has a much harder road than most and that hurts GT in a lot of ways and says something about the character of GTs student/athletes that are able to compete athletically and graduate, and yes UGA fans that harp on it GT does have athletes that never graduate.
Genius Jacket
May 23rd, 2011
10:59 am
Ramblin,
Isn’t it true that Tech allows athletes to take classes at Morehouse and Clark-Atl?
The Truth
May 23rd, 2011
11:04 am
GA Tech Lies & Cheats & Everyone knows it. Especially about the academics of their athletes. LOL! GA Tech is an absolute joke.
Not Disappointed
May 23rd, 2011
12:20 pm
Good luck young man!
Ramblin Recluse Road
May 26th, 2011
7:17 am
RE: TomAce comment…hey, how’re you doin. I made up the word cube because cube=qb. At Tech in Finite Mathematics a cube is a die, and there are problems involving the roll of a die x amount of times to come up with certain values of black dots fron 1 to 6. Such a three dimensional object measurable by a formula to detremine volume is also found at mathworld.com within the combinatorics area. I simply use my course I took in poetry and the one in Finite Matematics to create a quantitative slang word for the qb at Tech. As for the shotgun, one needs only to look at Auburn and Oregon last year in the natl championship game to realize the shotgun is usually used as the formation of choice. For your information I received an “A” in football at Tech in Physical Training when they used to have these courses, and I was the cube of my team. You sure as Hell don’t have to use the word cube if it beyond your ability to understand as rhyming with qb which stands for quarterback. Do you understand that qb stands for quarterback? Do you understand that “black is out” at Tech for football uniform colors? All black or all white shoes and boots are ok, but a shoe or boot with both is not, and points to the need for “black is out” as decreed by the head of the alum assn in the “Tech Topics” news mag. The two toned is not conservative enough. And black knee socks are out.