In which BracketCat counts down the 11th day until the 2024 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State wide receiver Jadon Jackson.
NOTE: Kansas State has elected to advance players’ classification even though the 2020 season did not affect eligibility. Those who wish to take advantage of this extra year will be listed as a (“super”) senior again after their original eligibility would have been exhausted.
Goal No. 11: DON’T ACCEPT LOSING. If you do so one time, it will be easy to do so for the rest of your life.
#0 Jadon Jackson
Redshirt Super Senior | 6-1 | 187 lbs. | Centeron, Arkansas
Courtesy Kansas State Athletics
- Position: Wide Receiver
- Previous Colleges: University of Mississippi
- Projection: Second-String
- Status: On Scholarship
Jadon Jackson (b. Oct. 9, 2000) is a veteran wide receiver who transferred to K-State from Ole Miss with three seasons of experience. He is majoring in social transformational studies.
Jackson saw time in nine games during his true freshman season in 2019. He hauled in his first career reception on a 28-yard touchdown at Alabama, then came back with another 28-yard reception the next week against Vanderbilt. Both stand as his career-long receptions.
Jackson also had two catches for 25 yards against New Mexico State.
He played in four games as a true sophomore and utilized his redshirt during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, with a start against Indiana in the Outback Bowl, in which he helped the Rebels to earn a victory with his four catches for 38 yards, both career highs.
Jackson saw time in nine games for the Rebels as a redshirt sophomore in 2021, earning starts at Alabama, against LSU and at Auburn. He totaled five catches on the year for 42 yards and had a career-high-tying four catches for 30 yards at Alabama.
After transferring to K-State, he played in four games during the 2022 Big 12 Championship season, including the Sugar Bowl against Alabama, when he caught two passes for 16 yards against apparently his favorite former conference foe (given his production versus the Tide).
Jackson also saw playing time in 2022 as a redshirt junior reserve wide receiver at Baylor, and on special teams against Oklahoma and Texas Tech.
In 2023, Jackson finally broke through as a redshirt senior as he played in all 13 games with six starts, hauling in 19 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed four times for 36 yards on the season.
Jackson tied his career high with four catches against both Troy and Missouri, the former game in which he set a career high with 77 receiving yards. He had a career-long tying catch of 40 yards against Baylor, a game in which he had 53 total receiving yards.
Jackson had a career-high 15 rushing yards against Houston and a career-long rush of 14 yards the week prior against TCU.
He opened the scoring in each of the first two games of the season, the first Wildcat to have the first touchdown in each of the first two games of a season since the great Darren Sproles did so in 2003 against California and Troy. This heralds further big things in 2024!
Jackson prepped under head coach Bryan Pratt at Bentonville High School West in Arkansas, where he was rated the 50th-best wide receiver and fourth-best overall prospect in the state of Arkansas for the Class of 2019 by Rivals.
A three-time all-state selection who was named the Arkansas Class 7A Player of the Year as a junior in 2017, he also was regarded as one of the top 500 prospects nationally in the Class of 2019 by 247Sports.
Jackson totaled 3,202 receiving yards and 35 touchdowns over his three-year prep career, caught 61 passes for 1,439 and 14 touchdowns during his junior season, and also ran track.
He projects best as a slot receiver and, because his redshirt season coincided with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, this will be his final “super senior” season in 2024.
Prior to transferring to K-State, Jackson chose Ole Miss over impressive scholarship offers from Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Memphis, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Tulsa and Washington State.
He was a wide receiver Chris Klieman highlighted as needing to step up in 2023, as he did:
We don’t have Malik Knowles and Kade Warner and Deuce Vaughn. We’ve got to have production replaced. We talk about it at running back, and at wide receiver Keagan Johnson has to have a really big year for us and RJ Garcia II has to have a really big year for us, Jadon Jackson has to have a big year, and Phillip Brooks has to continue to get better and better. That’s what we’re hoping for.
Along with fellow wide receivers Andre Davis and Tre Spivey, Klieman highlighted Jackson during spring ball as “playing a lot faster.”