Jackson's success puts Louisville on map in recruiting Florida

CHARLOTTE -- Lamar Jackson arrived at ACC media days sporting red-and-black argyle socks, a polka dot tie and a hard-to-miss gold crucifix dangling from his neck. His look loomed large, but the crowds that obsessively followed him around the second floor of the Charlotte Westin dwarfed it in size.

The situation was not at all unique. Not by a long shot.

“I’m well known now,” Jackson said, laughing about his post-Heisman life with a crowd of nearly 100 reporters. “In certain places, I get stopped. People want to take pictures. Even in places you don’t think they’ll be, they’re there. I love it, though. I love the fans.”

Jackson’s Heisman Trophy loomed large on Thursday – larger than the small space it carved out as part of a mezzanine-level display roughly 20 yards away from where Jackson addressed the media. Its presence in Jackson’s hometown of Pompano Beach, Fla,, however, may end up being more important.

“I think the recognition of Lamar and being from down there has helped us recruit,” said Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino. “Our challenge is just to get them on campus. …It doesn’t take long at all [for Jackson’s name] to come up in recruiting conversations down there. That’s for sure.

“It really started during the season last year. Guys started answering their phones that didn’t answer them before. It was guys calling us, too. It’s one of those things. The style of play and the way he excelled in it, really helped us recruiting.”

Louisville currently has commitments from seven Florida-based prospects, including two four-stars and four players ranked among the top 100 players in the Sunshine State. And while Jackson is skilled at downplaying the personal significance of his Heisman Trophy victory, the larger results are taking hold.

“Lamar Jackson winning the Heisman plays a big role for me [choosing Louisville],” said Florida-based linebacker Robert Hicks, a one-time Auburn commit who is now pledged to Louisville. “The Heisman shows that the program isn’t rebuilding and still is a winning program. It’d a program that matters.”

A product of a number of South Florida-based seven-on-seven programs, including the same one that produced Hicks, Jackson knows his ties to the one of the country’s most fertile recruiting grounds are important to the Louisville program. His possible impact on the future isn’t lost on him.

“I absolutely [notice the impact],” Jackson said. “I guess I’m a role model now to certain people down there at home. I appreciate it. It’s good. I mean, there’s nothing like Florida players anyway.”

So while Wednesday in Charlotte was not about recruiting, it lurked just below the surface. The crowds that followed the well-dressed quarterback from Florida play into a building perception that is already helping the Cardinals program. On the recruiting trail, success breeds success. And there’s no better measure of success than being the star of the show.

The symphony of flashbulbs that trailed Jackson through an upscale hotel functioned as a fitting soundtrack for the situation.

“Sometimes, it gets old,” Jackson said. “But this is for the fans. I’ll stop and take a picture whenever for them. It’s cool.”

And whether Jackson realizes it or not, those endless strings of pictures are also for the future of his college.