Jackson wowed by visit to LSU

Long Beach Poly (Calif.) wide out Desean Jackson took his first official visit of the year to LSU this past weekend and the Tigers set the bar very high for the All-American receiver.

Jackson, 5-11, 160 pounds survived a major scare in the Jackrabbits game Friday night where there was talk of a possible ACL tear.

“I was blocking for our running back and a player rolled up on me from behind me, I never even saw him,” Jackson said. “I tried to get up but couldn’t and my knee was just burning inside. I was so dang scared, I thought I had tore something. It started to feel a lot better on the sidelines though and our trainer didn’t a bunch of test and I passed all of them so they ruled out an ACL or MCL tear and that was a huge relief.

“I’m on my way to the doctors right now to get an MRI but I can walk on it fine and I’m feeling good. We have playoffs this weekend and I’m going to play for sure. This is my last year and I’m not going out like this.”

After the game, Jackson took a red eye flight and was in Baton Rouge late Friday night.

“That trip was incredible,” Jackson said. “They didn’t want to me visit on a game weekend because they didn’t think they could spend enough time with me but I wanted to be there for that to see what the atmosphere is like. Now I’m glad I did because that was one of the highlites of the visit for me. The atmosphere and the crowd support was like nothing I’ve ever seen.

“I was at the USC- Cal game earlier this year and the crowd was pretty loud there but it wasn’t even close to LSU. I mean, it was louder in warm ups at LSU than at SC. When the players came out of the tunnel, I’ve never felt anything like that before and every time the defense was on the field, you couldn’t hear yourself think because it was so loud.

“Before the game, all the fans were calling out to me, saying, ‘Desean, you got to come here, we need you here.’ They all knew who I was and a few fans were even yelling, ‘Desean, don’t go to SC like all the other Poly players, come be a Tiger.’ I thought that was pretty funny but it was cool they knew about me and cared that much.

“After the game, I went out with my host, Skylar Green, who I met when I took an unofficial visit to LSU back in the summer. He’s real cool and we really bonded back in the summer so it was cool to see him again. All the players were real cool. I met all the receivers, Xavier Carter and Early Doucet and got along with them really well. I also talked a lot with my position coach Bobby Williams and then had breakfast with Coach Saban at his house on Sunday.

“I like Coach Saban a lot. He seems like a pretty mellow guy but at the same time, you can tell he’s all business. I got a tour of the campus and saw the football facilities and the indoor stadium that they’re upgrading. I even got to meet with the baseball coach and they talked about how much they want me. LSU has a great baseball program as well so that would be a great place to double sport if I did end up there.

“Overall it was a great trip and I’m definitely thinking hard about LSU. I even called my brother from the trip and told him LSU is right there with SC and Cal now. I liked it that much. I know it’s farther away from home and they have nice depth at receiver but I just really liked it a lot and think I would fit in well there. I’m going to visit Cal this weekend and then take December trips to USC and Oklahoma. I was going to take an official to SC for the Notre Dame game but they wanted me to come after the season so they can spend more time with me and that’s fine.”