Pac-12 duo leads race for R250 WR Drue Jackson's commitment

Rivals250 wide receiver Drue Jackson is nearly ready for his October 20 commitment, when he’ll announce at his Sachse team’s homecoming game against Rowlett.

He had released his Top 6 just ahead of the fall, but now as some other commitments have taken place and he’s made a couple of official visits, it’s safe to say it’s down to a two-horse race between Utah and Washington State. After having digested both visits, Jackson now says that he’s about ‘90-percent’ sure of where he’ll commit, and in two weeks, there’s a 100-percent chance it will be to a Pac-12 team.

Jackson said that if there is a wildcard in his recruitment, it could be Mississippi State, where four-star quarterback and teammate Jalen Mayden is committed. The Bulldogs have been gradually showing more interest in him with Mayden’s endorsement, and even though Mississippi State won’t get the call from him in two weeks, he could be persuaded to see what they could offer him before National Signing Day.

“If they were to offer, I’d have to think about it,” he said. “It would have to be like a low-key thing and just see how everything works, how I would fit in their offense and how they would use me. I haven’t been out there since my freshman year, so I would how all that would work.”

On Utah, where he visited on October 7

“It was good, I enjoyed it, the game atmosphere was crazy,” he said. “And the game itself - even though they lost the fans are still crazy.”

“(Jason) Shelley was telling me a lot about Coach (Troy) Taylor and how he’s changing the program,” he said. “You know, they’re mostly a running team but they’re changing it up to have some more passing offense. He told more more about the stuff I needed to know if I was to go there.”

On Washington State, where he visited mid-September

“I really enjoyed myself there, it was like something I never expected,” he said. “I liked it - I liked it a lot … I’m really not a big city boy. I’m more of a laid-back type-style, so it was a good-fit with the scene out there.”

“They really throw the ball every play - that’s something they really do,” he said. “They go for fourth downs and all of that. I thought all that was mostly stuff people just said about Mike Leach, but it’s for real. When I met Coach Leach, he’s just a real good dude, like nonchalant and like weird, in a good way.”

More on his time with Mike Leach

“He’s just an off-the wall person,” he said. “When I walked into his office, he just has a big ‘ole pirate in his office and he’s like this is my pirate, he goes with me everywhere I go. Alright, let’s go to the roof. Then we just went to the roof of the fieldhouse just looking over the stadium and the city and talking about stuff up there.”

Over the summer, Jackson talked about how impressed he was with the priority that Washington State’s staff had made him, despite living such a distance away. He graded his visit to Utah a ‘B+’ but without doing the same for his trip to Pullman, he gushed about the visit and can be assumed to have thought more favorably of it. It seems as though the Cougars are in the best spot for now, but Mississippi State could become an X-Factor down the stretch.

“They’re coming into the picture,” he said. “I still don’t have the offer, but Jalen was out there this weekend. I was supposed to go out there with him because they came out to our game a few weeks ago … I think they’re probably going to end up offering but we’ll see how that goes.”