Cal Football: Quarterback Sam Jackson V's Mission: `I Came to Win . . . We Can Do That'
Quarterback Sam Jackson V came to Cal this offseason with one thing in mind:
“I came to win,” he says in the video above. “And at Cal, I feel like we can definitely do that. We’ve got the talent. I feel like we have a great dynamic.
“We’re a close group. I know I just got here, but honestly it feels like I’ve been knowing these guys for years now. We’re a team, we’re a family.”
Jackson certainly was part of a winning experience last fall at TCU, where former Cal coach Sonny Dykes led the Horned Frogs to an unbeaten regular season and into the national championship.
But Jackson was TCU’s third-string quarterback, and he wanted a place where he could be on the field. He threw six passes in two seasons with the Horned Frogs, completing all of them for 140 yards. He rushed 15 times for 79 yards and two touchdowns.
He will have to officially win the job at Cal, beginning with the start of spring practice on Wednesday, but the Bears brought him here to be their starter. The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder, who was a four-star dual-threat prospect out of high school in suburban Chicago, picked his new roommates carefully.
They include wide receivers Jeremiah Hunter, Mavin Anderson and Brian Hightower, a transfer this season with a background at Miami and Illinois. Also sharing his address is the running back Jackson figures to hand the ball a lot next fall — Jaydn Ott, who rushed for 897 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman in 2022.
Ott impressed Cal fans with his tremendous speed, something he shares in common with Jackson, who is reputed to have 4.4 speed for the 40-yard dash.
Even before being asked the obvious question, Jackson said, “I’m faster than Jaydn Ott. I didn’t tell him that yet but I think he knows by now. He is fast . . . he’s really fast.”
But Jackson would be willing to race him? “I can’t wait.”
Jackson is justifiably proud of his speed, but hopes fans will soon see there is much more to his game.
“People are in awe of the way that I run. People haven’t really seen me throw. I feel like that’s the best part of my game — the way that I pass the ball,” he said. “I’m not going to really speak too much on that because I like my actions to show for that."
It's his ability to make something happen when the play breaks down that his high school coach has raved about. “I am a creator — I usually create when I have nothing to go to as far as there’s not really an open receiver.”
Jackson said he can’t wait for spring ball to begin. Up until now, he has had throwing sessions with Cal’s receivers and spent him with new offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, talking about the offense and watching film of some of Spavital’s former quarterback pupils.
Spavital has worked with 10 different QBs who made it to the NFL, including former Cal star Davis Webb, who recently was named quarterbacks coach of the Denver Broncos. Other names on his coaching resume include Johnny Manziel, Geno Smith and Kyler Murray.
Jackson explains in the video above that Cal was the first school to reach out to him when he entered his name in the transfer portal the day after TCU’s loss to Georgia in the national championship game.
The opportunity to play at Cal, the arrival of Spavital to run the offense and the university’s academic reputation all factored in to him choosing Berkeley over Oregon or Illinois.
After conferring with family, mentors and former coaches, Jackson was happy to make a quick decision.
He also talks in the video about how being recruited out of high school was not always a fun experience, and he didn’t want to relive it this winter.
Jackson says his dad — Sam IV — played basketball but steered him toward football.
“I started playing football when I was 4 years old,” he said. “I grew up watching Peyton Manning — he’s my favorite player.”
And, yes, Jackson played tackle football, even back then. In the Tiny Mites division he was quarterback for the Chicago Jokers. Jackson briefly ran track and field and dabbled in basketball, where he was able to dunk the ball by middle school.
But football was it. “My whole life I’ve basically been playing football,” he said.
Growing up on the west side of Chicago, Jackson said “basically I was surrounded by poverty and a lot of violence. So my schooling experience was kind of different.”
It got appreciably better by middle school when he was able to enroll in schools in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. By the time he got to Naperville Central High, Jackson said a path was created for him to get to college.
“It was totally different,” he said. “Naperville Central was like a college. We had off-campus lunch and the courses I was taking prepared me for the next level. Honestly, I got to experience both sides.”
Cover photo of Sam Jackson V while at TCU by Mark Rebilias, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
