Louisiana Tech Transfer WR Marlion Jackson Locks In Visit To Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech to host WR transfer target. Read more below.

Nov 19, 2025; Blacksburg, VA, USA; L-R, John Rocovich, Timothy Sands, James Franklin and Whit Babcock hold up a Virginia Tech jersey during the press conference celebrating Franklin as head coach at Cassell Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bishop-Imagn Images | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

Virginia Tech continues to widen its net of transfer portal targets, adding Louisiana Tech wide reciever transfer Marlion Jackson into the target fold. Jackson is coming off of his junior season at Louisiana Tech. The news was initially reported by ESPN.

Louisiana Tech transfer WR Marlion Jackson plans to visit Virginia Tech on Friday, his reps @PSEGOfficial tell ESPN. https://t.co/jAYgSb2KHh

— Max Olson (@max_olson) January 7, 2026

Jackson is coming off of a solid season with Louisiana Tech, where he played in nine games and caught 20 passes for 370 yards and two touchdowns. His best contest came against Western Kentucky, where he logged six catches for 103 yards in the Bulldogs' overtime loss. He also had a strong game against Coastal Carolina, catching three passes for 87 yards and a touchdown. He has three more games over his career where he had at least 60 yards through the air.

While his numbers have gotten better year-over-year, Jackson's grades have steadily gone down in nearly every catagory per PFF. This year, he had a 56.8 offensive grade with a 59.3 receiving grae and a 59.8 rushing grade. The biggest downside in his game is his run-blocking, which has never graded better than 53.1.

During his freshman season, Jackson had a 66.4 offensive grade with a strong 66.8 receiving grade and a 63.4 rushing grade. This was his best grading season in all four catagories that he's graded in on PFF.

Should Jackson come to Virginia Tech, he would likely be a depth piece at best. He has gotten better each year of his career, catching more passes for more yards and more touchdowns year-after-year. His best season came as a Junior with 370 yards. He only played in nine games, should he have played 12, he was paced at just under 500 yards on the season, which is solid production.

With that said, he paced at 500 yards at the G6 level, so it would likely take a lot of development for him to find a starting role. I think he will, at best, make the two-deep depth chart as a backup.

He would be a strong addition, though. Early on in the portal, Franklin has been focused on raising the floor of this program by adding in depth instead of immediately focusing on immediate-impact players. That's not to say that he won't get some immediate impact guys, but I find it unlikely that Jackson is one of those.

He would be the second experienced portal addition this cycle for Virginia Tech, joining Louisiana tailback Bill Davis. We will have more as this story develops.