DeBoer's Spring Mission: Put the Ball in Giles Jackson's Hands as Much as Possible
Oh, and we thought Giles Jackson was just a kick returner.
Michigan took that stance.
Jimmy Lake's coaching staff gradually assumed that position, as well.
Not Kalen DeBoer and his University of Washington offensive brain thrusts.
They took one look at the 5-foot-9, 177-pound speedster from Antioch, California — certifiably their fastest player on the roster with a 4.3-second 40-yard dash reading — and couldn't believe he wasn't on the field as much as possible.
Kickoffs, punts, pass plays, fly sweeps.
What a waste of a valuable offensive weapon, the new Husky coaches concluded.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, in particular, saw Jackson's impressive change of direction and determined he had to plot more ways to use this guy.
Speed should never be underutilized.
Following Friday's first spring scrimmage, DeBoer brought up Jackson's name as one of his players who had received a team "shout-out" that morning, as someone who was roundly saluted in front of his UW teammates, a move the coach has deftly introduced as part of the daily regimen to keep his guys feeling wanted and motivated.
"Giles has been all over the place," DeBoer said. "He's such a versatile guy."
As he is wont to do, DeBoer walked through warm-ups on Friday before the scrimmage and stopped where Jackson was stretching to let him know how well the young kid was playing well.
The Huskies have been working with Jackson in him using different handoffs, lining him up in multiple places in the slot and simply putting him on the outside and daring anyone to try and stop him.
Jackson this week absolutely dazzled everyone by stretching out in an unfathomable way to get his hands on an end-zone pass from Dylan Morris that was posted in the Twitter video, as shown above.
Jackson left Michigan after two seasons, following kickoff returns of 95 and 97 yards for touchdowns, to become more than just a special-teams wizard. He considered himself as much of a receiver as he was a runback threat.
Giles Jackson has impressed his new coaches this spring.
Skylar Lin Visuals
Unfortunately, Lake and then offensive coordinator John Donovan made a bunch of early proclamations concerning Jackson's presence and then only half-heartedly made good on them, which was one of the big failures of the former staff.
After putting the ball in Jackson's hands 15 times in a variety of way over the first two games, the UW staff simply quit using him, letting him run the ball just three times and catch a solitary pass thereafter.
All of their previous utterances involving the game-day use of the swift one from California by way of the Midwest was just a lot of bluster.
The current Husky staff doesn't want him standing on the sidelines feeling unloved. It would rather see Jackson scaring the heck out of opposing defenses, making them nervous by just being out there and have them for any underestimating him.
"I feel that he's one of those guys that from the first day he lined up here this spring to where he's at now, he's not a different guy but he's improved every day," DeBoer said. "It's really cool to see, his mindset and where he's at. He's in a really good place."
Even better if it's the end zone.
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