Texas Football: Jags’ Chris Jackson remains the ‘frontrunner’ for WR coach

All the rage for the Texas football program continues to be the ongoing search for head coach Steve Sarkisian to find a replacement for the recently-departed wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Brennan Marion. For a little more than a week now, Texas has searched to find the next wide receivers coach, with a bevy of candidates getting some looks from this staff.

As recently as a few days ago, it looked like there were a few top candidates that were coming to fruition for Sark and the Longhorns to replace Marion. The first candidate that Sark interviewed in Austin for this position on his staff was the Washington State Cougars wide receivers coach Joel Filani.

There was also some reported interest from the Longhorns in other candidates for wide receivers coach such as the new Arizona State Sun Devils WR coach/pass game coordinator Ra’Shaad Samples and Alabama Crimson Tide WR coach Holmon Wiggins.

It sounds like conversations were had between Sark and Wiggins in the last week or so. And the interest in Samples became more real as last week progressed. But I don’t know how meaningful the conversations ever became between Sark and Samples.

Moreover, the newest name to surface as a legitimate candidate to replace Marion as Texas’ next wide receivers coach is the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first-year WR coach Chris Jackson. According to a report from Bobby Burton of Inside Texas on Jan. 16 (paid content), Jackson is the “frontrunner” for the Texas WR coach position coming out of the weekend.

Texas football finds a leading candidate to be the next WR coach in Jags’ assistant Chris Jackson

A report from Orangebloods on Jan. 15 (subscriber content) confirms the candidacy for Jackson in the Longhorns’ WR coach search in the last couple of days.

As of the afternoon of Jan. 15, it doesn’t sound like Jackson had officially interviewed for the WR coach position at Texas yet. But there was meaningful communication between Jackson and Sark.

Since Jackson is still on staff with a team that is alive in the NFL playoffs, following the Jaguars’ insane comeback win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Jan. 14, it doesn’t look like anything would be announced here until his squad is eliminated.

While it did look as if Sark and the Longhorns wanted a hire officially announced as wide receivers coach before Junior Day on Jan. 21, if Jackson is it, that wouldn’t take place until the Jaguars are out of the playoffs. That does give the insight, though, that if Texas doesn’t have a wide receivers coach hire announced at some point this week, then Jackson is probably Sark’s guy.

However, if there is some buzz surrounding another candidate potentially being announced in the middle of this week, that would probably favor another hire other than Jackson. Some other candidates to watch in the coaching search are Wiggins, Samples, Filani, and the Indiana Hoosiers WR coach Adam Henry.

Background on Chris Jackson’s career as a player and coach

Jackson is currently in his first season as the Jaguars’ wide receivers coach. He’s helped the Jaguars receiving corps boast two career seasons in terms of production in the passing game. Christian Kirk just had his first 1,000-receiving yard season while Zay Jones posted a career-best 823 receiving yards during the regular season.

Jacksonville also was one of the most improved passing offenses in the NFL during the regular season. Jackson and first-year offensive coordinator Press Taylor have guided the Jags’ passing game to rank in the top 10 in the NFL this season.

Prior to taking the WR coach position on staff with the Jags in 2022, Jackson was an assistant wide receivers coach with the Chicago Bears under former head coach Matt Nagy. Jackson held that position on staff with the Bears in 2020 and 2021, where he helped to see the development of a 1,000-yard receiver last year in Darnell Mooney.

The first coaching position that Jackson held was also on staff with Nagy and the Bears in 2019, as a defensive assistant.

The 47-year-old Jackson’s alma mater is Washington State, where he broke out as an All-PAC-10 wide receiver during the 1997 season. He posted just over 1,000 receiving yards and a PAC-12-leading 11 touchdown catches during the 1997 campaign.

He signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in 1998. He floated around a couple of practice squads between his time with the Bucs and Seattle Seahawks in 1998 and 1999 before getting his first shot in an actual NFL game with the Tennessee Titans.

Jackson made his NFL regular season debut in 1999 with the Titans but was unfortunately placed on injured reserve shortly after. The Titans would end up cutting him around one year later.

After his time with the Titans came to an end, Jackson played for the Los Angeles Avengers in the Arena Football League. He would be named the AFL Rookie of the Year in 2000 after a stellar campaign with the Avengers.

Jackson played well enough in the AFL to get another shot in the NFL a couple of years later, with the Green Bay Packers starting in 2002. He got live-game reps in two games with the Packers over the course of the 2002 and 2003 seasons. But that would be it for Jackson’s time getting live-game reps in the NFL.

In 2003, the Packers cut Jackson. Outside of a brief stint on the practice squad with the Miami Dolphins in 2003, Jackson spent most of the rest of his days as a professional football player in the Canadian Football League or in the AFL. He floated around some different teams in the AFL and CFL until the early-to-mid 2010s.

Texas could soon be wrapping up its search to find the third wide receivers coach in the last two years. Marion spent one year with the Longhorns prior to taking the offensive coordinator job under new head coach Barry Odom with the UNLV Rebels a couple of weekends ago.