Texas Football: Players are ‘gravitating’ to new WR coach Chris Jackson

The most significant new addition to the coaching staff for Texas football so far this offseason arrived in the last couple of weeks in the form of the former Jacksonville Jaguars first-year wide receivers coach Chris Jackson. Head coach Steve Sarkisian hired Jackson to replace the former wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Brennan Marion.

Marion left Texas to take the offensive coordinator job under new head coach Barry Odom with the UNLV Rebels after spending just one year on Texas’ staff as the WR coach.

Sark and the Longhorns took a much different approach to this coaching hire than they did following the 2021 season when Marion was brought aboard to replace Andre Coleman. Marion was looked at as more of a young hotshot and a player’s coach that was making his name exclusively around the college football coaching landscape.

Meanwhile, Jackson is a newer football coach that had a lengthy playing career in professional football. He has also never coached at the collegiate level with all of his experience in this realm coming in the NFL in the last few years.

Given the difference in personality and background between Marion and Jackson, it was definitely an unknown how this hire would settle as the former Jags’ WR coach transitioned into his first collegiate job at Texas.

New Texas football WR coach already making a positive impression within the program

The early indications on how the transition process is going for Jackson at the outset of his time as Texas’ wide receivers coach are pretty positive, though. Some of the feedback and buzz coming out of the first couple of weeks for Jackson on the job is that he is making a positive impression around the program thus far.

And according to a report from Horns247 on Feb. 7 (paid content), Jackson is bringing a certain “groundedness, balance, and calm confidence” to the wide receiver room at Texas. His steadiness and confidence seem to be allowing him to get settled into his role pretty fast.

Apparently, the players are even said to be “gravitating to him” in his first couple of weeks on the job.

This type of feedback coming out of Jackson’s early days on the Forty Acres has to be conceived as a major positive given some of the uncertainty surrounding how this transition could go from the NFL to college for him.

And while there is still a lot that he has to learn and prove with this group of wideouts (and on the recruiting trail) at Texas, he seems to be on the right track thus far.

Jackson joins the Longhorns after spending one season as the Jaguars’ wide receivers coach in the NFL. He also spent multiple years on staff under former head coach Matt Nagy with the Chicago Bears to start his run as an NFL coach in the late 2010s.