Q&A with Jackets LB Kyle Jackson

Georgia Tech linebacker Kyle Jackson finished third in tackles last season with 59. Jackson started 11 games, playing both inside and outside linebacker as a redshirt freshman.

Jackson, from Union Grove High, spoke with staff writer Ken Sugiura about the offseason and other topics, including his jersey number, No. 59. Answers were edited for length.

Q. What are your goals for the offseason?

A. Definitely putting on weight. I struggled this past year; I was a little undersized. I’ve been doing a lot of film work. I just want to be a lot more mentally prepared for this coming season, as well as physically prepared. I want to get to the point where I let my intelligence on the field help as much as my physical ability. And I definitely want to work on my leadership.

Q. What weight do you want to get to?

A. Hopefully 230, maybe 235. (Jackson weighs 228) I play a lot of middle and outside (linebacker). I want to be at a weight where I’m still kind of (able to play both).

Q. What are you hoping to learn as you watch film?

A. I started meeting with (assistant) Coach [Brian Jean-Mary] again this week as far as some of the things we plan to do during the spring and during the season as far as the defense. The biggest thing I’m doing is I’ve been sitting down with one of the [graduate assistants], J.R. Dorman, and we’ve been literally dissecting, game by game, the errors and mistakes that we’ve made, what responsibilities I have on certain plays and certain defenses, taking it step by step, drawing (defensive) fronts up, everything.

Q. Who else has been watching a lot of film?

A. One of the guys I see in the film room a lot as I’m passing through is (quarterback) Jaybo Shaw. I’ve caught him in the film room a lot, sometimes even late when I’m leaving out of here after dinner.

Q. How have the offseason workouts gone?

A. I feel like the intensity level definitely kicked up from last year, some of it because we saw how close we were to a great season. We were just a game away from the ACC championship game. And the competition level against LSU (in the Chick-fil-A Bowl loss) that we faced really showed us how good we were during the season but where we needed to get.

Q. What do you think of the schedule?

A. I like it. I’m excited. The first thing that stood out was the back-to-back Thursday games (against Clemson and Miami in early September), which really kind of had me amped up. We have five days between Jacksonville State and Clemson and they do, too. That one’s going to be a fun one.

Q. If you were the Detroit Lions, whom would you take with the first pick in the NFL draft?

A. Oh, man, I don’t know. They’re probably doing the same thing I’m doing, rubbing their heads. That’d be a tough one. They need help in all aspects. It wouldn’t hurt to get a quarterback to throw it out to (former Tech great) Calvin (Johnson). As much as I hate to say it, I guess I’d go with (Georgia quarterback Matthew) Stafford.

Q. Who’s a player who could come out of the weeds in spring ball or in the fall?

A. (Freshman defensive tackle) T.J. Barnes. In practice, time to time, if I wasn’t in or if I was on break, I’d take a peek down to the offensive side and I’d just see him causing problems (as a member of the scout team). And then I’d hear stories from all the O-linemen about how great T.J.’s going to be. I know a lot of people are putting pressure on him because of his size, and I hope that doesn’t get to him, because I really think he can do a lot of big things this year.

Q. Could you ever wear a single-digit jersey?

A. I’m not really into the single digit. The lowest I’d probably go is 21. I wore that in high school. I like 59 because when they gave me 59, I remember thinking, “Who wears 59?”

So I started looking up people in the past who wore 59 and the best guy that I came up with was (Pro Football Hall of Famer) Jack Ham, who played with the Steelers. So I was like, alright. He was a great linebacker. Other than that, I couldn’t think of anybody else. So I wanted 59 just so I could identify myself as myself, and not somebody else who wore the number.