Jackson ready to lead Maryland offense following tight QB battle

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland’s newly named starting quarterback Josh Jackson’s life has been a whirlwind since he announced in February that he would transfer from Virginia Tech to College Park for his last two years of eligibility.

A new school, new teammates, new coaches, new playbook, but now — just in time for the Terps’ season opener on Saturday against Howard — life’s starting to slow down for the 6-foot-2, 218-pound redshirt junior as he settles into a similar role: being a leader.

“It’s a brand new offense. I didn’t have spring ball so every time I was doing something it was for the first time with these guys,” Jackson said Tuesday. “It definitely took some time. It still feels like I have to get better and get more comfortable because it’s still all new. But I think it’s all slowing down and hopefully it keeps getting better.

“I would say after camp that I feel like I’m a Terp and I’m the leader of this offense and this team, and I have to continue to get better at that, but overall, I’d definitely say I adjusted well and everything is going well so far.”

Jackson officially assumed his leadership role with the Terps when he and Tyrrell Pigrome — his stiffest competition for the starting quarterback position — were called into head coach Michael Locksley’s office on Sunday.

Locksley broke down the numbers the coaching staff tracked from each quarterback’s performance throughout fall camp and awarded Jackson the nod to be Maryland’s starter this season.

“We basically evaluated them based on how they could operate in our system,” Locksley said. “Now, the benefit Josh had was game experience from his time at Virginia Tech, which I think he was able to lean on in the competition. What we look for is what we’ve talked about from day one: The quarterback’s job is to move the offense and score points. So we had all the different matrices and evaluation information we needed based on the competition, and at the end of the day, Josh did the best job of putting points or giving us the opportunity to put points on the board when we were in live situations. We also charted all of our third-down situations because it’s really important for a quarterback to win on third down, and Josh played the best.”

Although Jackson just became the starter and is new to the Terps’ locker room, his teammates like redshirt sophomore running back Anthony McFarland have been noticing his ability to lead since he arrived from Blacksburg nearly four months ago.

“Josh has been working hard,” McFarland said. “He’s making everybody around him better just like the other guys in [the quarterback] room, but Josh is a good leader, he’s a smart quarterback, and I know he’s going to win a lot of big games for us.”

In 16 career games with the Hokies, Jackson went 11-5 as a starter and threw for 3,566 yards and 25 touchdowns. He also compiled 385 yards and seven scores on the ground during that time.

It didn’t take him long to earn the trust of his teammates in Blacksburg through his play on the field and leadership in the locker room, but having to do so for the second time in his college career presents a new challenge for the Ann Arbor, Mich., native.

“It’s definitely new being a leader and going to a new team; it’s difficult,” Jackson said. “You have to earn the trust of your teammates and from there you can lead them. But it’s different. At [Virginia] Tech, I was voted captain as a sophomore and those guys knew me and I knew them and how to lead them. This is a little bit different. It’s a whole new group of guys, but I’d say I’ve done a decent job of being a leader and I’ll continue to get better at that.”

Acclimating to his new surroundings and new team has taken some effort on Jackson’s part, but comparatively, picking up Locksley’s offense has come relatively easy to him because of its similarities to what he ran at Virginia Tech.

“Overall it’s pretty similar and it’s a lot easier to pick up than I thought it’d be,” Jackson said.

He added that the biggest difference between Locksley’s offense and the one he operated in at Virginia Tech is that he will likely be running less for the Terps, which could be viewed as a blessing in disguise in College Park because of Maryland’s injury woes at the quarterback position in recent years.

The Terps have had at least one starting quarterback miss time due to injury in each of the last five seasons. If you go back to 2012, Maryland had four signal callers go down with season-ending injuries in one season, forcing middle linebacker Shawn Petty to take over under center.

Jackson joked with the media on Tuesday, saying that Locksley failed to mention Maryland’s quarterback misfortune during his official visit to College Park, adding that he had to find out about the injury history from one of the Terps’ trainers. And while Jackson simply brushed it off as to say ‘the past is in the past,’ Terps fans can’t help but be interested in the state of the quarterback room as a whole because of how much backups have been utilized recently.

Luckily for Maryland, Jackson’s presence and an increased level of competition in the quarterback room overall has helped build depth across the board at the position. After an up-and-down spring camp — not to mention his career at Maryland so far — Pigrome made vast improvements to his mechanics over the summer and entered fall camp ready to compete.

In what many thought was Jackson’s competition to lose from the get-go because of his proven track record at the college level proved to be a battle for the starting spot that lasted up until the week of the season opener.

Pigrome upping the ante was a bit surprising to Locksley, but not unwelcome.

“It was a little closer than even I expected going into it, and I was glad to see that,” Locksley said. “Piggy is a competitive guy who didn’t just give the job up and he really fought hard and it was a close battle. So I feel really comfortable with where the quarterback situation is as a whole. Probably better than any other time I’ve been here at Maryland with the depth we’ve created. And we feel like we can win with both Josh and Piggy...So that’s why I’m even more excited that the quarterback room has created the depth that if we were to have injuries I feel really comfortable that we have some answers in that room.”

Locksley added that his mentality as an offensive coach has always been to utilize his best playmakers and he believes Pigrome is one of those guys for the Terps.

“Piggy’s a guy that we feel can be a playmaker for us in our system and we’ll find a role,” Locksley said.

What that role will be remains to be seen, but Maryland’s lead man was also quick to explain that this isn’t a quarterback platoon situation in College Park.

“Josh is our starter and it’s not a deal where he has to feel like he’s looking over his shoulder,” Locksley said.

Rather, Jackson will spend most of his time looking at his playbook and game film of Maryland’s opponent each week, starting with Howard on Saturday.

He’s only had a few weeks to build chemistry with the rest of Maryland’s offense, but Jackson says he is “on the same page” as Terps offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery and is excited to get the ball in the hands of the playmakers he has on his side.

“This offense has a lot of weapons,” Jackson said. “I think we have a chance to surprise a lot of people because we’re going to have a great offense.”