Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Jim Jackson joins Football coaching staff
03/30/2010 | 12:00:00 | Football
March 30, 2010
By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University head football coach Dale Lennon announced Tuesday the hiring of Jim Jackson as the new tight ends coach for the Salukis.
Jackson brings seven years of coach experience with him to Carbondale and he spent the past three seasons as the assistant offensive line coach at the University of Minnesota.
"I'm pleased to announce that Jim Jackson has agreed to accept our offensive assistant coaching position responsible for the tight end position," Lennon said. "Jim's previous experiences have prepared him well for this coaching opportunity. At Minnesota, Jim worked with current SIU offensive line coach Phil Meyer as an offensive assistant, which has allowed him to immediately take over the tight end position despite being in the early phases of spring ball practices."
In 2007, Jackson helped coach the Gopher offensive line that ranked 10th in the nation in sacks allowed (13 total). He worked directly with the Gopher centers along with his various other coaching duties.
Prior to joining the Minnesota staff, Jackson spent one season as a defensive graduate assistant working with the defensive line at Louisiana-Lafayette. Before that, Jackson spent the 2005 season as a graduate assistant working as video coordinator and with the offensive line at Toledo and in 2004 he served as assistant defensive backs coach and assistant video coordinator at Lehigh. He started his coaching career in 2003 as the outside linebackers coach at Methodist (N.C.) College.
Jackson played both football and baseball at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He was a three-year starter and team captain on the baseball team and played two seasons on the football team.
A Mesquite, Texas native, Jackson received his bachelor's degree in communications from Cornell in 2003. He earned his master's degree from Minnesota in sports management in 2009.
