Fred Jackson grateful for chance to return to Michigan football coaching staff
Longtime Michigan assistant football coach Fred Jackson is part of Brady Hoke's staff and already is out recruiting.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Once, Fred Jackson and Brady Hoke were good-natured opponents.
Hoke coached the Michigan football team’s defensive linemen and Jackson coached the running backs. Every day, the two units went head to head in practice.
“He used to tell his guys that if they couldn’t beat blocks from the running backs that they couldn’t play for him,” Jackson remembered Friday.
The two coaches will be reunited on the Michigan staff again.
Hoke, now Michigan’s new football coach, met with Jackson for approximately 15 minutes Wednesday night and offered him a job as running backs coach.
By Thursday morning, he was already on the road recruiting.
It’s the same position Gary Moeller hired him for in 1992 and the same one he coached for Rich Rodriguez the past three years. Jackson has been at Michigan the past 19 seasons.
When the entire coaching staff was fired last week, he wasn’t sure of his future.
Other schools approached him about job opportunities, but he took a wait-and-see stance. Other schools may have offered employment, but they didn’t have the one thing that mattered most.
“I didn’t care about the money,” Jackson said. “The opportunity to coach my son has been so special to me, and I wanted to see what would happen at Michigan.”
Jeremy Jackson is a 6-foot-3 wide receiver on the Wolverines who just completed his freshman season.
Fred Jackson’s hiring is the second on Hoke’s staff since he assumed control Wednesday. Al Borges, Hoke’s offensive coordinator at San Diego State, will hold the same job in Ann Arbor.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that recruiting coordinator Jeff Hecklinski, offensive line coach Darrell Funk and linebackers coach Mark Smith will also follow Hoke from the Aztecs to the Wolverines.
Pete Bigelow covers the Michigan football team for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2551, via e-mail at petebigelow@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @PeterCBigelow.
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