KEARIS JACKSON: "I'm Here To Win Games. I'm Not Here To Have 1,000 Yards"
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ATHENS - If you want to be successful playing for Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs, you may have to be patient.
On a team loaded with talent, especially on offense, it’s not easy to rack up a ton of statistics. For a veteran like Kearis Jackson, lighting up the stat sheet is not the only thing that matters.
The former four-star prospect is one of Georgia’s key veterans on offense, and while he does get opportunities to make plays, it would be easy for him to transfer out to a place where he would get more targets in his final college football season.
That’s not Kearis Jackson, though. He’s a football player. A tough, physical kid out of Peach County. He knows nothing is handed to him. Whether he gets ten catches a game or one, all that matters is that he helps lead the Bulldogs to victory.
“I never was the one to ask for targets”, Jackson told reporters this week. “I play my role and just was happy with it. I know I've stayed patient, I'm a very unselfish guy, so I just knew whenever that opportunity would come, I was going to capitalize on it because I’ve played in big games before. I've been here long enough to know how things go here. I'm just excited that when I do get an opportunity to capitalize on that, not only am I doing this for myself, but also I'm doing it for my team as well. They [NFL teams] aren't only looking at what you could do with the ball in your hands, you're looking at what you do outside with the ball not in your hands. I know I'm a great blocker, I can help have guys in the right position, I'll just be a vocal leader, being a leader on the field, just trying to make sure I be the best version of myself that I could be because, at the same time, it's not about just getting the football every time. You can get the football 100 times in the game and still lose. So, what would that help you with? So, as long as we keep winning, I'm excited. I'm not tripping over targets being thrown my way, I'm just excited to be a part of something great.”
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Sunday, November 20, 2022 || @ Red Zone in Athens
On if having multiple tight ends on the field affects wide receiver playing time…
“If something is working, why stop it? That's my mindset, I'm here to win games. I'm not here to have 1,000 yards, 20 touchdowns. I know I wanted to come in for that, I would have went somewhere else, but I'm trying to put championship years on our walls and trying to be a national champion, an SEC champion, so whatever Coach Monken feels like is going to put us in the best position to win, I'm down for it. I'm a team player. When you have guys like that on your team, that's what makes you successful. You can't have selfish guys on your team because that just brings the negative energy around the offense. But we have guys like myself, who is unselfish, who is going to go in there when their number is called and make a big play, whether it's blocking or catching the ball. That's what makes you more efficient. When you could do that at a high level, it's kind of hard to stop. If I was a defensive coordinator, I know I'd be stressed out to having to figure out how can I stop almost six offensive linemen in like with Darnell [Washington], with his size and his capabilities of blocking and running routes, and you have Brock [Bowers] at the same time, who is able to block and run routes. I know they're much bigger than myself, but it's just a weapon that we can always use. It's hard to stop that.”