Jackson Kirkland’s inspirational approach to the coming season: “I want to be great”

Jaxson Kirkland finds himself in Los Angeles on Monday and is named one of the conference’s elite football players for Pac-12 Media Day. He was chosen to sit in front of most of California’s media representatives to explain himself and his team to them.

The major offensive tackle from the University of Washington and Vancouver, Washington was also recognized as an All-America preseason and a potential NFL first-round draft pick.

Now, some gamers like that late summer getaway to SoCal, which involves getting on a plane and spending a few hours in a crowded hotel meeting room while answering questions nonstop, feels like a real chore.

Kirkland considers it an honor.

It wants to be played in front of everyone with a camera, iPhone and notebook. He has an interesting story to tell as a Husky Legacy player, as the son of 1990 All-Pac-10 offensive guard Dean Kirkland, and as a true team leader in Seattle.

“They usually get the quarterback to these things,” Kirkland said before heading south, accompanied by highly regarded sophomore cornerback Trent McDuffie and UW coach Jimmy Lake.

Ah, but there’s a bit more to it than that for the 6-foot-7,317-pound Husky headliner. This is further confirmation that people know who he is. That was not always so.

By the end of the 2019 season – one where he started for 11 games at Husky Right Guard in his sophomore year, before missing the Apple Cup against Washington State and the Las Vegas Bowl against Boise State with an injury – he felt ignored, insulted and angry to the point that he would do something about it.

“I’ve been snubbed at all the postseason awards this year,” said Kirkland. “I thought I played the best of all real guards in the Pac-12. I was more than upset when my name wasn’t mentioned. It was disrespectful how hard I worked that year.”

Instead of smoldering during the offseason, the already hard-working offensive lineman has improved his preparation again. He switched positions and made the NFL cash role after graduating from Husky teammate and All-Pac-12 link tackle Trey Adams. He went about his new job like a workout maniac.

If what he’s done before wasn’t good enough, Kirkland would make it downright impossible for all of these people who determine who’s in the pecking order of rewards to overtake him.

“The move to the left tackle really gave me a boost,” he said. “The postseason awards and the conversations I didn’t have about being a good football player upset me. I said I will never go back and make this team the best and myself the best. Me hopped into the weight room and did it almost every day – because I wanted to be great. ”

The hard work paid off when Kirkland was named first-team All-Pac-12 for its performance in the shortened pandemic season after last fall. This has brought him all kinds of high-level attention.

He’s entering the upcoming season as a 29-game husky starter, just after senior center Luke Wattenberg, who has 36 starts, and just ahead of junior tight end Cade Otton, who has 27.

But that 2019 low-reward campaign wasn’t the first time Kirkland felt insulted as a footballer.

The UW initially passed him on during recruiting. The Huskies feverishly watched the attack on Foster Sarell of nearby Graham-Kapowsin High School at Kirkland’s expense. Sarell was considered the number 1 tackle recruit in the nation. He was a priority pick for coach Chris Peterson and his then offensive line coach Chris Strausser.

In fact, Kirkland, who played for Jesuit High School across the Columbia River in Portland, even accepted a UCLA scholarship offer for six months because nothing was sent to him by the huskies.

Everything changed when Sarell chose Stanford. Kirkland received an overdue UW offer as an alternative tackle recruit and he withdrew from his engagement with the Bruins. Strausser immediately went to the NFL and the Denver Broncos and is now the line coach for the Indianapolis Colt, being replaced by Scott Huff, who was always sold out by the Southwest Washington Offensive Tackle.

“Part of me was pissed off that the staff didn’t show me a lot of love at the time,” Kirkland said of the huskies. “I think I was just a late bloomer growing into my body. It’s not easy to be 6-7 years old and know how I move now. I was a baby in high school. It is so hard to say in the recruiting process. but this whole process gave me a huge chip on my shoulder and i wanted to show what i can do. u-dub was the school i always wanted to go to – i bleed purple. “

Sarell started 17 games with the right tackle for Stanford in an injured career, received All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention last season, was recently undrafted and signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Ravens.

“We’ve never met,” Kirkland said of the other tackle. “We may have been in a camp or two together. Yes, [Sarell not getting drafted] surprised me a little. “

This would not have been Kirkland’s problem if he had entered the NFL draft last April, which he was considering for two weeks leading up to winter. He filled out the necessary paperwork and gathered information on the UW’s liaison with the NFL. The reviewers watched and rated all of his films.

Kirkland was informed that 2020 was a deep draft for offensive tackles and that it was either a second or third round pick. Feeling he could do better, he announced that he would remain a college student for another season.

Plus, his husky career didn’t end the way he wanted it to. The UW only played four games in 2020 and then canceled everything, including a trip to the Pac-12 championship game against USC and a possible bowl game when a COVID-19 virus outbreak spread across the team, particularly across the offensive line .

It was Oregon Week and the UW was undergoing typical training to prepare for the intense rivalry game in Eugene. Thereafter, without warning, husky players received a warning from the sports department of a potential pandemic problem, the football facilities were immediately closed and everyone was put on standby. The players expected a return soon, but they didn’t. They were ready for the season.

“When it happened it was a ripple effect,” said Kirkland. “It was so crazy, it went from person to person. Every day someone new understood it. We were in a group chat as linemen, going back and forth, and it was a wild experience. Everyone was fine. The guys just did Lost the taste and smell, that was the weird part. “

The abrupt end of last year was a big reason seasoned players like edge rusher Ryan Bowman, running backs Sean McGrew and Kamari Pleasant, and Wattenberg, Otton and Kirkland all returned for another UW season than they could easily have continued.

The husky team’s motivation wasn’t in the charts. Spring training ended on May 1, and for the following two months, Kirkland and his teammates lived in the weight room. The players have also made it their business to regularly hold hours of real-life workouts – without a coach – in order to be as ready as possible when the fall training starts on Friday 6th August.

Kirkland was so busy turning himself into a finished product for his further college go-around that he ignored all naming, image, and likeness possibilities. He doesn’t have time for it. He also envisions one day benefiting from a lot of personal recommendations as an NFL player.

“It was my goal from day one to be a first-round draft pick,” he said. “I’ll do whatever I can to be a No. 1 draft pick. I think another U-Dub season will cement that.”

While meeting with reporters in Los Angeles, he will give them confident, upbeat answers about himself and his huskies. You will be impressed by him. With its streamlined physique, it is almost like a gigantic tight end. A recent NFL rating described him as superior agility for an offensive lineman. He’s also very well spoken as a UW headliner.

The Huskies have been ranked in the top 25 in almost every preseason poll published in the past few months and ranks sixth nationwide. Longtime analyst Phil Steele views the UW as the surprise team in the entire Power Five landscape. The offensive tackle likes respect.

“I don’t think the preseason things mean a lot, but it’s great to be part of the conversation,” said Kirkland. “It’s like the hungriest team I’ve ever been on. The guys work their butts off every day. We couldn’t have more people working harder.

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