Tracking this weekend's NFL Draft and becoming a professional football player are just the latest steps in the steady climb for App State linebacker D’Marco Jackson.
After spending part of his childhood growing up on a farm in South Carolina, Jackson already has become a first-generation college graduate. He earned a management degree and was pursuing a master’s degree in business administration while enrolled in App State’s Walker College of Business during a 2021 season in which he was named the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year and received All-America recognition.
The impressively built, 235-pound Jackson finished his collegiate career as the only FBS player in the 2000s with a season that included at least 120 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, six sacks and six passes defended, and he was the only FBS player in the last two seasons to total more than 200 tackles and 25 tackles for loss.
From learning about his Senior Bowl invitation in memorable fashion to also being selected to participate in the NFL Scouting Combine in March and performing in front of 26 NFL teams during App State's Pro Day in Boone, Jackson shares the story of how he’s overcome early injuries and questions about his ability to emerge as an NFL prospect.
BY D'MARCO JACKSON
I look up at the board, and in that moment, nobody ever sees what really goes into the grind.
You’ll never see the countless hours of work. It’s like the song says — you ever seen a rose grow in the dark?
That’s how I was feeling, man, looking up at the scoreboard at The Rock and seeing “Reese’s Senior Bowl.”
The end of that practice, it was just a normal thing where Coach Clark said, “Hey, D’Marco, break it down.” I wasn’t paying attention to other things.
“Family on two! One, two, family!”
I started walking off, and that’s when Coach Clark was like, “D’Marco!” Seeing the Senior Bowl graphic on the board, that was just a teary moment for me, after putting in all those hours of work and just realizing, man, you’re really doing it now.
Looking back, my whole motto, I always felt like I had to play with a chip on my shoulder.
It’s a deep story from back in the day and just how my parents raised me. My mom worked a job, my dad worked a job, and we lived on a farm for a little minute in South Carolina.
When I earned my degree last May and started pursuing a master’s at the business school, I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college. My parents have done a great job in raising me and teaching me about hard work.
On the farm, I’d be putting up barbed wire, getting out sweet feed for the animals, stacking hay up to the ceiling of the barn, where straw is flying round and it’s hard to breathe with it being like 100 degrees in there.
It was tough work to do in the summer, or waking up Saturday mornings after I had just played a high school game on a Friday night, but that’s the type of work I like to do, where it feels like you’ve done something at the end of the day.
That’s just how I was raised. You don’t worry about it, you just do it, because somebody’s got to get it taken care of.
I’ve taken that to heart for how I prep for games and the work ethic I have. I promise you, I feel like nobody outworks me and feel like nobody will outstudy me on film.
People have always doubted me, like the whole story with South Carolina when they pulled my offer, or always being told that you’re too small, or that you can’t fit at this level. My main thing has always been proving myself. You can do whatever you want.
Starting out, being a senior at Broome High School, you come around to about the fifth game, I was already committed to App State, then South Carolina came in the middle of that week with an offer. I had always been a running back, and that’s where South Carolina wanted me to play — App State wanted me for linebacker.
Being from just down the road in Spartanburg, I decommitted from App State because I wanted to stay close to home. It’s Friday, and the next day I’m going to go to South Carolina and commit at their homecoming, but then I tear my ACL in the game that night, and I don’t hear anything back on Saturday once the news came out.
At that point, you’re hurt being an 18-year-old boy, not having anywhere to go, and I called App State. You’re not sure if they’d still have a spot for you, but Coach Satt called that Sunday and said they did.
I knew they were bought in on me — I ended up having surgery up there — and I thank them every day for believing in me.
Coming from a small town, from a small high school, I had a lot of maturing to do.
All the stuff I was going through my freshman year with the injury, sophomore year you’re learning so much about time management with football being a bigger part, but on the field you’re not seeing anything come from it yet. Early on, I wasn’t getting the playing time I was hoping for, and I remember talking to my parents every single day and telling them I didn’t feel like myself.
Being a young, undersized guy coming in off an ACL injury, with a lot of things built up in your head, I talked to Christ and found my purpose, found my meaning. The payoff started coming when I started making some plays and learned from older guys on the team like Akeem Davis-Gaither, Devan Stringer, Eric Boggs, Jordan Fehr, Noel Cook. I took it upon myself to know every person’s position on the field, so if you make a call, I can tell you where that person is supposed to be.
I take pride in knowing the whole defense. When you know what the guy beside you is supposed to be doing, it makes me play a lot faster because I can take my shot knowing I can cut off a gap and somebody else might make the play.
In my college career, everything came in bits and pieces. It just kept climbing, and God had to humble me to understand what was coming in the future.
Beating South Carolina in 2019, I was just speechless. I just remember playing that last snap, seeing the clock go down and seeing App Nation cheering on the side, which was straight filled up with our fans. Looking up, knowing you just beat South Carolina, and thinking about also beating North Carolina, it was just an awesome feeling.
The last two years, my main thing has been to just lead the defense and be one of the best in everything we do, to make sure everybody’s making plays, everybody’s getting to the ball. Now, it’s going into a whole other mode with the NFL and the draft process.
I know the grind, and the grind don’t stop.
As we move on in life, just because I’m leaving this App State team and pursuing something else, don’t ever think you can’t call me or hit me up. I’m the same guy, so just call me, because I know I’m gonna call them, and hopefully you guys will pick up my calls!
Looking back, I had to look in the mirror and ask myself, “What do you want to be? If you want to be the star everybody says you can be, just go get it.” If you put something in front of me, I promise you, I’m gonna find a way to get there.
I had to look at myself and realize what I want for my life, what I want for my family now, what I want for my future family.
I knew I had to change my destiny, but I control my destiny.
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Photos courtesy of App State Athletics, Max Renfro, D'Marco Jackson