Lakewood Ranch football hopes rest on big shoulders of Sam Jackson

At 6-foot-6 and 340-pounds, Sam Jackson is an imposing figure in many ways.

The Lakewood Ranch offensive tackle is usually the biggest player on the field, but he is more than just looks, according to Mustangs head coach Mic Koczersut.

“He is a great kid. You remove the football from the whole equation, and he is still a great kid, leader, academics, personality,” said Koczersut known as Coach K. “Not a lot of kids his age can have conversations without a cell phone. He can look you in the eye and talk to you like a person, it’s a pretty neat thing from a kid.”

The Mustangs offense will be counting heavily on Jackson, who is going into his fourth year as a starter. Last year, Ranch was a disappointing 3-7 with a sophomore at quarterback and an offensive line that struggled.

Jackson was credited with 30 pancake blocks last season. Coach K counts a block as a pancake when his lineman knocks the opposing defensive lineman off his feet and onto his back.

“Run blocking is fun because I get to kill people,” Jackson said. “But my main job at left tackle is to protect the quarterback’s blind side, and I take it personally when our quarterback gets sacked. It happened quite a few times last season. Our offensive line wasn’t much in synch last year, but we are now.”

Jackson is the only returning starter on the offensive line, and with leading rusher Justin Fischer gone and quarterback Justin Curtis coming off a rough sophomore year, a lot will be expected from Jackson to keep things in order.

Jackson, who has offers from USF and UCF, likes the change he has seen in the attitude of the players and hopes to build on that.

“We have talent, but we are working hard, and that’s what it’s all about. I want to help with that as much possible,” Jackson said.

Coach K is big on attitude and is hoping his team can maintain it throughout the summer and into the fall. The Mustangs play at Sarasota Booker on Friday night.

“From an attitude standpoint this has been a good spring. We started out with 86, and I am dressing 60 for the Booker game because that’s all I can bring,” Coach K said. “The kids really like each other, but it’s not just that. You’ve got to like playing the game of football. A lot of times people play football just to be noticed. When you are with each other as much as these kids are, they better like coach other because it can cause you some big problems if they don’t.”

Thomas Scott and Jay Turner, two smallish-type backs, are battling it to replace Fisher, and Coach K is looking for improvement from Curtis.

The defense is led by Chris Hadley, a hard-hitting safety and cornerback Blauvelt Georges, two experienced players who should make the secondary strong.

“Chris is very physical and understands the game of football. We are looking for him to evolve into being a leader. Blauvelt is incredibly athletic; last year was his first time playing football and we are looking for big things from him,” Coach K said.

Hadley was disappointed in how the defense performed last year, especially because there were a lot of seniors. But he is hoping to help instill a new attitude.

“I want to motivate my teammates during the game and get their energy up. I want to get our emotion up and improve on my tackling and coverage,” Hadley said.

The Mustangs lost every starter on the defensive line except Chris Cahueque, who will start at defensive end.

“We kind of changed our defensive scheme and tried to simplify things to put guys in better position to be successful,” Coach K said. “Our entire group of linebackers are new this year;

But we are excited about kids we have here now.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch football hopes rest on big shoulders of Sam Jackson."