Oregon Daily Emerald: So, what do you do?
Juwan Jackson: I help coach (James) Radcliffe (strength and conditioning coach) with the warm-ups at the beginning of practice and help with the special teams and with the returners. Because of NCAA rules we’re not actually able to coach anything. I’m only there just to help if he needs something. Really it’s just a way to get some extra help around the offense.
ODE: As a former all-league center you helped Marist run for more than 2,500 yards during one season. Do you ever tell Max (Unger) any tips?
JJ: I don’t work anything with the positions. It’s just working with every group individually in terms of warming up. I don’t give Max any pointers whatsoever, but I wish I could; trust me, I’d love to be a coach. I was a coach back at Marist (and later at Wagner College). Right now I’m just trying to get into I-A and get into a bigger level of football.
ODE: How did you get this job coming from the East Coast?
JJ: I met Chip Kelly one year. I was playing arena football in Manchester, N.H., and one spring ball I asked if I could watch a practice and I got to see one, (and) started talking with him about offense. I just kept in touch and asked him if there was any way I could help out and he said yeah, there was an intern position if I wanted.
ODE: How long is an intern position?
JJ: Usually just a one-year contract, so hopefully coach Bellotti will bring me back (laughs). We’ll see what happens.
ODE: I saw you got your major in film, television, radio and public relations management. Do you want to do anything with that?
JJ: I got my master’s at Wagner in business administration but I really just want to coach football. All that education stuff is just a fall-back because maybe if I want to be an athletic director. I do want to stay in sports, no matter what happens. I’m not crazy, I know coaching’s hard; you see guys getting hired and fired all the time. But I really enjoy coaching.
ODE: So I read that you were involved as a fact-checker for Keith Olbermann? (Olbermann criticized Bill O’Reilly’s
resume for saying he was a national punting champion at Marist in the early 1970s, when the sport didn’t become varsity until 1978. O’Reilly played for the club team, but Olbermann called the football office and Jackson read him the history from the media guide, and later sent him one.)
JJ: You saw that (laughs). You’re good. Oh my gosh.
ODE: How did that come up?
JJ: Basically what happened was I got a phone call from Keith Olbermann and he asked me about some stats about Marist College. I was like, ‘Yeah I got some stuff right here,’ and I just told him what was in our media guide. All of a sudden that article came out and people were pretty upset with me inside of the athletics department but luckily it all blew over because just because they understood that I didn’t say anything malicious or anything. My name was in there. I was in some hot water for a while.
ODE: That’s still pretty cool you got to talk with him.
JJ: We talked a little about ESPN and stuff like that. He seemed like a good guy, until he leaked my name into the press (laughs).
ODE: You played arena league for a couple seasons (with the Laredo, Texas, Law and the Manchester, N.H., Wolves). Was that really weird going from conventional football?
JJ: It is weird just for the fact that there’s only 7-8 people on the field. I didn’t really like the game that much, it was just a way to keep playing. I was hoping to get back into an NFL camp. I tried out with the Jets before I got there. It just didn’t happen for me.
ODE: East Coast/West Coast differences?
JJ: Coming from New Jersey, I come here and all the sudden I have guys here from the Boston area and they talk about the Red Sox and the Celtics. (He’s a Nets and Devils fan.) Outside of that, I really like the West Coast. The people are much nicer. Out there it’s a lot of fend for yourself but here everybody is looking to try to help me. It’s pretty cool to engage in that.
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