Back to basics

A few miles north. A few miles south. Either way and this story completely changes for Missouri sophomore running back Jimmy Jackson.

When waves of tornadoes pounded the state earlier this month, southeast Missouri was one of the hardest-hit areas. Nearly half of the small town of Caruthersville, Jackson’s hometown with a population of about 6,500 and located near the Tennessee border, was devastated.

Local elections had to be postponed, hundreds of homes were destroyed and President Bush declared the town a federal disaster area.

Thankfully no one in the town was killed. What might have been even more surprising was the home of Jackson’s family remained completely intact.

A few miles north, homes were reduced to rubble. A few miles south, people had to rummage through the remains of buildings that had stood for decades to find anything that was still usable. The Jackson’s home was untouched.

When Jackson says he and his family are blessed, he knows what he’s talking about.

Football could have been the last thing on Jackson’s mind on Saturday at Faurot Field in the annual Black and Gold spring football game. The 60-43 victory by the Gold team, the offense, doesn’t mean much anyway. It could have meant much less for Jackson.

“My family wanted me to focus on football after that,” Jackson said. “You can’t do anything about Mother Nature. We were truly blessed not to be touched. It could have hit anywhere.”

With his attention squarely focused on his duties as a running back, Jackson has shown the coaching staff that his ability to burst north and south for big gains warrants increased playing time in the fall. He credited improving his focus from each play to the next and not letting a bad play carry over.

Jackson, along with redshirt freshman Connell Davis and sophomore Earl Goldsmith, have done their best to force coach Gary Pinkel into some tough decisions on what could potentially be a backfield that goes five players deep. They’ve done so thanks to last season’s top two returning rushers, Marcus Woods and Tony Temple, out for at least part of the spring because of injuries.

“There’s some competition there and we want to let it continue into August and that’s good,” Pinkel said.

Pinkel singled out Jackson and Goldsmith as players who showed him