Northwestern senior running back Justin Jackson passed up Michigan State’s Tico Duckett today to become the B1G’s 15th all time leading rusher. With 109 yards on 30 carries in NU’s 31-20 win over Nevada, Jackson is now 54 yards behind Michigan’s Jamie Morris for 14th place. He has two nicknames, “bread and butter” and “the ball carrier,” and he should achieve two more milestones in the next few upcoming weeks.
The first is the aforementioned surpassing of Morris, with Michigan State’s Javon Ringer 13th and Damien Anderson in 12th.
Yes, that’s Anderson, the all time leading rusher in Northwestern history. Given the current pace of “the ball carrier” he should hit that mark by the end of non-conference play or early into the conference season.
Jackson became the first player in program history to rush for 1,000-plus yards in three-straight seasons with his career-high 1,524 yards last season, capping his junior year with a career-high 224 yards and three touchdowns to earn Most Valuable Player honors in the Wildcats’ 31-24 win over No. 23 Pittsburgh in the 2016 New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
Bread and Butter entered the season ranking second in program history with 4,129 career rushing yards, and if he has a 2017 season on par with the average that he’s produced in his first three, he’ll end up third all time in B1G history. However, if he replicates his production from 2016 in 2017, then he’ll be in extremely rarified air. Justin Jackson would then finish ahead of two time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin for second place all time.
The only guy ahead of him, in this scenario, would be Ron Dayne, another Heisman winner who holds NCAA All-time leading rusher status. So with numbers like these, why isn’t the man who’s Twitter handle is J_ManPrime21 (he’s a big Deion Sanders fan), getting more publicity? Why isn’t he talked about as being in the same pantheon as the legends we listed above?
That’s a very good question, and we really don’t have an answer for you right now. What we do have though is this semi-exclusive interview of Justin Jackson for you to listen to and enjoy below-
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/justin-jackson
“Being able to keep passing up guys is honestly incredible, I’m very honored,” Jackson said after the game. “These were guys that were all able to be very productive for three or four years.”
“It was a great team win today.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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