Inside The Huskies

Elijah jackson Is No Quitter as Northwestern Found Out

Elijah jackson Is No Quitter as Northwestern Found Out

Dan Raley

Cornerbacks Elijah Jackson (25) and cornerback Thaddeus Dixon (9) share their disappointment after losing the CFP national championship game.
Cornerbacks Elijah Jackson (25) and cornerback Thaddeus Dixon (9) share their disappointment after losing the CFP national championship game. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

Elijah Jackson had every reason to be a step slow, to be distracted, to be disappointed during Saturday's Washington-Northwestern football game.

Yet with the Huskies suffering a major lapse on a fourth-quarter kickoff return, the junior cornerback and special-teamer never gave in, never let up and never stopped running until he tripped up the Wildcats' Joseph Himon II on a 96-yard runback that needed to go two more yards for him to reach the end zone.

Jackson has a history of making game-saving plays, swatting away an end-zone pass on the final play of the Sugar Bowl and CFP semifinals to preserve a 37-31 victory over Texas.

What he doesn't have is his starting job, going from a 15-game headliner in 2023 to coming off the bench after senior Thaddeus Dixon beat him out in fall camp and has started each of this season's four games.

No, Jackson watched as Himon caught the ball on the Wildcats 2, came up the right hashmark, stepped out of a tackle attempt by Peyton Waters and distanced himself from everyone except Jackson -- who with arms pumping chased him from behind, dove once reaching the 10 and just got a hand in there to the clip the Northwestern speedster by the ankles and bring him down.

"That was a phenomenal play and he's going to be rewarded for that," UW coach Jedd Fisch said.

Jackson didn't save Saturday's game, he just prevented it from getting interesting with 13:49 left to play, from it momentarily being embarrassing for the Huskies.

Himon, a 5-foot-9, 186-pound sophomore from Little Rock, Arkansas, has a history of long-distance touchdowns. He caught an 85-yard scoring pass against UTEP in 2023. Last week, he ran 32 yards to score against Eastern Illinois.

But Jackson gladly will give him his 96-yarder, just not any points. It was like turkey yet without the mashed potatoes. And it stayed that way as the Huskies held on four plays from the 2, giving up a yard and nothing more.

Jackson, who rotated in at corner and was credited with a pair of tackles, is a guy making the best of a tough situation. He's a reserve rather than a starter, which required an adjustment. But he's no quitter, which is what he showed against Northwestern early in the final quarter.

It just might get him more playing time, maybe even his starting job back, for sure added respect to who he is.

"If you're doing anything other than competing, you're not going to make that play," Fisch said.

Mark it down that Jackson was competing as well as anyone, if not more so.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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