Inside The Huskies

Elijah Jackson, UW Sugar Bowl Hero, Reportedly Will Resurface with TCU

The cornerback went from 15-game starter in 2023 to eight-game reserve.

Dan Raley

Elijah Jackson times his leap perfectly to knock away a Texas end zone pass to close out the Sugar Bowl.
Elijah Jackson times his leap perfectly to knock away a Texas end zone pass to close out the Sugar Bowl. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Elijah Jackson isn't headed back to the scene of his college football heroics, but he apparently is moving in that general direction.

On Sunday, On3 reported that the former University of Washington cornerback -- who unceremoniously went from Sugar Bowl hero to demoted Husky reserve following last January's coaching change -- has signed with TCU, hoping to regain the playmaking stature he once held.

A year ago, the 6-foot-1, 193-pound junior from Carson, California, became a legendary Husky figure when he leaped high and swatted away an end-zone pass on the final play of the game to preserve the UW's 37-31 victory over the Texas Longhorns in New Orleans.

The reward for this magical moment lasted all of three months, with Jedd Fisch's new coaching staff almost immediately replacing Jackson with his back-up, senior Thaddeus Dixon, for no other reason than it was simply a matter of preference.

Both Jackson and Dixon were similarly athletic, with the former capable of a 40-inch vertical leap. Yet Fisch's coaches determined that Dixon, who opened just one game in 2023, was more consistent than Jackson, who was a 15-game starter for Kalen DeBoer's staff.

While Jackson could be an explosiver player in coverage, he still got beat too many times, hence the change was made.

Jackson, sidelined late in the season with an unspecified injury, sat out four of the final five Husky games of the regular season. He came up with 17 tackles and 2 pass break-ups.

He left the UW program even with Dixon supposedly all out of eligibility at the time, though the NCAA is now giving players such as Dixon, who played junior-college football, more eligibility to extend their careers.

.With Jackson reportedly headed for TCU, he just misses reuniting with edge rusher Cooper McDonald, who teamed with him in Montlake in 2020 and 2021. A native Texan, McDonald played his final season of eligibility for the Horned Frogs, who took a 34-3 victory over Louisiana on Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl.

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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