staying at his house on the weekends . I was coming to school with him . He had grown up in my neighborhood . He and his wife basically adopted me , and I wanted to do that for somebody . “
“ He was like , ‘ Listen , if you think what I ’ m doing for you is something , then when you make it – when you go to college and get your degree – you just turn around and do it for somebody else .’ At that moment , I went , ‘ Man , I ’ m gonna be a coach .’ That ’ s why we do it . That ’ s why I wanted to be a head coach to do it for a whole program and not just a position group and a side of the ball .”
Having narrowed his focus on pursuing coaching , Jackson enrolled at the University of Lousiana-Monroe . He spent his first two years before transferring to Texas Southernto finish his academic and athletic career . In 2006 , Jackson graduated with a bachelor ’ s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Houston .
In his time at Louisiana-Monroe , Jackson began cultivating his game plan for the day he ’ d one day roam the sidelines .
“ I watched my coaches in college and started taking things from them that I liked or didn ’ t like ,” Jackson said .
“ I was at Louisiana-Monroe playing in the first ever Sunbelt Conference game . The Sunbelt Conference as we know it was not what it was in 2001 . I watched the way we handled that . Louisiana-Monroe wasn ’ t a very good football team .”
“ Sam Houston came to Monroe and whooped us , and they were 1-AA , and we were 1-A . I watched how we handled that situation . I had a coach quit at halftime of the New Mexico State game , ‘ I ’ m tired of it . I ain ’ t doing this no more .’ I watched that , and I thought , ‘ Man , I ’ m being coached by some quitters .’ It was no disrespect to him , but when a joker comes in and quits at halftime just because we ’ re getting beat , you ’ re a quitter . You ’ ve got no grit . I always said I would never do that . When I ’ m a coach , if it ain ’ t going good , we ’ re going to find a way to turn it around ; even if we lose , we ’ re going to find a way to turn it around .”
Valdosta State head football coach Tremaine Jackson speaks to his team on the first day of spring practice Tuesday , March 1 at the VSU Athletic Fieldhouse . Photo by Mary Ann Miller
July 2022 | Valdosta Scene 27