Kahleil Jackson reflects on ‘long journey’ from walk-on QB to starting WR
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Some things are meant to be. Kahleil Jackson catching passes in a No. 22 Florida Gators jersey is one of them.
When you see him make incredible receptions, like the one he had last week at South Carolina, Jackson looks like a natural.
“It was always in my blood,” Jackson tells Gators Online.
However, it was not always in his plans. This is only Jackson’s third year playing wide receiver.
“I played quarterback up until my second year in college,” Jackson said. “That’s all I ever played was quarterback — ever.”
Jackson is the son of former Florida and NFL receiver Willie Jackson Jr. He played under Steve Spurrier from 1990-93 and led the SEC in receptions (62) and receiving yards (772 yards) in 1992. Jackson spent nine years in the NFL before getting into coaching.
Despite that background, Jackson actually encouraged his son Kahleil to play a different position.
“It was his decision to push me towards quarterback. I think he wanted to coach a quarterback. He wanted to be a quarterback coach,” Jackson said with a laugh of his father, now the head coach at PK Yonge High School.
“Then as I started playing, I liked it and saw the future. So, I felt like I could have a future at quarterback and that’s when I actually started to take it serious.”
Jackson finished his high school career with 4,214 passing yards, 66 passing touchdowns and 11 rushing touchdowns. During his senior season at Hawthorne under former Florida tight end Cornelius Ingram, Jackson led the Hornets to a 12-0 record as they averaged over 51 points a game.
He suffered a high ankle sprain before the Class 1A state semifinals and “basically played on one leg” in their loss to Madison County, according to Ingram.
“My senior year, we went undefeated before I got hurt,” said Jackson, who had two 100-yard rushing performances that season. “The game was to go to state, and I played, but I couldn’t do anything.”
‘Stuck on quarterback’
Despite his success at Hawthorne, Jackson wasn’t heavily recruited by colleges as a quarterback. Nonetheless, those were the only offers he was entertaining.
He had some small schools that pursued him at the QB position.
“Nothing too major. I think I only had like one real offer and that was at Jackson State,” said Jackson, who added that it came from the coach before Deion Sanders.
“I had a couple of Power Five schools, but they wanted me as an athlete and at the time I was stuck on quarterback (laughs).”
Jackson found the opportunity he wanted — to play quarterback — at Florida. He joined the team in 2020 as a preferred walk-on under former coach Dan Mullen and rubbed elbows with some talent in the QB room.
His position coach was Brian Johnson, now the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. The starter was Kyle Trask, now with Tampa Bays Bucs, the backup was Emory Jones and Jackson was a fellow freshman with Anthony Richardson, now with the Indianapolis Colts.
“I actually did my whole first season at quarterback,” Jackson said. “Then I made that transition.”
It wasn’t an easy one.
The position change took some convincing from multiple UF coaches and his father. After Johnson left for the Eagles, Jackson was approached in the offseason by new quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee, wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales and Mullen about making the move.
“It was a collection of Mullen, McGee and Billy G. They all came together as a group and decided they wanted me to go out there to receiver,” Jackson recalled.
“I wasn’t really hesitant, but they definitely had to convince me — a lot.”
Jackson eventually came around, but with one stipulation: a jersey change. He had No. 17 during his freshman season and needed the number.
He wore it in high school and growing up. His father and uncle, Terry Jackson, both had the number at Florida because it belonged to their father, Willie Jackson Sr., one of the first African-American scholarship football players at UF.
“They wouldn’t give me 22 at quarterback,” Jackson said, “and I needed to switch to that number 22 if they were gonna move me out there. So, I got what I wanted, and they got what they wanted.”
‘Who’s that guy?’
Gonzales served as Jackson’s position coach during his first year at receiver in 2021 and the redshirt freshman made two game appearances. He also spent time learning from his father, who was the WR coach for the Orlando Apollos in 2019.
“As soon as I made the change, my dad started preparing me for receiver,” Jackson said. “Of course, he knows everything there is to know about receiver, so he knew that would be an easy transition for both of us.”
Sophomore Caleb Douglas is another Florida receiver who was a high school quarterback. Like many players who switch from QB to WR, such as Jacquez Green and Kadarius Toney, Jackson feels his background as a signal caller is an asset at his new position.
“Starting out at quarterback definitely helped me a lot,” he said. “It allowed me to see the field different. I knew what I wanted my receivers to do. So, once I made that transition, it was easy for me to do what I wanted from my receivers.”
Jackson also has speed to burn. Since his arrival at UF, multiple players have mentioned him as one of the fastest players on the team. Willie Jackson Jr. told Gators Online his son is faster than he was and runs a sub-4.4-second time in the 40-yard dash.
“He did 4.34 the first day after last season without even working,” Jackson said. “I always had the ability to catch the ball. That was never an issue to me. I had to grow into it. The athleticism was always there. But I had to get a little bigger, get a whole lot faster. Those are the things that make he and I different. He’s already fast. He’s super fast. I trained him to be fast.”
Jackson’s speed and talent stood out to Florida coach Billy Napier when he first laid eyes on the team he inherited. After his hiring, he watched the 2021 Gators go through bowl practices.
Napier jotted down Jackson’s No. 22 on day one.
“I tell you, look, I’ve always had conviction that he’s a good football player,” Napier said. “I can remember walking off the field after the first practice and being like, ‘Who’s that guy?’
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“He’s not on scholarship and he looked as good or better as some of our guys.”
Jackson saw his playing time increase under Napier in 2022. He appeared in six games and caught two passes for 43 yards, including a 23-yard reception against South Carolina.
Jackson earned more snaps as a rotational player but desired a bigger role. He had his sights set on a starting job and, ultimately, a full-time scholarship with the Gators.
“I think Kahleil’s role obviously wasn’t what he wanted to be last year,” Napier said. “But he took all the feedback relative to what he needed to do to get better, to be a better football player, a better teammate and really has grown as a human being.”
From walk-on QB to starting WR
As Florida went through the offseason and spring ball in 2023, Jackson was one of the players generating buzz from workouts and practices. Gators Online reported that he had emerged as one of UF’s best receivers.
Jackson played with the starting offense in the Orange & Blue Game and caught a touchdown pass from redshirt junior quarterback Graham Mertz. Then this video of Jackson’s practice clips hit social media on July 9.
The following week, Napier met with Jackson and awarded him a full-time scholarship from the University of Florida.
“Coach brought me in his office and he told me, and it was definitely great news for me and my family,” Jackson said. “Being able to take the load off of us and being able to just focus strictly on football was definitely a great thing.
“I just showed up every single day and I was consistent in my work. Every day I put my head down and worked and I didn’t change nothing. And that’s what earned my scholarship.”
Jackson earned more than that. After building on his offseason with a strong fall training camp, he was named a starting receiver for the season opener against Utah.
Jackson became Florida’s first walk-on player to start at WR since Gator Great Chris Doering, who was his father’s former high school, college and NFL teammate.
“It definitely meant a lot,” Jackson said of becoming a starter. “It’s the start of a long journey. It’s been a long time coming, but we still got a lot to go. So, I hope I can keep making plays and keep doing what I’m doing.”
For a guy who’s only played receiver for a few years, Jackson has some impressive hands. Last Saturday he laid out to make a diving 45-yard catch, his career long, in the win at South Carolina.
“I was pretty far down the field. It’s a long developing play and once I saw the ball in the air, it kind of disappeared in the wind and I was able to track it after a couple of steps and locate it,” he said.
Jackson’s reception set up his first career touchdown two plays later, a 7-yard grab over Gamecocks senior cornerback Marcellas Dial. He stared him down in the end zone after the play.
“The whole drive before that, we were just going back and forth,” Jackson said. “It wasn’t nothing too serious, but just competitive nature.”
For Jackson, his favorite play of the year so far was the toe-tapping catch he made along the sideline against Tennessee. It turned him into a meme.
“That was the best,” he said.
He’s up to 12 catches for 161 yards and a touchdown on the year, with the majority of that production coming in recent weeks. Since Douglas’ injury at the end of the first half at Kentucky, Jackson is now starting at the X position and has made a total of nine catches for 117 yards in the last two and a half games.
“He’s stepped up in a major way,” Napier said. “I mean think about, we got Caleb Douglas and Andy Jean, you know, both are banged up. And here, this guy was not only a starter in the slot early (in the season), then we moved him to X at the halfway point. And he’s a guy. He’s a durable, tough, consistent competitor. He’s got my respect and I think his teammates respect him too. …
“A good example of a guy who works extremely hard, is really opened up relative to communicating, being vocal, having good presence. Bottom line, the guy has been a very productive player. He’s got traits. This guy is big. He’s long, he’s very skilled, he can get open and makes plays on the ball.”
