Jackson is Confident Entering 2026
Jul 13, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
He's the seventh-fastest player in Kansas State history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards and his 5.37 yards per attempt ranks seventh as well. At a time when junior running back Joe Jackson is eager to flourish even more for the Wildcats, new head coach Collin Klein and his dangerous offensive attack that features a strong running game seems to have arrived just in time.
Jackson, a 6-foot, 212-pound native of Haines City, Florida, who was recruited by Klein to K-State in 2023 before Klein spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, grins at the possibilities that lie ahead for him — and K-State — in the fall.
"I'm the most confident I've ever been," Jackson says. "My confidence level comes from the years I've been here. It's been a long road. My confidence has increased every single year. Now, Coach Klein definitely plays a factor in that.
"Coach Klein came back, and I know his competitiveness and what we've been through as a team and where we want to go. We've come up short and we can't do that again this year. It's an itch I can't scratch. I can't wait to get out of there."
Standing on the field at the Ford Center in his suit and lavender tie, Jackson gains several compliments on his choice of wardrobe at Big 12 Football Media days in Frisco, Texas. For as dapper as Jackson might appear in suit and tie on a hot July afternoon, the young man in the No. 4 uniform only heats up on the football field and looks even better as fall turns toward winter during the college football season.
Case in point: Last November, Jackson rushed for a K-State single-game record 293 rushing yards at Utah, which topped Darren Sproles' previous mark of 292 yards set in 2004, and it marked the second-most rushing yards by a FBS player in 2025. Additionally, Jackson's 312 total scrimmage yards in that performance was the most by a player from a Power 4 conference as well.
No matter where Jackson saunters while speaking to reporters at Big 12 Football Media Day, that record-setting night at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah — a 24-carry, 293-yard, 3-touchdown effort that included an 80-yard score — is at the top of discussion. Just as Jackson takes the football and seems to never tire, he handles each inquiry over and over and over again with grace and reflects back on the Utah game while primarily focusing on the road ahead.
"I never get tired of the question," Jackson says. "I just look at it as a blessing no matter how many times I get asked about the Utah game. I just embrace every moment. But my mindset is not trying to do too much and not trying to have a chip on my shoulder that I have to prove something to somebody this year. I don't have to prove anything to anybody. I just have to be the best version of myself each and every week.
"If Joe Jackson can be the best Joe Jackson that he can be each and every week, everything else will go along with it."
Jackson dazzled early in the season by hauling in the game-winning touchdown reception with 42 seconds remaining against North Dakota, which was the Wildcats' first game-winning touchdown with under 1 minute remaining since Izaiah Zuber against Iowa State in 2017.
In the seventh week of season, Jackson recorded his first-career 100-yard rushing performance, and that 27-carry, 110-yard effort against TCU served as an appetizer for the remainder of the season. He had a career-high five catches for 41 yards at Baylor. Then he had three rushing touchdowns at Utah and against Colorado in the final game of the season, becoming the first K-State running back since Alex Barnes in 2018 with back-to-back three-touchdown efforts.
The Big 12 Conference coaches took notice and voted Jackson as an All-Big 12 Third Team selection.
Now Jackson is back for more.
And everybody will be watching.
"Being in the spotlight is something I've definitely had to grow into," the soft-spoken Jackson says. "At first, I hated the feeling of this, the spotlight, the feeling of being whatever. That's something I always hated. Being able to handle that, grow up and be mature about it, I don't look at it that way anymore. I just think it's a blessing and something I have to embrace."
He's grateful for the opportunity to do so as a Wildcat.
"I never had aspirations of leaving K-State," he says. "K-State was always where I wanted to be and where I was comfortable and could thrive. I always wanted to stay at K-State. When Coach Klein returned to K-State, it was a no-brainer."
Soon after Klein arrived and occupied the head coach office at the Vanier Family Football Complex, he assembled his staff of assistant coaches. That included new running backs coach Cory Patterson, the ever-energic, relationship-building 45-year-old who brought in two of the highest-rated signees in the modern era as an assistant coach at Illinois, and who helped 2022 Doak Walker Award finalist Chase Brown reach his dreams of playing in the NFL, and then he spent last season on the sidelines at Oklahoma State.
Almost immediately after Patterson arrived at K-State on January 7 following his four-hour drive from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Patterson was on a plane to Haines City, Florida, to meet one of the top running backs in the Big 12 for the first time.
"CP called me right after he got hired, and then the first time meeting him was when I was back home over winter break," Jackon says. "He flew down and I met him at the airport and talked to him for a long time. From the jump, I knew he was about business and wasn't playing around. He knew what he was talking about and he had goals that he wanted to achieve.
"We're going to achieve all those goals."
One of the most crucial first steps? Helping Jackson elevate his leadership capabilities.
"Of course, I envisioned myself being a leader, but it was something very hard to do because I'm an introvert and don't enjoy talking that much," Jackson says. "The human nature is to always worry about yourself first, and that's what I was doing — worrying about myself, saying, 'I'm doing good, I'm making the times, I'm thriving in the workouts.' But I wasn't taking care of my brother beside me who might be struggling.
"It's definitely been a long process for me to get to the point where I'm at today. It's definitely paid off. I'm at the point now where I never bite my tongue when it comes to using my voice to speak. I really love it. That's the hardest thing I've had to do since I came to college."
Jackson's quest toward enhancing his leadership capabilities has been a process.
"It came with confidence," Jackson says. "We had meetings and coaches pulled me to the side and wanted me to be a leader and needed me to be a leader. I just had to do it. My dad, sometimes he'll call with questions, and I wouldn't tell him the truth, knowing I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing. I got tired of that. I had to look at myself in the mirror and say, 'Man, come on, you've got to step out of this.' Once I started to do it, it built confidence slowly and slowly, then the team rallied behind me, which gave me even more confidence. Once that confidence level started to go up, I haven't looked back since."
All eyes are looking forward. While Patterson calls Jackson "the gap-scheme king," Jackson strives this offseason to improve his game in other areas.
"The gap-scheme king? CP says that a lot," Jackson says. "It's just understanding and knowing what's going on before the start of the play, and I've been able to do that very well, but we also have some things to work on, and I've embraced everything that he's had to say, and we're going to fix whatever we need to fix to make myself even better. Really, it's me attacking the second level, being able to look at the backside linebacker or the backside defensive end, and manipulating him, or knowing what he's going to do before the ball snaps. So once Avery hands off the ball, I know where I'm taking it and I know what's going to happen.
"Basically, it's improving in the second level, catching the ball and getting more out of the backfield, being more versatile and getting out in the slot, and catching more passes out of the backfield. Increasing those things will be a big success for me. In the running game, gap schemes, outside, whatever it is, it's just the little things and understanding defenses more with that confidence level and in knowing what's going happen before the ball snaps. That'll allow me to play fully free and comfortable, and I can sit down and trust my rules and principles and let that take over. That'd be a big success for me."
Sproles, the College Football Hall of Famer, is the all-time leading rusher in K-State history with 4,979 rushing yards, and Klein, the 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist, ranks ninth all-time with 2,485 rushing yards. Jackson currently has 1,139 career rushing yards and as a junior could become the 13th player in K-State history to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a career.
It's potential company that Jackson could never have envisioned years ago.
"I didn't know much about K-State at all until I started getting recruited by Coach Klein," Jackson says. "I'd seen clips of Darren Sproles and then clips of Collin Klein during his senior year when he was up for the Heisman Trophy, but for some reason when K-State started recruiting me, everything on my phone was flooded with K-State this and that and this and that. I said, 'Oh, I remember watching this team a long time ago.' That's when things started to click."
Sproles and Klein always seemed to have the ball in their hands. Jackson grins at the potential of carrying the ball 25 times in a game on an almost regular basis — something that Patterson says isn't out of the realm of possibility in the fall.
"It's just whatever it takes for us to win," Jackson says, "whether that's 20 times, 10 times or 30 times, whatever it is, whatever it takes for us to win as a team and get to where we want to go in January, I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm a guy who's going to show up each and every single play, do what I'm supposed to do, put a lot of pressure on the defense, and just be the guy."
Jackson has come a long way since he rushed for 1,143 yards and 20 touchdowns in seven games during his senior season at Ridge Community High School with a school-record 326-yard, six-touchdown effort in a single game. Jackson was dubbed the 514th-best overall prospect in the Class of 2023 by On3 Consensus.
Now Jackson is one of the best running backs in the Big 12 and could have much more football ahead of him.
"What I've learned most about myself is to just keep going," Jackson says. "From my hometown, it's great to get out of there and be in the position that I'm in today. I appreciate everybody who's made an impact on that. I've learned to overcome adversity and to not let anybody tell me I can't do it. There were a lot of people who told me I wouldn't be in the position I'm in today. There are a lot of people who still don't believe it, and a lot of people don't like it. I cannot let any of that affect what I have to do."
He pauses.
"The goals in my mind," he says, "I don't think anybody can stop them."
He's the seventh-fastest player in Kansas State history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards and his 5.37 yards per attempt ranks seventh as well. At a time when junior running back Joe Jackson is eager to flourish even more for the Wildcats, new head coach Collin Klein and his dangerous offensive attack that features a strong running game seems to have arrived just in time.
Jackson, a 6-foot, 212-pound native of Haines City, Florida, who was recruited by Klein to K-State in 2023 before Klein spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, grins at the possibilities that lie ahead for him — and K-State — in the fall.
"I'm the most confident I've ever been," Jackson says. "My confidence level comes from the years I've been here. It's been a long road. My confidence has increased every single year. Now, Coach Klein definitely plays a factor in that.
"Coach Klein came back, and I know his competitiveness and what we've been through as a team and where we want to go. We've come up short and we can't do that again this year. It's an itch I can't scratch. I can't wait to get out of there."
Standing on the field at the Ford Center in his suit and lavender tie, Jackson gains several compliments on his choice of wardrobe at Big 12 Football Media days in Frisco, Texas. For as dapper as Jackson might appear in suit and tie on a hot July afternoon, the young man in the No. 4 uniform only heats up on the football field and looks even better as fall turns toward winter during the college football season.
Case in point: Last November, Jackson rushed for a K-State single-game record 293 rushing yards at Utah, which topped Darren Sproles' previous mark of 292 yards set in 2004, and it marked the second-most rushing yards by a FBS player in 2025. Additionally, Jackson's 312 total scrimmage yards in that performance was the most by a player from a Power 4 conference as well.
No matter where Jackson saunters while speaking to reporters at Big 12 Football Media Day, that record-setting night at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah — a 24-carry, 293-yard, 3-touchdown effort that included an 80-yard score — is at the top of discussion. Just as Jackson takes the football and seems to never tire, he handles each inquiry over and over and over again with grace and reflects back on the Utah game while primarily focusing on the road ahead.
"I never get tired of the question," Jackson says. "I just look at it as a blessing no matter how many times I get asked about the Utah game. I just embrace every moment. But my mindset is not trying to do too much and not trying to have a chip on my shoulder that I have to prove something to somebody this year. I don't have to prove anything to anybody. I just have to be the best version of myself each and every week.
"If Joe Jackson can be the best Joe Jackson that he can be each and every week, everything else will go along with it."
Jackson dazzled early in the season by hauling in the game-winning touchdown reception with 42 seconds remaining against North Dakota, which was the Wildcats' first game-winning touchdown with under 1 minute remaining since Izaiah Zuber against Iowa State in 2017.
In the seventh week of season, Jackson recorded his first-career 100-yard rushing performance, and that 27-carry, 110-yard effort against TCU served as an appetizer for the remainder of the season. He had a career-high five catches for 41 yards at Baylor. Then he had three rushing touchdowns at Utah and against Colorado in the final game of the season, becoming the first K-State running back since Alex Barnes in 2018 with back-to-back three-touchdown efforts.
The Big 12 Conference coaches took notice and voted Jackson as an All-Big 12 Third Team selection.
Now Jackson is back for more.
And everybody will be watching.
"Being in the spotlight is something I've definitely had to grow into," the soft-spoken Jackson says. "At first, I hated the feeling of this, the spotlight, the feeling of being whatever. That's something I always hated. Being able to handle that, grow up and be mature about it, I don't look at it that way anymore. I just think it's a blessing and something I have to embrace."
He's grateful for the opportunity to do so as a Wildcat.
"I never had aspirations of leaving K-State," he says. "K-State was always where I wanted to be and where I was comfortable and could thrive. I always wanted to stay at K-State. When Coach Klein returned to K-State, it was a no-brainer."
Soon after Klein arrived and occupied the head coach office at the Vanier Family Football Complex, he assembled his staff of assistant coaches. That included new running backs coach Cory Patterson, the ever-energic, relationship-building 45-year-old who brought in two of the highest-rated signees in the modern era as an assistant coach at Illinois, and who helped 2022 Doak Walker Award finalist Chase Brown reach his dreams of playing in the NFL, and then he spent last season on the sidelines at Oklahoma State.
Almost immediately after Patterson arrived at K-State on January 7 following his four-hour drive from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Patterson was on a plane to Haines City, Florida, to meet one of the top running backs in the Big 12 for the first time.
"CP called me right after he got hired, and then the first time meeting him was when I was back home over winter break," Jackon says. "He flew down and I met him at the airport and talked to him for a long time. From the jump, I knew he was about business and wasn't playing around. He knew what he was talking about and he had goals that he wanted to achieve.
"We're going to achieve all those goals."
One of the most crucial first steps? Helping Jackson elevate his leadership capabilities.
"Of course, I envisioned myself being a leader, but it was something very hard to do because I'm an introvert and don't enjoy talking that much," Jackson says. "The human nature is to always worry about yourself first, and that's what I was doing — worrying about myself, saying, 'I'm doing good, I'm making the times, I'm thriving in the workouts.' But I wasn't taking care of my brother beside me who might be struggling.
"It's definitely been a long process for me to get to the point where I'm at today. It's definitely paid off. I'm at the point now where I never bite my tongue when it comes to using my voice to speak. I really love it. That's the hardest thing I've had to do since I came to college."
Jackson's quest toward enhancing his leadership capabilities has been a process.
"It came with confidence," Jackson says. "We had meetings and coaches pulled me to the side and wanted me to be a leader and needed me to be a leader. I just had to do it. My dad, sometimes he'll call with questions, and I wouldn't tell him the truth, knowing I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing. I got tired of that. I had to look at myself in the mirror and say, 'Man, come on, you've got to step out of this.' Once I started to do it, it built confidence slowly and slowly, then the team rallied behind me, which gave me even more confidence. Once that confidence level started to go up, I haven't looked back since."
All eyes are looking forward. While Patterson calls Jackson "the gap-scheme king," Jackson strives this offseason to improve his game in other areas.
"The gap-scheme king? CP says that a lot," Jackson says. "It's just understanding and knowing what's going on before the start of the play, and I've been able to do that very well, but we also have some things to work on, and I've embraced everything that he's had to say, and we're going to fix whatever we need to fix to make myself even better. Really, it's me attacking the second level, being able to look at the backside linebacker or the backside defensive end, and manipulating him, or knowing what he's going to do before the ball snaps. So once Avery hands off the ball, I know where I'm taking it and I know what's going to happen.
"Basically, it's improving in the second level, catching the ball and getting more out of the backfield, being more versatile and getting out in the slot, and catching more passes out of the backfield. Increasing those things will be a big success for me. In the running game, gap schemes, outside, whatever it is, it's just the little things and understanding defenses more with that confidence level and in knowing what's going happen before the ball snaps. That'll allow me to play fully free and comfortable, and I can sit down and trust my rules and principles and let that take over. That'd be a big success for me."
Sproles, the College Football Hall of Famer, is the all-time leading rusher in K-State history with 4,979 rushing yards, and Klein, the 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist, ranks ninth all-time with 2,485 rushing yards. Jackson currently has 1,139 career rushing yards and as a junior could become the 13th player in K-State history to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a career.
It's potential company that Jackson could never have envisioned years ago.
"I didn't know much about K-State at all until I started getting recruited by Coach Klein," Jackson says. "I'd seen clips of Darren Sproles and then clips of Collin Klein during his senior year when he was up for the Heisman Trophy, but for some reason when K-State started recruiting me, everything on my phone was flooded with K-State this and that and this and that. I said, 'Oh, I remember watching this team a long time ago.' That's when things started to click."
Sproles and Klein always seemed to have the ball in their hands. Jackson grins at the potential of carrying the ball 25 times in a game on an almost regular basis — something that Patterson says isn't out of the realm of possibility in the fall.
"It's just whatever it takes for us to win," Jackson says, "whether that's 20 times, 10 times or 30 times, whatever it is, whatever it takes for us to win as a team and get to where we want to go in January, I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm a guy who's going to show up each and every single play, do what I'm supposed to do, put a lot of pressure on the defense, and just be the guy."
Jackson has come a long way since he rushed for 1,143 yards and 20 touchdowns in seven games during his senior season at Ridge Community High School with a school-record 326-yard, six-touchdown effort in a single game. Jackson was dubbed the 514th-best overall prospect in the Class of 2023 by On3 Consensus.
Now Jackson is one of the best running backs in the Big 12 and could have much more football ahead of him.
"What I've learned most about myself is to just keep going," Jackson says. "From my hometown, it's great to get out of there and be in the position that I'm in today. I appreciate everybody who's made an impact on that. I've learned to overcome adversity and to not let anybody tell me I can't do it. There were a lot of people who told me I wouldn't be in the position I'm in today. There are a lot of people who still don't believe it, and a lot of people don't like it. I cannot let any of that affect what I have to do."
He pauses.
"The goals in my mind," he says, "I don't think anybody can stop them."
Players Mentioned
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