HOUSTON — Maybe, just maybe, the best way to beat Michigan for a CFP national championship is with a former Michigan man.
While the Wolverines surely will be deeply focused on stopping starting wide receivers Rome Odunze, Ja'Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan, it wouldn't surprise anyone if the crafty University of Washington coaching staff comes up with a way to put Giles Jackson, the one-time Wolverine pass-catcher and kick returner, to good use in Monday night's college football finale.
The Huskies did this to Oregon at Husky Stadium and the Ducks weren't prepared for it.
Jackson surprisingly caught a game-opening 26-yard touchdown pass against the Ducks — surprising only because the 5-foot-9, 178-pound speedster from Antioch, California, hadn't played all season, missing the first five games of the season with a broken thumb.
"The big one is next," Jackson said of Michigan, his former football outpost, at the Sugar Bowl. "It's going to be fun. It's going to be a rematch."
In his case, it's going to be a reunion. What's funny about this title game matchup in Texas is Jackson actually predicted it much earlier in the season.
Sizing up his career that began at Michigan and the Huskies' move to the Big Ten, he said, "It's been fun. I wouldn't change it for nothing. I love those guys and hope to see them in the playoffs."
Wish granted.
This diminutive Jackson spent two seasons full of breakaway runs at Michigan, topped by kickoff returns of 95 and 97 yards for instant touchdowns against Maryland and Rutgers, respectively. He did it to college football's bigger boys, as well. He slipped through the Ohio State defense for a nifty 22-yard rushing score as a freshman. He turned in 50- and 30-yard kickoff returns against Alabama in the 2020 Citrus Bowl.
Yet the multi-threat Jackson transferred to Washington because he fancies himself more as a pass-catcher, apparently a view the Wolverines didn't share, seeing him more as a specialist. He appeared in 18 Michigan games, starting three. He caught 24 passes for 301 yards and a score.
After his wide-receiver minutes and receptions fell off during a six-game pandemic season in 2020, he entered the transfer portal and resurfaced at the UW, enrolling for summer quarter. The Huskies previously had recruited him coming out of Freedom High School in the Bay Area.
He came to to Montlake seeking a more explosive offense that would better suit his talents. Jimmy Lake's Huskies didn't quite satisfy that need, but Kalen DeBoer's high-powered attack has been the total package.
"Honestly, in spring ball and fall camp, we saw something big was going to happen," Jackson said in 2022. "The offense was totally different from last year and a lot more explosive plays were coming. We knew it was going to be explosive."
Jackson, even with all of the big-play receivers surrounding him and sometimes limiting his playing time, feels wanted in Montlake.
He's the first player in school history to wear No. 0, a distinction he now shares with sophomore cornerback Jaivion Green, who's from Houston.
Jackson has caught 50 career passes for 521 yards and two scores for those two Husky coaching staffs, enough of a receiving sample where DeBoer and his coaches asked him to preserve a sixth season of eligibility and come back next fall. They like him as a pass-catcher to the point he hardly returns kicks anymore.
Monday's game actually will be Jackson's second time facing Michigan since he left. The first one didn't go well, with the Lake-coached Huskies traveling to Ann Arbor in 2021 and losing 31-10. Some of the Wolverines fans got on Jackson when he left the field at the end and he barked back at them. He started the game and caught 3 passes for 49 yards and rushed three times for 9 yards, but the offense floundered.
That shouldn't be the case on Monday night because DeBoer's offense almost never flounders. The big-play attack tends to shock and amaze, and that's why Jackson is part of it. He didn't play much against Texas, but maybe that was just a smokescreen.
Michigan won't want to ignore this former Wolverines playmaker or the Wolverines chance paying for it.
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