Previously: Last year's profiles. S Quinten Johnson, S Daxton Hill, CB DJ Turner II, CB Jalen Perry, LB Joey Velazquez, LB Anthony Solomon, LB Charles Thomas, DE David Ojabo, DE Gabe Newburg, DE Mike Morris, DT Chris Hinton, DT Mazi Smith, OL Jack Stewart, OL Nolan Rumler, OL Zach Carpenter, OL Karsen Barnhart, OL Trente Jones, OL Trevor Keegan, TE Erick All.

Players like Giles Jackson exist only to hurt me. Are they playing for someone else? If so they are lethal death machines. Are they playing for Michigan? If so they are freak-show jet sweep guys who explode into a gory mess of tires and oil the one time they are sent downfield in their careers. Then they transfer.

Michigan hasn't had a YAC merchant slot play a prominent role since Steve Breaston more than a decade ago. The short guys who've had an impact—Jeremy Gallon and Martavious Odoms—played mostly on the outside. The slots who've had an impact have been move-the-sticks route artisans (Dileo, Roundtree) without game-breaking potential. Game breakers just break.

Josh Gattis promises to break this cycle of hope, despair, and recrimination. Bizarrely, the program seemed to anticipate this and loaded up with three slot receivers despite having Pep Hamilton entrenched as the offensive coordinator. Giles Jackson is the guy Old Michigan would most clearly have wasted, because he's generously listed at 5'9" and did these ridiculous things at the Opening finals:

He showed off his athleticism at The Opening testing off the charts with a 4.43 40, 3.85 shuttle and a 38” vertical jump.

That was the #3 SPARQ score at the event and the top number from an offensive player. I tell you that the prospect of seeing that dude motion in to block on a run up the gut may well have slain me.

[After THE JUMP: is this the One Slot who was promised to us?]

Jackson paid that athleticism off in a variety of ways in high school, bouncing from WR to RB and back over his last three years. He was effective in both roles, rushing for 1586 yards as a junior at 7.2 yards a pop and racking up over 2300 receiving yards over the course of his career. But because of his stature he made it most of the way through camp season with just a San Jose State offer.

By the time bigger schools started coming in analysts had been begging for someone to pay attention to this guy for months. 24/7 is good about covering West Coast camps and repeatedly yelled about this short guy killing it:

• From the Adidas 7-on-7 national championship: "It seemed like every time we heard celebrations coming from Jackson’s team on offense, it was right after he had just scored a touchdown. … reliable hands … hard to stop on quick routes, especially in goal line situations. … quick burst and twitchy."
• Best-of team from the same event: "…has excelled at every event we've been to … may have been the best we've seen all spring on Sunday."
• Bay Area Opening regional: "Every time we see Jackson this offseason, he wows us. … explosive and shifty and made it a long day for linebackers … burst off the ball and caused issues for the defensive backs."
• The UCLA site from the same event: "…one of our favorites of the spring … impressive quickness and elusiveness …embarrassed a few linebackers. … [won] the running back MVP on the day … participate[d] at wide receiver, where he also looked very good catching the ball, and being pretty difficult for defenders to stay with."
• Brandon Huffman: "electric in the open field … going to make some linebackers looks silly. … competitor. … I saw him more this spring than I did my own family … fast … Get the ball in his hands and let him go to work.”
• Some months later at Polynesian Bowl practice: "…had the play of the practice Thursday, making a sprawling one-handed catch over a defender as he fell to the ground. … electric playmaker … lethal in open space … great burst and agility."

Oregon, naturally, took an interest after the spring camp session, and Jackson quickly assembled a suite of Pac-12 offers. Michigan also came in. As mentioned above, this was weird. It's a little less weird once you realize QB commit Cade McNamara was one of his 7-on-7 QBs, so Michigan was paying attention, and McNamara was banging the table..

"Ha, yeah, Cade has been wanting me to go there with me forever," said Jackson.

…to get his super-effective slot an offer.

He did, and then he went to the Opening and did the same Giles Jackson things he'd been doing:

We've been saying it for months, that there hasn't been a more explosive player in the West than Jackson… backed it up… probably the top slot receiver in the event and can be used in a number of ways.

24/7 put him on their list of best players there ("unique speed and versatility … ability to create separation in space, run after the catch or attack the seam out of the slot") and put him on a couple of top performer lists before that ("natural pass catcher with great open field wiggle"; "can line up in the backfield or in the slot and is a scary mismatch").

Rivals doesn't do the Opening anymore—or apparently any camps other than their own?—so their analyst takes on Jackson are minimal and often pretty obvious. "Dynamic athlete who will line up in the slot and create a lot of mismatches with his speed and playmaking ability" is something you could say about literally any slot WR; "can do so many things to keep a defense off balance" is something you could read off a stat sheet; "I don't think he has the size" to be a "straight running back" is barely worth mentioning.

But you get the idea: slot waterbug. Video game with feet. Etc. 24/7 did put together a couple of more comprehensive scouting reports that note his explosion, naturally, but also how he translates it to the field:

…has both short area quickness and top end speed … versatile … catches the ball very well and is a very tough cover because of his quickness and ability to explode in and out of his breaks. … dynamic in space and routinely makes 2-3 defenders miss … need some time to get up to speed on running the full route tree. … natural pass catcher and looks very comfortable catching the ball … true home run threat … not big but he is tough, physical …. dominant against high level competition every time we have seen him

His summary also mentions his "toughness and physicality" despite his small stature. His coach noted that he battled through a toe injury last year:

“…never missed a practice, never sat out of any sort of game situation. He’s resilient and has a great work ethic. Most kids of his caliber that don’t get recruited too hard kind of go in the tank a little bit and have a hard time dealing with that. He just thought of it as an opportunity to keep working and getting better.”

Jackson checks all the boxes as a spread H-back.

Camps are not football and these takes will be familiar to anyone who remembers Poor Damn Dennis Norfleet and the rapture he generated in 7 on 7. FWIW, Norfleet did not have the eye-popping testing or other major offers—Michigan yoinked him away from Cincinnati basically on signing day—and was significantly smaller than Jackson. AND if Michigan had just USED HIM CORRECTLY in a SYSTEM DESIGNED TO TAKE ADV-

[several hours pass]

-LUTELY CRIMINAL.

Ahem. Jackson is rated about where Norfleet was but has much more supporting data indicating he'll be a dude. I recommend watching his highlight videos mostly because they are fun. Also because they have several incidents in which you can see some justification for this out-there player comparison from his coach:

“…the most explosive kid I’ve ever coached. He reminds me a lot of Barry Sanders … tough."

I mean. He's not. Nobody is. But just watch the first minute of his senior tape. The comparison is only 82% crazy.

Why Chris Evans? Extremely fast slot/RB hybrid on the 3/4 star borderline. Michigan never really used Evans as a multi-purpose offensive weapon; he's been a running back who gets some screens and flares for the duration of his career. In a real spread offense he would have been the spread H who motions in and out of the backfield and is always an option on short stuff or sweeps; that is exactly where Jackson is headed under Gattis.

And if you want to get aggressive, well, Desmond Howard. We try to keep the bombs in the bay but Jackson's testing numbers are… I mean, yeah.

Guru Reliability: Moderate. Ton of camps, but only one service really paid attention or provided a report that went beyond surface level.

Variance: Moderate. Anyone Jackson's size has bust potential. Jackson has a lot of experience and seems like a perfect fit… but he is 5'9".

Ceiling: High-plus. 3.8 shuttle! What! Seems to have downfield basket-catch chops as well.

General Excitement Level: High. What is love? Baby don't hurt me, no more.

Projection: The only thing standing in the way of Giles Jackson hype is Mike Sainristil hype. Michigan needs a spread H and has no one on the roster who's any sort of fit there, so it's going to be a true freshman. Sainristil has the advantage of enrolling early and building momentum in spring; Jackson has more upside because of his stop-start.

Both guys will likely play enough to burn their redshirts, and battle over the course of their careers. Jackson is the most likely to stick on offense; Sainristil and Johnson could get sucked over to defensive back.