Landon Jackson preparing for his old school, No. 8 LSU

FAYETTEVILLE — Defensive end Landon Jackson spent his first season in college at LSU before transferring to Arkansas.

Jackson is having a strong senior season after somewhat of a slow start at least by his standards. Jackson and Arkansas’ other defensive ends will have their work cut out for them against LSU’s two outstanding offensive tackles Saturday night.

“I’m excited and all,” Jackson said. “It’s really preparing. Watching and studying a lot of film. You know, they’re both really talented players. I’ve played against them the past two previous years. This is my third time playing against them because they’ve both been starting since they were freshmen. Both really talented tackles. And it’s exciting to play against my old school, but, I mean, it’s been so long ago. I’m a Hog now. So, I’ve kind of treated it all with the same mentality.”

LSU has only allowed two sacks this season. Jackson admits that presents a challenge for the Hogs.

“It’s a mixture of both,” Jackson said. “You know? They have three guys who have been starting for… I mean, Garrett Dellinger, their left guard, he was my roommate when I was at LSU. And he started some games his freshman year, and he’s been starting. So, this is his fourth year starting now, and those tackles have both been starting since her freshman year. So it’s their third year. And I mean, they’re really sound together. They’ve played a lot of ball together.

“Really talented players, and then I feel like the receivers and quarterback also help them as well. A good offense makes an offensive line even better. You know? And they’re really talented, but Garrett [Nussmeier] knows when to move around in the pocket, when to get the ball out. They do a lot of quick game. They’ve got a really talented offense. So, we really just got to get after them and play ball the way we know we can.”

Jackson said beating No. 5 Tennessee is one of the things that made him transferring to Arkansas and also returning for his senior season very satisfying.

“Yeah, it was really exciting,” Jackson said. “You know, getting the opportunity to win big games in the SEC is a big reason why I came back. I mean, I really enjoyed it, but as coach says, you’ve got to flush it right after and prepare for the next week.”

In six games this season, Jackson has 22 tackles, 15 solo, 2.5 sacks and 2 pass breakups.

“Yeah. I feel like it’s going really well,” Jackson said. “I mean, just from watching the games and watching the film, I feel like I’ve improved quite a bit. I’ve got to continue to grow in certain areas and really just got to continue to push and grow, and the production will come.”

Was there less panic from you with the slow start to season compared to earlier in your career?

“Nah, the biggest thing is me just giving my team the opportunity to win games, and I feel like throughout the season I’ve played really good ball right there to be getting pressure just get back there,” Jackson said. “My biggest thing is just to do what I need to do, and the production will eventually spill on. I feel like these last two games I need to improve from that and my goal is to continue to give my team the opportunity to win football games the rest of the season.”

Nussmeier is an older and experienced quarterback. He has completed 160 of 249 passes for 1,989 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions. Does him being an experienced quarterback change the defense’s approach to the game plan?

“I feel like, yeah, there’s a little bit of truth in that,” Jackson said. “But the biggest thing with going against an older, mature guy who has played a lot of ball, or even if they haven’t played a lot of ball, knows a lot of ball, you can’t expect him to make mistakes. You’ve got to play a really sound defense. We can’t have a whole lot of busts. We can’t really mess up a whole lot, or else they’ll take advantage of that. So we really just got to play good football, and I think we’ve had two really good days of practice so far, and I feel like if we finish this week off right we’ll have a really good game.”

While beating Tennessee was big and the fans charging the field, Jackson realizes that was two week’s ago and all attention has to be on LSU now.

“I think we handled it great, and I think the biggest reason we’ve handled it so well is because we all knew we could do that,” Jackson said. “It’s not like we went out there thinking we were going to lose, then we magically won. We knew we could win. At the end of the day, yeah, it’s exciting, but we weren’t amazed or blown away that we won. So we came in here like any other win. Watched the film. Studied it. Looked at our mistakes. Looked at the positives, and then flushed it.”

Arkansas (4-2, 2-1) and LSU (5-1, 2-0) will kickoff at 6 p.m. on Saturday night and televised on ESPN.