Blake Jackson, who’s spent some seven-plus years on Rocky Top in a variety of roles and worked through a trio of University of Tennessee football coaches, will become the new director of football operations at Arkansas State, sources told FootballScoop Wednesday.
A Clarksville, Tennessee, native with both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tennessee, Jackson for the past three years has served as the Vols’ Football Operations Coordinator.
In that post, Jackson helped organize and streamline a variety of elements of the Vols’ program – from assisting with summer prospect camps to practice logistics and gameday responsibilities. Jackson also served in a particularly critical element: travel logistics for all of Tennessee's SEC and non-conference road contests.
Jackson first started his career in the UT football department on Rocky Top under Butch Jones, working on Jones’ last bowl team in 2016 that captured the Music City Bowl against Nebraska. He helped sift through highlights of potential prospects and worked directly with assistant coaches in identifying and targeting recruits.
Jackson subsequently filled a variety of operational roles under Jeremy Pruitt and then in 2021 assisted the transition into the Josh Heupel era atop the Tennessee program.
In heading to Arkansas State, Jackson reunites not only with Butch Jones but also Matt Wilson – the Red Wolves’ veteran director of player personnel with roots in the NFL and multiple Power 5 programs, including Tennessee, Indiana University and Mississippi State.
Jones and Wilson teamed to lead the Red Wolves to sign the top-rated 2022 recruiting class in the Sun Belt and have helped foster an air of optimism in Jonesboro, Arkansas, after A-State struggled through a 2-10 2021 campaign.