Richard Jackson came to Tennessee like any other incoming freshman in the summer of 2014. The Atlanta native was an All-State First-Team pitcher at Woodard Academy and earned the attention of then Tennessee associate head coach Greg Bergeron.
After throwing for then head coach Dave Serrano, Jackson earned a scholarship to the flagship university of the state of Tennessee in his father’s hometown. Jackson arrived in Knoxville ready to set the SEC on fire and to help turn around a struggling Vols’ program.
“Expectation wise, I think everyone comes in thinking they’re going to be the guy,” Jackson said. “Then you realize all these other guys were the best players too, and in my case they’re all more talented than I was. It was definitely very humbling going from the guy committed to Tennessee to being the lower on the totem pole guy.”
Jackson redshirted his first season and made four appearances early in his redshirt freshman season before receiving career changing news.
“I pitched the first month of the season and then I had thoracic outlet syndrome,” Jackson said. “Went a week and a half in the hospital. Had three shoulder surgeries. I missed that whole next year and I missed that whole next fall.”
While Jackson was able to return for preseason practice heading into the 2018 season, recovering mentally from injury took longer than expected and the redshirt sophomore struggled to carve out a spot in the Vols’ bullpen.
“The mental side takes night-and-day longer than the physical side,” Jackson said. “I felt physically good, probably December of my junior year going into that season. I had a real good offseason training and then when it really became time to ramp it up ... and throw in scrimmages and games, oh man what’s going to happen if I really let it
eat. Am I going to feel this pain in the back of my shoulder? It’s a huge, huge, huge mental hurdle that really takes guys a couple months longer than when you’re physically ready.”
Jackson earned just two appearances in 2018 and while he struggled personally, Tennessee cratered on the field, going 27-25, leading to the termination of Serrano and his staff.
Three years into his career, Jackson’s coach had been fired while he had three surgeries and just six appearances. For many, a fresh start may have been seen as the best path forward, but Jackson stuck with the course, never considering transferring away from UT.
Following the season, then director of athletics John Currie pegged 38-year old Arkansas’ assistant Tony Vitello as Serrano’s successor. Soon after, Vitello would poach Houston pitching coach Frank Anderson away from the Cougars before Arizona State could, bringing a veteran pitching coach with head coaching experience to Knoxville.
The moves would pay dividends for Tennessee baseball and change the playing and professional life of Jackson.
In his first fall in Knoxville, Anderson suggested Jackson change his arm slot, throwing from the side as a submarine pitcher.
“Well a couple things, he wasn’t being effective the other way,” Anderson said with a chuckle. “The other thing was, he had had thoracic outlet I guess a year or two previous. A lot of times-- well the lower that you can get to the midline or even down below like softball … it’s easier on your arm. But you also don’t see that angle
much in our game, there aren’t many people that do it.”
Jackson took the suggestion into account, trying to throw both overtop and sidearm in the 2018 season. However, most of Jackson’s work went into improving his overtop pitching slot. The results were not positive with Jackson’s ERA ballooning to 12.15 in eight appearances.
In mid April, following a Saturday loss to Texas A&M, Anderson made his second pitch to Jackson about changing arm angles, this one being a bit more blunt.
“We were playing (Texas) A&M,” Jackson said. “They had that (Nolan) Hoffman guy who was a low arm slot guy and threw really really well and we're throwing bullpens after the game and Frank says, and this is why me and him get along so well, because he straight up says ‘Do you ever want to pitch here?’ and I’m like ‘well hell yeah Frank, I do.’ He was like ‘you need to be that guy who just threw out there. From that point on I’m leaving the over the top alone and I’m just going to go all from the side.”
Jackson wouldn’t pitch again in 2018 as he began a full remodel of his throwing style. It took Jackson four months until he felt completely comfortable throwing it sidearmed and another two months until he felt comfortable facing SEC competition.
The results speak for themselves. After allowing 13 earned runs in 13.2 innings of action throughout his first four seasons, Jackson allowed just three earned runs in 19.1 innings of action in his redshirt senior season as the Vols’ program finally found the success
Jackson hoped it would when he chose Tennessee five years earlier.
Appearing in 21 games, including two in the Chapel Hill regional, Jackson recorded a 1.40 ERA with 21 strikeouts while allowing no home runs and just five walks.
“The thing it did for him too is that his velocity didn’t drop that much when he went down there,” Anderson said. “He was just okay with it for probably half the season then the last third he was really good, I mean really really good, and he was good in the regional.”
After the season ended Jackson was given the opportunity to return for a sixth season due to him missing most of the 2017 season because of the thoracic outlet syndrome. After numerous conversations with Vitello, Jackson decided to pass on another year of playing, instead deciding to join the Vols’ staff as a graduate assistant.
“I had five years and it was a fun five years but I was ready to move on into the next chapter and go from there,” Jackson said.
Jackson always had an interest in coaching, but that interest reached another level in the season he missed with injury, using the time to learn from Serrano and the rest of UT’s coaches.
“It all started when I couldn’t play that year, my sophomore year,” Jackson said. “I began to follow Chip (Dill) around and follow Dave (Serrano) around. I would sit right next to Dave in the dugout and chart the games. I would be right there in the conversation of what was going on, what they wanted to do. I knew that was kind of what I wanted to do and I love getting to interact with 18-22 year olds every day.”
Now in his second year as a grad assistant, Jackson has an active role in coaching, from running the bullpen in game, to setting up for practice, to running bullpen sessions in practice. Jackson’s responsibilities has become even greater in this his second season with roster sizes at Tennessee, and across the country, up due to the extra eligibility the NCAA granted due to the lost 2020 season.
“He really plays a huge role in working with the guys or working with the new guys,” Anderson said. “A lot of times when things sit up right, your old guys basically oversee a lot of the newer guys because the numbers work like that. But with the numbers we have because of the COVID rosters you almost need two people just for that situation
because there are so many bodies out there. … He does a lot of the pre-practice stuff that we do, a lot of post (practice) stuff, in game stuff-- he’ll be in the bullpen so he’s got a huge role and not just fluff stuff killing time, it’s real stuff.”
For Jackson, the chance to start his professional career at his alma mater is a rewarding one, made even more so by working for the pitching coach that helped spark his career in its later stages.
Jackson “couldn’t ask for a better mentor than Frank” and like the message Anderson gave Jackson nearly four years ago in the Vols’ bullpen, the lessons are usually blunt.
“The first day I was done playing I was talking to him in his office,” Jackson said. “He was like ‘you know what, if you’re going to get into coaching you’ll never be successful if you can’t teach guys to compete and throw strikes.’ He went on to talk about how it’s not about the gadgets or doing all these weighted balls or their velo. It’s about getting guys to compete and throw strikes. Me getting into it I want to learn all the data and all this other stuff, but him saying that has stuck with me a ton. He teaches me. … He’s always teaching me and showing me how he does things and showing me the ropes of what he
does.”
Nearly seven years after enrolling at Tennessee, Jackson has played an active role in turning around a reeling Vols’ program, first on the mound, now as a de facto fifth assistant coach for 19th-ranked Tennessee.
