Here’s why this CCU senior is considered one of the nation’s top defensive football players
Coastal Carolina senior defensive end Tarron Jackson is being recognized this preseason as one of the top 100 defensive players in the nation.
Jackson, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 270 pounds, has been named to both the Chuck Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch lists. Both represent college football’s defensive player of the year award.
The Maxwell Football Club awards the Bednarik honor while the Football Writers Association of America and Charlotte Touchdown Club award the Nagurski trophy.
The Nagurski preseason watch list includes a total of 98 defensive standouts from 66 schools in all 10 Division I FBS conferences plus independents.
In addition, Jackson has been named the 2020 Preseason Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year by College Football News, which ranks him as the No. 1 player in its Preaseason Top 30 Sun Belt players list.
He is also in the College Football America Yearbook Group of 5 Preseason Starting Lineup, CFA’s version of a Group of 5 conferences All-America team.
Named a 2020 preseason First Team All-Sun Belt selection by Phil Steele, Athlon Sports, Lindy’s Sports, and College Football News, Jackson has started every game at defensive end over the past two seasons.
He’s a two-time All-Sun Belt selection, earning first team honors in 2019 after third team recognition in 2018. He led the Sun Belt and set a new Coastal single-season record with 10 sacks last season, and his 72 yards lost from those sacks was also a CCU single-season record.
He also led the team and ranked fifth in the Sun Belt with 13 tackles for loss, including 9.5 in conference play, and was second on the team with a total of 60 tackles on the season. He added a school-record 13 quarterback hurries, forced two fumbles, and tallied two pass breakups.
Other honorees
Several other Chants have received preseason recognition as well, led by senior running back C.J. Marable, who is No. 11 in College Football News’ list of the top Sun Belt players and is on the CFN all-conference team.
Lindy’s Sports magazine named Marable, junior placekicker Massimo Biscardi, senior defensive lineman C.J. Brewer and senior linebacker Teddy Gallagher Preseason All-Sun Belt Second Team.
Athlon Sports named Marable First Team All-Sun Belt and five Chants to the second team in senior offensive lineman Trey Carter, junior tight end Isaiah Likely, Brewer, Gallagher and Biscardi.
Phil Steele Publications named 10 Chants to all-Sun Belt teams, including Gallagher on the first team. Others recognized included junior defensive end Jeffrey Gunter, graduate transfer receiver Kameron Brown and senior linebacker Silas Kelly.
Tickets on sale
CCU is selling football season tickets in the hopes that spectators are allowed at games this season — if the season isn’t wiped out because of the coronavirus pandemic.
CCU has six home games scheduled including the first ever visit from a Power 5 conference team when Kansas is scheduled to play at Brooks Stadium on Sept. 26. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Chanticleer Athletics Ticket Office at 843-347-8499, or by visiting www.GoCCUsports.com or the ticket office located in Arcadia Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Season ticket renewal applications are available online.
Taylor’s summer tour
Zack Taylor’s summer of high level amateur golf got off to a slow start last week in the 114th Southern Amateur at Maridoe Golf Club outside Dallas, where he missed the cut to the low 68 players by seven shots with a 12-over 75-81–156.
Taylor has opted to return to CCU for what will be a sixth year at the school and third year on the men’s golf team, and has a chance to move up in the world rankings before he returns to school.
He began last week ranked 105th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking based on his play over the past two years and dropped 33 spots to 138th with his showing in Texas.
He is playing in the 67th Sunnehanna Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown, Pennsylvania this week and was tied for 43rd at even-par 140 after shooting a 2-under 68 in Wednesday’s second round.
Taylor still has the Western Amateur at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana from July 27-Aug. 1, and he has also been selected to participate in the 120th U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon from Aug. 10-16.
Taylor joined the CCU golf team in his senior season of 2018-19 after spending three years in the school’s PGA Golf Management Program, had a second year of eligibility last school year as a fifth-year senior and was granted another year of eligibility by the NCAA after the spring season was largely wiped out by COVID-19.
Taylor won his most recent college event — the General Hackler Championship at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club. He has a lot to play for this year with the creation of the PGA Tour University program.
The top seniors or early graduating juniors in college golf are vying to finish in the top 15 of a new points system to gain playing privileges on PGA Tour-sponsored tours.
The top five on the PGA Tour University points list will qualify for the remainder of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour following the NCAA Championship and the final stage of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, and finishers 6-15 will qualify for a PGA Tour international tour: Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada, or PGA Tour Series — China, and second stage of Korn Ferry Q-School.
Taylor led the Chants with a 70.79 stroke average in the shortened 2019-20 season, which ranks second all-time in CCU single-season history behind Dustin Johnson’s 70.40 scoring average in 2006-07. He has the school’s best career scoring average among players with at least 45 rounds played at 71.15. Johnson is second at 72.26.
McCambley signs
According to MLB.com senior writer Jim Callis, former CCU pitcher Zach McCambley has signed with the Miami Marlins, who drafted him in the third round of the Major League Baseball draft in June.
Callis Tweeted that he signed for $775,000 and credited him with having some of the best spin rates among pitchers in the draft with a 90-96 mph fastball and good low-80s curveball.
McCambley, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound righthander from Mount Pocono, Pa., compiled a 12-4 record and 3.89 earned-run average in two-plus seasons at CCU, allowing 139 hits and 59 walks with 158 strikeouts in 141 innings.
He was off to a strong start to his junior season in 2020, going 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA and 32 strikeouts, with 20 hits and seven walks allowed in 25 innings.
A high honor
CCU softball player Kassidy Smith has been nominated for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award. She is one of 605 female college athletes nominated across three NCAA divisions by member schools.
Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership. Smith played in 189 games over her CCU career, hitting .253 with 38 home runs, 27 doubles, 100 RBIs and 109 runs scored.
The outfielder graduated cum laude in May with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a double minor in chemistry and psychology. She carried a 3.7-grade point average in biology, garnering CCU Dean’s List honors four times and earning NFCA Academic All-American recognition in 2017-18.
Smith served as the president of Coastal’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was its SAAC representative in the Sun Belt Conference. She was also co-president of the Honors Student Council, an Honors Research Fellow, and a Kenneth E. Swain Scholar award recipient.
She has been a constant in the community, having worked with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Miracle League while volunteering for causes such as Caring for Kindergarteners, The Shepard’s Table, Coastal SAAC Hurricane Harvey Food/Necessities Drive, and Adopt-A-Chant.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 12:19 PM.
