PRAIRIE VIEW – In a little more than 24 hours from now, Tremaine Jackson will introduce his second recruiting class at Prairie View.
Let’s just say that with a successful SWAC Championship and Celebration Bowl appearance under his belt, the recruiting process has been much smoother this time around. Jackson and his staff are set to introduce 62 new transfer portal signees and eight high school recruits on Feb. 4, National Signing Day.
It’s in stark contrast to last season, when Jackson and his staff had to scramble to get what they could in recruiting after being hired late in December 2024. Winning clearly cures a lot.
“What was easier is we didn’t have to introduce ourselves and cast the vision,” Jackson said when I caught up with him over the weekend at the Texas Southern-Prairie View basketball games. “We still had to fight and recruit our tail off, but we didn’t have to say, `This is what we are going to do.’ We were able to say, `This is what we did in 345 days.’
“So when we say we are going to do something, you can bet your bottom dollar that we are going to get that done, and here is the evidence.”
Not just more players but better players were willing to listen this time around. And if you know Jackson, you know he probably isn’t done adding players and maybe even subtracting some who are unable to live up to his expectations.
“I think we addressed some needs. But we are not done. We are never going to be done,” said Jackson, who opens spring practice on March 20. “So guys still have to compete in the spring to earn the right to be here.
“We have 104 guys here right now, which is more than what we had a year ago. We’re excited about it, but we are process-based, back-to-work. Nobody is around here looking at last year. We’ve moved on.”
In moving on, Jackson and his staff made a concerted effort to beef up both the offensive and defensive lines this cycle. But they have also addressed other key areas of need, like the secondary, quarterback, receivers, and tight end.
Jackson aggressively pursued the transfer portal and landed three-star players like safety Damani Maxson from Kansas and defensive end Michael Riles from Oklahoma State. UTSA linebacker Mark Rayson, Georgetown quarterback Dez Thomas, and Houston Christian linebacker Braylon Finney, along with some SWAC defections such as Jackson State linebacker Jace Ward and former Alabama State running back Jahbari Kuykendall.
What you won’t see in the mid-year class is a lot of high school recruits. Legacy School of Sports Sciences Timmy Timmerman, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound tight end, is the lone high school recruit in the mid-year group. More freshmen will be joining the class that arrives this summer.
The other 62 new players are coming in via the transfer portal, where they have already cut their teeth at one or more programs before arriving on The Hill.
“More kids were interested because we won. It’s hard when you are coming off a 5-7 year, you’ve got to blast the vision and hope they buy in. But when they see the trophy and see the ring design, it’s a little different.”
Tremaine Jackson
In years past, National Signing Day felt like Christmas because coaches got to show off their new toys to fans and boosters. But it’s different now because all of the transfer portal players are already on campus, enrolled in classes, and going through workouts. So when Jackson and his staff introduce the class to their supporters at Prospect Park here in Houston on National Signing Day (for a $30 entry fee), it will be more of a showcase than a reveal.
“It’s an opportunity to have a good time and talk about the PV team and raise a little money to continue to help us grow,” Jackson said.
The reigning SWAC Coach of the Year says he has been able to be a little more competitive in the current NIL and revenue-sharing landscape that has taken over college athletics because he has some money to offer. But more important than money, Jackson insists, has been the staff’s ability to connect with student-athletes and their families.
“For me, it’s still about we are not going to give somebody something for nothing. That just ain’t us,” Jackson said. “People start paying kids because they are too lazy to recruit them. So instead of recruiting them and building relationships with them, they just go out and pay them. The problem is when you do that, when he does something that you don’t like, you just throw him away like your Christmas toy that you don’t want to deal with any more.
“We’re still about relationships, but we were able to get into the fight with some folks that we probably shouldn’t have been able to get into the fight a year ago because we do have some resources and we continue to grow.”
And of course, growth is what Jackson is all about. He came in a year ago, promising not just to transform Panther football into a SWAC or HBCU power, but into an elite Football Championship Series (FCS) program.
The first parts of that were beefing up recruiting and the schedule, where PV opens the season not against TSU in the Labor Day Classic but at Tarleton State on Aug. 29, then hosts Stephen F. Austin on Sept. 19, a week after playing Baylor. Tarleton State and Stephen F. Austin finished last season ranked No. 5 and No. 6 in the FCS, respectively.
“When we got here, I said we were going to be an elite FCS program,” said Jackson, whose team came up just short of winning the HBCU national title in a four-overtime thriller against South Carolina State. “You can’t be an elite FCS program just playing a bunch of Black colleges. That’s just what it is.
“So we’ve got the No.5 team in the country, the No.7 team in the country coming here. We want to be elite, and there is no schedule in the SWAC like it. People are starting to release their schedules, and it’s no disrespect to the Division II Black colleges, but we are not interested in that. We want to play the PWIs and guys that are in the Top 25 in the country.”
