UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen stirred up some preseason controversy when he said, "football and school don't go together," in an interview with Bleacher Report published this week.
Northwestern running back Justin Jackson's response: It's possible to excel at both.
"It's real tough," he said of balancing academics and football. "It is. But that's the type of sacrifice you make. You can still get a great education and put all you've got into football and, when you're not on the field, put all you've got into the classroom. You compartmentalize that and work hard on both."
Jackson, a senior economics major, was a second-team Academic All-American last season as well as the Big Ten's leading rusher. He said some players _ those who want to be pre-med majors, for example _ might have to make a choice, but the opportunity to play Power Five football at an academically renowned university, he said, is mostly worth facing a few challenges.
"Well, if you have that mentality, you can't go here," he said of Rosen's comment. "Football does end. You have to have some type of way to continue your life. You have a college degree."
