FRISCO, Texas – The top defensive honor in the FCS belongs to Darius Jackson.
 
On Friday at the Annual STATS FCS Awards Banquet, Jackson was named the winner of the Buck Buchanan Award, the defensive equivalent of the Heisman Trophy in the FCS. The honor is voted on by a panel of media members and FCS sports information directors from across the nation.
 
It was presented to Jackson at the banquet that was held at the Embassy Suites in Frisco. It is held each year of the night before the Division I Football Championship Game.
 
The first Jacksonville State player to win the honor, Jackson is the first player from the Ohio Valley Conference to make the final three. The other two finalists in Frisco for the banquet were James Madison's Andrew Ankrah and Western Illinois' Brett Taylor.

 
Jackson, a 6-foot-3 native of Bessemer, Ala., and the two-time reigning OVC Defensive Player of the Year, becomes the first Gamecock to be named to the final three for either of the FCS' top two awards, the Buchanan Award and the Walter Payton Award.
 
At the end of the regular season, Jackson became the fifth player to repeat as OVC Defensive Player of the Year and the first since Eastern Kentucky's George Floyd in 1980 and 1981. He was later a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award and then later on named to the final three.
 
He led a defense that was dominant for the Gamecocks in 2017. The Gamecocks currently hold the No. 2 ranked defense in the nation, allowing just over 239 yards per game. Their 75.6 yards per game allowed on the ground sixth-best in the nation, while JSU also ranks in the top 10 nationally in pass efficiency defense, tackles for loss and third-down conversion defense.
 
Jackson made it one step further in the Buchanan voting than in 2016, when he finished fourth in the voting. After an All-America season in 2016, his numbers were even better in 2017. He broke the school record for tackles for a loss in a season with 20.5, beating his own record set in 2015. His 1.7 tackles for loss per game rank fourth nationally. He had seven sacks on the season and 23 quarterback hurries.
 
His four-year career has seen him demolish the JSU career records for sacks (27.5), tackles for loss (60.5) and yards from tackles for a loss (277). He ranks third among all active FCS players in career tackles for loss and yards from those stops.