When Georgia Southern’s Edwin Jackson and Garrett Frye were asked what if felt like to be named second-team, All-Sun Belt before the 2014 season, they looked at each other for a quick moment.
    Then Frye shrugged.
    “We haven’t done anything yet,” Frye said on Tuesday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans at the Sun Belt Football Media Day.
    Jackson didn’t seem to worried about the preseason honor, either.
    “I had an OK season,” he said about 2013. “We can do so much more.”
    Jackson, a linebacker and former walkon who led the Eagles with 92 total tackles including a pair of sacks in 2013, is just focusing on helping GSU make a splash in the Sun Belt during the program’s first year in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
    “Last year, I feel like it’s last year. This year we have something to prove,” Jackson said. “We’re going into the Sun Belt, we need to make a mark because this is my last chance. You never know when your last day out there on the field is, so I want to make my mark every chance I get.”
    It’s not that Jackson doesn’t think about the past. He just uses it as motivation. Since he joined the team, he’s seen guys like Brent Russell and John Stevenson get a shot in the NFL, Darius Eubanks play his way onto the field with the Cleveland Browns and J.J. Wilcox (2013) and Jerick McKinnon (2014) get selected in the third round of the NFL Draft, along with seventh-round pick Lavelle Westbrooks.
    Then, of course, there was the program’s first win over an SEC team, Nov. 23’s 26-20 win over the Florida Gators.
    “I get chills. Right now, I have a coat on, and I’m getting them right now,” Jackson said. “I walked on before the 2010 season, and every year’s it felt like everything was meant to happen.
    “It’s a special place. I think it’s a perfect opportunity for somebody who is willing to work to perfect their craft. It’s the perfect place to do it. When you look at someone like Jerick or J.J., they did it day after day and showed their values to the team. I want to leave that same exact mark to the guys behind me.”
    Jackson says he’ll take things one game at a time, and the first one, an Aug. 30 game against N.C. State in Raleigh, N.C., is a big one for him.
“My mom and her family are from Raleigh,” he said. “There’s a lot of people on her side of the family that either went there or are fans. My grandma just turned 85 and there was a big barbecue up there and I couldn't make it because I was training at Georgia Southern, but I kept getting texts about the game.”
He knows playing N.C. State won’t be anything like GSU’s 2013 season-opening, 77-9 win over Savannah State.
    “They’re bigger, faster and stronger,” he said. “We have work to do.”
    Still, Jackson still hears the words from his father the evening after the Eagles beat Florida.
    “He was like, ‘How do you feel?’ He looked at me and I was wondering what he was going to say, and he said, ‘How do you feel? That was history. You made history.’ I feel like it can only get better,” Jackson said. “Everything is happening for a reason. Me and my teammates see great things for this season.”

Community service
    NORTHBROOK, Ill.  (GSU AMR) — Jackson has been named as one of the nominees for 2014 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.
    The award recognizes players whose charitable involvement and community service contributions stand out among all other student-athletes participating in the sport.
    Comprised of 11 players from the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and 11 players from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, Divisions II and III, and the NAIA, the final roster of 22 award recipients will be unveiled in September.

    Matt Yogus may be reached at (912) 489-9408.