KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee freshman safety Janzen Jackson will start Saturday against Kentucky, bolstering a Volunteers secondary that's been struggling recently.
Coach Lane Kiffin reinstated Jackson to the team on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors dropped attempted aggravated robbery charges pending against him.
"He was cleared of any wrongdoing and any knowledge at all of this situation happening, and so part of you feels bad for him in a way because he's had to go through this," Kiffin said Tuesday. "I know he's excited to be back, and he's ready to go."
Jackson was arrested and charged Nov. 12 after a report of two men dressed in hooded jackets, one brandishing a gun, approaching three men at a convenience store near the Tennessee campus demanding "everything you've got." A third man approached later, telling the other two, "We've got to go," according to a police report.
The victims later identified Jackson's teammates, Nu'Keese Richardson and Mike Edwards, as the two men who approached the car first. The pair of freshmen have since been kicked off the team and out of school, and charges against them are still pending.
"I would sure hope that it is a wake-up call," Kiffin said. "Even though you're cleared of any wrongdoing, it's just a wake-up call to what the reality is. It's, 'Hey, if I did do something like that, look what could be taken away from me."'
It's also a relief for a Volunteers secondary which has spent the past two games shuffling players because of injuries and Jackson's ban from the team.
After playing an unsure Prentiss Wagner in Jackson's free safety spot and using a few freshmen and walk-on players to fill out the in-game rotation in a loss to Mississippi, Kiffin switched starting cornerback Dennis Rogan to free safety.
As Tennessee (6-5, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) prepared to face Vanderbilt and Kentucky (7-4, 3-4) - two teams that rely more on the run than their passing game -- Rogan was a better fit at safety, where he'd practiced some during fall camp.
"We had to go the direction of playing as if [Jackson] was not coming back all year because we didn't know, and the last thing you want to do is bank on something that we don't know," the coach said.
The Vols were never distracted by the publicity surrounding their teammates' arrests, Kiffin said. The coaches were, however, because of the extra time spent making their game plans around Jackson and pursuing information on the players' cases.
"The distraction was there was three players that weren't playing for us, including one great player," Kiffin said.
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