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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Brad Bohannon's second coaching hire is now confirmed as the newly-appointed head baseball coach added Florida Atlantic assistant Jason Jackon as his next pitching coach Tuesday. Sources told BamaInsider.com on Monday night that Jackson had been offered the job and that the university was waiting for him to officially accept the position and pass a background check. Less than 24 hours later, Bohannon officially welcomed him as the newest member of the Crimson Tide's staff.
“I am really excited to add Jason to my coaching team,” Bohannon said, according to a statement released by the university. “As I worked through putting this staff together, I made dozens of phone calls and his name kept coming up. I was looking for a coach who has an outstanding track record of developing pitchers, someone who has proven that they can evaluate and recruit at an extremely high level, and a person of high character and integrity who connects well with young people. Once I got Jason on campus and spent time with him, I knew he was the perfect fit for what Alabama baseball needs at this point in time.”
Jackson joins former Lousiana Tech assistant Jerry Zulli, who was hired as Alabama's hitting coach last week. Jackson comes to the Tide with 16 years of experience as an assistant coach. He joined the FAU coaching staff in 2008 and was promoted to associate head coach last September. During his nine seasons with the program, he has helped the Owls earn four conference titles as well as four NCAA Tournament appearances.
Known as a talented recruiter, he has had 23 players taken in the MLB First-Year Player Draft since 2009. Jackson has also shown an ability to develop talent on the mound, turning 14 pitchers into professional baseball players. Among those is R.J. Alvarez, who was drafted in the third round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
Serving as FAU's pitching coach, Jackson helped coach the Owls to a 35-21-1 record this past season. FAU finished second in Conference USA with a 4.43 earned run average and was tied for first with a .262 opposing batting average. The Owls finished fourth in strikeouts with 444 over 508.1 innings pitched.
In 2016, the Owls’ staff paced Conference USA with a 3.24 ERA, six shutouts and a 1.21 WHIP, while allowing a league-low for walks, runs and doubles en route to winning the C-USA regular-season championship. The FAU pitchers ranked 14th in the nation in both ERA and walks allowed, and 15th in WHIP. The 2015 slate featured the emergence of several pitchers who gained national traction under Jackson’s guidance, including one who received All-Conference honors.
As the Owls made their transition into Conference USA in 2014, Jackson’s pitchers allowed only nine home runs, the fewest in FAU history and the fewest in C-USA that season. The Owls ranked 19th nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 2.57 – a category in which they led the league in four of the last five seasons thanks to Jackson’s guidance. The 2013 team featured FAU closer Hugh Adams, as he set the school’s season saves record with 18 on the way to recording both the FAU and Sun Belt Conference career saves mark with 31.
In his first three seasons at FAU, Jackson helped guide the Owls to two Sun Belt Conference titles in a three-year span. Jackson tutored starting pitcher Paul Davis and Adams earn All-South Central Region selections by the National Baseball Coaches Association of America at the end of the 2011 season.
After serving a brief stint as a pitching coach at North Florida Community College, he became an assistant coach at Mercer University in 2003. He spent three seasons at Mercer and was elevated to the program's recruiting coordinator in 2006.
Jackson served as an assistant at South Alabama from 2007-2008 and had two pitchers selected in the 2008 MLB Draft. During his final year at South Alabama, Jaguars pitchers struck out 188 more batters than they walked.
Jackson earned his bachelor’s degree from Florida State in physical education in 2000, before going on to obtain a master’s degree in sports administration at FSU. A native of Tallahassee, Fla., he and his wife, Katie, have three children, Kinsey, Tyler and Haylee.
