Northern Illinois University Athletics

Derrick Jackson, a 20-year collegiate coaching veteran whose résumé includes stints at Purdue, Wake Forest, Michigan State, Syracuse and NIU, joined the Northern Illinois University football coaching staff as associate head coach, defensive coordinator and safeties coach in February 2019. 

Under his charge, three Huskies earned All-MAC honors in NIU’s 2021 MAC Championship season. Freshman safety C.J. Brown earned first team accolades after leading NIU with 109 tackles. Linebacker Lance Deveaux and cornerback Jordan Gandy were placed on the third team.

The Huskie defense made great strides in year two of Jackson’s system, albeit during a shortned six-game season in 2020. NIU’s defense recorded five interceptions, surpassing 2019’s tally of four, and produced 11 sacks, three off the previous year’s total.

Freshmen safeties Devin Lafayette and Jordan Hansen accounted for three of the five INTs last year. Hansen led the team with two interceptions, while Lafayette was second on the squad in tackles with 36.

Jackson, who previously worked at NIU as the Huskies’ defensive tackles coach in 2005, returned to DeKalb after spending two seasons as cornerbacks coach and defensive recruiting coordinator at Purdue (2017-18), helping the Boilermakers to a pair of bowl appearances, including a 38-35 victory over Arizona in the 2017 Foster Farms Bowl.

At Purdue in 2017, the Boilermakers’ defense ranked in the top 30 in the country in scoring defense (24th) and rushing defense (29th), a marked improvement from the previous year when Purdue ranked 117th and 115th, respectively, in those categories. During his tenure in West Lafayette, four different cornerbacks earned All-Big Ten honors.

At Wake Forest from 2012-16, as outside linebackers (2012), defensive backs (2013) and cornerbacks (2014-16) coach, the defense showed similar improvements. The Demon Deacons ranked in the Top 40 in the nation in total defense in 2013, ’14 and ’15, and Wake Forest won the 2016 Military Bowl behind a scoring defense that ranked 23rd nationally. During his time coaching the WFU defensive backs, six of his players earned All-ACC honors, three played in post-season all-star games and cornerback Kevin Johnson was a first round draft pick by the Houston Texans in the 2015 NFL Draft.

Jackson, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, coached the defensive line at Rice in 2011 and at Akron in 2010. From 2007-09, he was defensive line coach at Syracuse, and served as co-defensive coordinator in 2008. His pupils at Syracuse included defensive tackle Arthur Jones, a three-time All-Big East selection and 2009 third-team All-American, and Freshman All-American defensive end Chandler Jones. Both Arthur Jones (5th round, Baltimore Ravens, 2010) and Chandler Jones (1st round, New England Patriots, 2012) went on to be selected in the NFL Draft.

Before working at Syracuse, Jackson spent the 2006 campaign as defensive line coach at Michigan State. The Spartans limited the opposition to eight rushing touchdowns that season. Jackson’s first stint at NIU came in 2005 under head coach Joe Novak, when he served as defensive line coach on the staff that led the Huskies to a 7-5 record and its first MAC Championship game alongside NIU Head Coach Thomas Hammock. That season, Jackson coached first team All-MAC selection Quince Holman.

Prior to NIU, Jackson spent the 2003 and 2004 seasons at Eastern Illinois as defensive line coach, and was the defensive ends coach at Army in 2001 and 2002.  He began his coaching career at West Georgia as tight ends coach in 1999 and 2000.

As a young coach, he spent two summers as part of the NFL Coaching Fellowship program with the Miami Dolphins (2001) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002).

A four-year letterwinner at Duke as a defensive back, Jackson started 40 consecutive games and finished his career as the eighth-leading tackler in school history. He was named the team’s most outstanding defensive back twice, and was a member of the Blue Devils’ 1989 Atlantic Coast Conference co-championship and All-American Bowl team.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Duke in 1993. Jackson and his wife, Renae, are the parents of twins; daughter Alana Mae and son Dakota John. Renae, also a Duke graduate, was a standout long jumper for the Blue Devils, leaving as the school’s all-time leader in that event.