Jackets add help up front with portal commitment of Carroll-Jackson
The transfer portal commitments continued to roll in this week as Georgia Tech picked up some help along the defensive front late Wednesday night in the form of former UConn defensive lineman Vincent Carroll-Jackson.
Carroll-Jackson confirmed his commitment to the Jackets with JOL coming off what he described as an impressive visit to The Flats Tuesday and Wednesday where he got to see the program up close and really get to know the coaching staff, including eye-opening talks with head coach Brent Key and defensive line coach Jess Simpson. He said all that combined went a long way in making up his mind that Georgia Tech was the place for him.
“Man just the coaching environment…I love the passion behind the coaches, and I’m excited to see where they can help take me,” Carroll-Jackson told JOL. “I really loved the stadium and the beauty of it. Fans are going to expect everything from me, and I’m gonna give them 110 percent of what I have. If they’ve seen me last year, they know I’m a dawg who works.”
Carroll-Jackson is coming off his redshirt-sophomore season this past Fall at UConn and will have two years of eligibility remaining. During the 2025 season, he played 494 snaps at defensive tackle/nose tackle, had 28 total tackles (12 solo), one tackle for loss and one forced fumble and finished with a PFF tackle grade of 61.4.
Carroll-Jackson spent his first two college seasons at Nebraska, playing in one game and redshirting in 2023 and seeing action in 10 games in 2024 with one total tackle. He received the Brook Berringer and Tom Osborne Citizenship Team Awards during his time in Lincoln.
Carroll-Jackson signed with Nebraska as a 3-star (87.40) defensive lineman in the 2023 class out of Central Dauphin East in Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania over several other Power-4 offers, including Georgia, Florida, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Rutgers. He didn’t play football on the prep level until his senior year but quickly got the attention of college coaches during that one season as he racked up 50 tackles, 20 tackles-for-loss, eight sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
Carroll-Jackson said his time spent with Simpson and Key during his visit to Georgia Tech was special.
“(I liked) Coach Simpson’s passion and his ability to win everywhere he goes,” Carroll-Jackson said of the Jackets’ veteran DL coach. “(And with Coach Key) he’s just full of energy truly and one of the best human beings I’ve been around. His vision and drive for success is next level.”
Carroll-Jackson is Tech’s eighth portal commit of this cycle and second along the defensive front after adding former Rutgers DE/Edge Jordan Walker on Sunday.
Carroll-Jackson said the journey to get to where he is now has been a long and hard one, but he wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Something I always say is anything worth having never comes easy. If you’re willing to take the long road and endure, I promise the road is beautiful at the end,” said Carroll-Jackson. “Try…that’s all you can ask of yourself no matter what others think as long as you know you’ve given your very best you can hold your head high in the end.”
