Yesterday’s news about defensive end prospect Toby Jackson turned out to be half-true and not in a good way. It’s true that Jackson will be headed to junior college instead of UGA next fall, but his destination has changed. Instead of playing for Georgia Military College, Jackson has enrolled at Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Tex.

The story gets more interesting (and discouraging) with further details provided by UGASports.com. It’s no secret that Georgia coaches would prefer someone like Jackson at a friendly JUCO program like GMC, but apparently the quasi-military environment of Hargrave prep school turned Jackson off enough on the thought of another military school that he headed out to Texas.

Jackson maintains that he’ll still play for Georgia down the road if he is qualified and if the Bulldogs are still interested. Jackson, again, is someone who might have contributed as a true freshman in 2008, so it’s likely that Georgia will continue to recruit him if he stays on track. But as time and distance continue to increase between Jackson and Georgia, the odds of him ever showing up on campus decrease. Whatever negative experience he had in the structured environment at Hargrave, the path to major college football is still going to require a good bit of dedication, focus, and discipline on his part.

Long-time recruitniks will surely remember names like Cletidus Hunt, Andre and Peppi Zellner, and Corey Moon – all promising defensive linemen whose academic struggles kept them from ever enrolling at Georgia. The story doesn’t always end badly (Hunt and Peppi Zellner made it to the NFL), but Georgia’s history hasn’t been very good with prospects who don’t qualify out of prep school.