VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR) — Not many of Landstown's football players knew who Robert Jackson was when he took the head coaching job.
"To be honest, I never knew him," junior center Robert Thomas said. "I googled his name, but I never knew his name."
Those players learned quickly.
"He came, he put us on our butt as soon as he came," junior tight end Avir Johnson said.
"You make sacrifices on the front end to get paid on the back end," Jackson said of his methods in first meeting the team.
Jackson returns to the school where he helped start the football program in 2001 and 2002. Since then he's made stops as an assistant at Norfolk State, a 10 year run as Salem's head coach, before becoming athletic director at Norcom. He's amassed a career 145-54 record as a head coach.
Jackson, however, knew something was calling him back to the Eagles.
"I felt like we had unfinished business," he said. "We were building. I saw this as an opportunity to come back and finish something that we started, that I started."
"I just thought this situation would be the best to close out my career."
Taking over a program coming off a 1-8 season, his message was simple.
"Get ready to work," Johnson recalled.
"He hit us with a bang. His motto is,'Get the losers out of your life,'" said Thomas.
After a 2-0 start with two convincing wins, those messages are being received loud and clear.
"You can tell he had a good reputation, because everyone's coming and everyone's seeing us play," Johnson said. "Obviously you can tell he helps us win."
"I always say losers want to win. They bought into the program," Jackson said.
It's an Eagles team looking to soar again, with the coach that helped get it off the ground in the first place.
"First two weeks last year we were going into school 0-2. Now we're 2-0," Thomas said. "We've come together as a team."
"It felt like I never left. Everything just feels right about it," Jackson said.
Landstown travels to Tallwood on Friday, looking for its first 3-0 start since 2018.
