With Georgia less than three days away from kicking off the 2025 season at home against Marshall, there is news regarding one of its players who ran into legal trouble this offseason. According to Marc Weiszer at the Athens Banner-Herald, sophomore offensive lineman Jah Jackson entered into a pretrial diversion program on Monday that stemmed from his July 16 arrest on charges that included felony possession of marijuana.

According to Weiszer, if Jackson completes the program, which includes a $1,000 fee and a substance abuse counseling program, his charges will be dismissed in a year.

Head coach Kirby Smart told reporters when fall camp opened that Jackson is being disciplined internally but that Jackson is still with the team. The news comes as Jackson looks to play a bigger role after seeing playing time in every game last year.

“Disappointed, obviously, in the decision-making process. He’s being disciplined internally, but he’s with the team,” Smart said.

Jackson was arrested on July 16 on charges including possession of marijuana more than 1 oz., which is a felony. According to the Athens-Clarke County jail log, Jackson was booked at 11:50 p.m. on Wednesday night and was released at 4:17 a.m. the following morning.

Jackson was charged with felony possession of marijuana more than 1 oz. along with misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana less than 1 oz., possession and use of drug-related objects, and physically holding or supporting, with any part of his or her body, a wireless device while operating a motor vehicle. He was released from jail on bonds totaling $5,030.

You can read details from the incident report here.

Jackson was a late addition to Georgia’s 2024 high school signing class. He played in 14 games last fall, mostly on special teams. 

“He’s a kid that we had in camp. He was a unique situation where he was eligible right now,” Smart said last August. “He’s a tremendous athlete, raw, hasn’t played football since eighth grade. But we recruit size, recruit athleticism. We don’t have an expectation of he has to help us right now. We’ve got the expectation that he has to grow and get better and develop. We saw that as a kid that has the ability to be a good football player if he has toughness and all the qualities that it takes to play offensive line.”

Jackson’s football exploits ended in middle school, back when he was the only eighth grader on the Westminster Christian Academy varsity team. He left Westminster for IMG Academy, where he spent two years. He then moved on to Overtime Elite and helped the team win three straight basketball championships. Jackson was part of an Overtime Elite program that included Georgia basketball center Somto Cyril.

Jackson closed out his basketball career in style by averaging 12.1 points and 7.5 rebounds while playing the center position. He posted a league-leading 67.8 field-goal percentage, which was more than 8 percentage points better than the next-best shooter.

Last August, offensive tackle Earnest Greene credited Jackson with coming to work every day and being a fast learner.

“That’s a pretty hard transition, especially at a place like this,” Greene said. “He’s picking up some of the stuff that is difficult to pick up. I’m excited to see what the future holds for him.”