Adoree’ Jackson, USC’s jack-of-all-trades, begins to specialize

Adoree’ Jackson gives the feeling of a shark in water, in constant motion.

Smiling, with a belly full of McDonald’s (he’d ordered his regular on Wednesday night: four sandwiches, a large fries and a large sweet tea), he strutted into the main room at Pac-12 Conference media days on Thursday, patting down his braids and mugging for his Snapchat.

At a dais, Jackson splayed his hands in the air and pointed across the room at USC Coach Clay Helton. A photographer mentioned that this was Jackson’s first and last media days appearance, assuming the junior would enter the NFL draft after the season. Jackson closed his eyes, threw his head back and laughed.

Jackson, USC’s do-everything cornerback-returner-wide receiver, has returned, and the Trojans are better for it. He spent the winter, spring and summer with USC’s track and field team, chasing a spot in the Olympics as a long jumper. He is back with the football team after finishing 10th at the U.S. Olympic trials.

“I actually forgot what he looked like,” offensive tackle Zach Banner joked.

Jackson’s utility is one reason why USC can feel optimistic about Helton’s first full season as Trojans coach. USC’s schedule is punishing, its defensive line thin and young. Thursday’s media poll reflected those concerns: USC was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 South, behind UCLA. (Stanford was picked to repeat as conference champion.)

But USC does have enough talent to win. And the most talented Trojan might be Jackson.

“They have him listed everywhere, at just about every position there is besides kicker and punter,” Arizona receiver Nate Phillips said.

Now, though, Jackson is trying to slow down. He has his eyes on the 2020 Olympics but would likely have to clear that with an NFL team. Gone are other extracurricular pursuits, like basketball and soccer. Even in football, though he’ll still be a factor on offense and special teams, he plans to specialize.

A few days ago, Jackson met with Helton to define his role. They decided USC is loaded at receiver, so he won’t be needed much there. Instead, he’ll focus on cornerback. He’ll still return punts and an occasional kick. Offensive plays will be more rare.

“If he needs me, I’ll go out there for sure and get a couple of plays in,” Jackson said. “Other than that, I talked to him about being in the role of Charles Woodson,” a Heisman Trophy winner who contributed on offense and defense at Michigan.

During the off-season, Jackson limited his contact with the football team. He checked in occasionally. Sometimes, he borrowed a teammate’s iPad to study the defense.

Jackson has used his first days back to bulk up and work on simple lateral movements, “like freshman year all over again,” he said.

Jackson plans to play on an island this season, defending an opponent’s best receiver. How much Jackson will improve with a more focused role is one of the bigger questions in the Pac-12. Can he become a shutdown cornerback?

His potential at any position is unknown because he has never specialized. As a child, in addition to track and football, he played soccer. (“I was legit,” he said. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”) Basketball too. (He said he could make an NBA roster with a defensive style “like Matthew Dellavedova.”)

USC’s coaches were convinced Jackson’s athletic intelligence and speed inoculated him against the long period away from football.

If anything, they figured, he’d get faster. Jackson said that last season, during an 83-yard touchdown reception against Notre Dame, the team’s GPS system tracked him at 24 mph, and “I still wasn’t running that fast.”

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USC’s Adoree’ Jackson speaks with Lindsey Thiry at Pac-12 media days. Jackson returns to football after foregoing spring practices to compete in track and field.

He claims that the last time he ran the 40-yard dash, as a junior in high school, he clocked in at 4.39 seconds, laser timed. The record at the NFL combine, set by Chris Johnson, is 4.24 seconds. Jackson said that when he attends the combine, he doesn’t want to break the record, just tie it. He wants to be on posters with Johnson.

“My mom always told me to speak things into existence,” Jackson said.

That may explain why he’s accomplished so much — he even speaks fast, his words rushing out like an oncoming train.

To evolve, Jackson won’t restrain that energy, just focus it more.

To enable such control, Danny van Dijk, a USC strength and conditioning coach, recently started Jackson on an unusual drill. Jackson straps a heart-rate monitor across his chest and rapidly works up to his maximum heart rate. Then he stops. The goal is to return his heartbeat to its resting rate as quickly as possible.

The drill is meant to prepare Jackson for his unusual, grueling role. In the drill, Jackson focuses on deep breathing, relaxing his entire body and blocking out everything but his own thoughts.

In an unsurprising development, Jackson says he has picked up the technique naturally.

zach.helfand@latimes.com

Twitter: @zhelfand