Temple’s Jackson Pruitt is doing NIL the way it was intended

Temple guard Jackson Pruitt is doing NIL the way it was originally intended, making some extra money and building his brand.  He’s playing a pretty good brand of football, too.

Now a bona fide veteran on the Owls offensive line, Pruitt logged his 10th career start last weekend.  The one big difference this season: He’s locked in as the starting right guard.  He played there throughout spring practice and preseason camp.

In 2024, Pruitt started four games at right guard and one at left guard.  In 2023, he started two games at left guard and one at right guard.  It was partly due to injuries to others, but also part of an emphasis from then-offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan on position flexibility.

Coach Al Johnson has preached a different philosophy since joining the Owls last winter.

“When we had our meetings, I told him, I used to work all five,” Pruitt said of his initial encounter with his new position coach.  “He cut on the film, last camp I would go from right to left tackle.  And he told me, ‘Let’s just try to hone you in at one position and just build you there and see how it goes.’  And it’s been going pretty well.”

Not that Pruitt has any complaints about Wiesehan’s philosophy.  It certainly got him to where he is today.

“It was definitely an advantage I feel to be playing multiple positions in practice,” Pruitt said.  “But all in all, I think playing one position allows you to really focus and maintain a standard.  Because I know they’re so close and similar as far as playing guard, tackle, and center.  But the same as they’re similar, they’re a lot different.

“So really it’s just I think being extremely comfortable at one position and mastering one thing, and then if something happens, then I may have to swing around and do whatever.  But for the time being, with guys available, I feel like that’s for right now what’s going on in this offense.  So it’s been really cool.”

Off the field, Pruitt made his mark at Temple and beyond long before he made an impact on Saturdays.  In December 2022, he signed on as a brand ambassador for Dunkin’ in a nationwide deal that involved just a few dozen student-athletes from two dozen schools.  He leveraged his social media presence to fulfill his side of the deal and made a few bucks, but that wasn’t his only goal.

“A lot of guys, you see they’re getting the whole play-for-pay thing,” Pruitt said.  “I kind of like doing the deals where you’re working with companies.  I’ve worked with companies like Dunkin Donuts, Shop GLD, I’ve even done something with Nike.

“And I like doing that because I’m building relationships outside of football while I’m still playing the game I love and pursuing an NFL career.  But I’m also building connections and I have people and higher-ups looking at me as more than a football player.  And hopefully when I do get to the next level, these are companies that are reaching out to me for bigger deals and I’m not just getting money from someone just throwing money at me just to play football at Temple.”

As a freshman offensive lineman who had never played in a game at the time, Pruitt didn’t profile as someone that Dunkin’ would be contacting to help with a brand awareness campaign.

“They wanted to do somebody on the East Coast that was active and up-and-coming in the NIL space, and maybe not the biggest names at the time,” he said.  “So just somebody that they wanted to work with who they knew would be active.  And I feel like I was very active.  And it’s been an awesome partnership.  They’ve actually come to me multiple times and we’ve done more stuff since then.  It’s been really good.”

Pruitt’s on-field performance has been really good in the first two weeks this season.  He was the highest-graded offensive lineman on the team according to Pro Football Focus in the opening win at UMass and had the highest pass-blocking grade last week against Howard.

Again, it partly goes back to his focus on a single position, which has helped the Owls move at full speed in a new offensive system.

“I’m really comfortable,” Pruitt said.  “I’ve always been a pretty intelligent guy when it comes to playbook.  So just being able to play one position I feel like the game is a whole lot slower to me now.  And I’m seeing things faster and I’m able to help and lead the room.”

On all 110 snaps he’s taken this season. Pruitt has had center Grayson Mains on one side and right tackle Diego Barajas on the other.  Their chemistry grade so far is an A.

“Coach Johnson has been really heavy on telling me he believes that I can be an elite guard,” Pruitt said.  “So he wants me to lock in and focus on that … and whatever he tells me to do, I’m going to do it 100 percent.”