Centre grad seizes 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity abroad

Aiden Jackson ’25 was ready to hang up his football cleats.

After four stellar years anchoring Centre’s offensive line, his final game came in the NCAA Tournament, the Colonels first postseason appearance in seven years and the fourth NCAA Division III playoff appearance in program history. He earned first-team All-Southern Athletic Conference honors for his play at guard as Centre posted an 8-2 regular season record and captured a share of the conference title. Losing to 13th-ranked Carnegie Mellon in the tournament was tough, but the season was certainly a banner success, and Jackson was ready to move on to the next phase in his life.

“I was ready for another chapter,” he said, with a tentative plan to enroll in graduate school at the University of Louisville to earn his MBA.

But while Jackson thought he was done with football, football wasn’t done with him.

The combination of athletic and academic excellence that allowed him to star at Centre drew the attention of schools abroad looking to bolster their American football teams.

Jackson was a little skeptical at first, but as he began researching the opportunities, he realized this might be a way to open new career paths while pursing the dream of playing football professionally one day.

“Seeing how many accolades these schools had received both academically and athletically, and realizing what they could do for me while I’m there,” he said, “that’s what pulled me in.”

After “a lot of Zoom calls, a lot of interviews and a lot of applications,” Jackson is pursuing his MBA at Leeds Beckett University in Yorkshire, England, while playing for the college’s American football team.

For Jackson, it’s a rewarding endorsement of the work he put in on the field and in the classroom to ensure he was never one-dimensional as a student or an athlete, as well as an opportunity to build on the experiences he enjoyed studying abroad through the Centre- in-Strasbourg program.

“Having studied in France while at Centre, and going to Germany and Italy, Switzerland and Amsterdam and now having the opportunity to be over there and put roots down outside of America — that was the deciding factor,” he said.

Before departing the U.S., Jackson admitted to some anxious feelings about relocating to Europe while also starting graduate school and joining a league that recruits players from powerhouse Division I college football programs in the U.S.

“If you care, you should be a little nervous,” Jackson said. But he feels well-prepared by his teachers and coaches at Centre and supported by his new teammates.

“In terms of football stuff, that will come,” he said. “I’ve never been nervous in that aspect because of how I prepare.”

Jackson also leaned on the expertise of Centre offensive line coach Robert Couch, who played in the NFL and in Europe before coaching in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Robert was very real with me because he lived out of a suitcase for four years just pursing his NFL dream for the Rams and Falcons and then going abroad,” Jackson said. “Respectfully, that’s just not for me. I figure I could do this and pursue my degree then explore other avenues.”

So Jackson cancelled the job interview he had in Louisville and hopped on a plane to England to seize the opportunity that was before him.

“I had an interview with Brown-Forman. I was going to do that and get my MBA,” he said. “But this opportunity to live abroad and get my master’s degree, and then still play football… “This really feels like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

This article appears in the Fall/Winter 2025 edition of Centrepiece.