Austin, Texas ? When Lee Jackson was growing up, his mother left him home at night while she went looking for drugs.

Jackson learned some lessons early on. He had to avoid the traps that snared his mother, and he had to depend on himself.

Texas linebacker Lee Jackson pulls down North Carolina's Jawarski Pollock. Jackson is UT's third-leading tackler after enduring two injury-plagued seasons.

Now a starting linebacker for Texas, Jackson credits those days for giving him the drive to excel and earn a scholarship, and the will to come back when injuries stole most of his last two seasons.

“It’s something that makes me stronger as a man,” he said.

Part of coach Mack Brown’s first recruiting class, Jackson played in 11 games as a freshman, tying for the team lead with 86 tackles and two interceptions at strong safety.

The injuries started at the end of that season. First a torn quadricep in the Cotton Bowl. The next season, a hamstring problem limited him to five games.

Last year, he strained ligaments in his left big toe. There were days he could barely get his shoe on. He played in only one game and red-shirted.

“You tell people you injured your toe and they’re like ‘What?”‘ Jackson said.

“They just didn’t understand how bad it hurt.”

There was also the frustration of not playing.

“You get tired of being hurt,” Jackson said. “I can’t say I didn’t think about quitting and just finishing my work for my degree.”

He had almost quit once before, when he was a homesick freshman and worried about his mother in Longview.

“One night I had my bags packed and called home for someone to come get me, and nobody would,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he represents too much to his family to quit. He said he’ll be the first of his generation to graduate college.

Jackson also wanted to be a role model for his mother, to show he could stay on the right path. Jackson is close to his mother, Patricia Randall, who still battles drug addiction.

“I’m a momma’s boy,” he said. “Through all the pain that we’ve been through with drugs and whatever, I’ve never lost my love for her. It’s something that makes me stronger as a man.”

Randall says her son is her rock, the person she counted on when things got so desperate she contemplated suicide.

She says Jackson led her to a spiritual awakening that is helping her kick her drug habit. She’s been clean for a month.

“What I did took a toll on him,” Randall says. “I’ve been in and out of substance abuse. What has made me stronger is my son. I feel good. You can tell the world that.”

Randall said she’ll be in Royal-Memorial Stadium tonight when the No. 3 Longhorns (2-0) play Houston (2-1).

Jackson’s 17 tackles rank third on the team.

Brown says the senior linebacker is showing the same fire he did in 1999.

“I see a guy who knows his time is about over and he doesn’t want to waste another minute,” Brown said.