Getting a bid to the Motor City Bowl meant one more game before Florida Atlantic senior Jervonte Jackson’s college career ended.

More importantly for Jackson, the game in Detroit against Central Michigan will be on national TV, and that means his mother, Avonda Dowling, can see him one more time.

She will be watching from a federal prison in California, where she is serving a 20-year sentence for possession of cocaine.

“That motivates me. I could be anywhere else, but I am playing football and I am going to school. Look at the lifestyle she lived, and [her] son is going to college,” Jackson said.

Here is Jackson’s story, in his words:

“When I was young, like in sixth grade, I found out a lot about it because we were talking about it in school. I started putting two and two together. ‘Is this really happening?’

She told me everything about it. This is what I have done, this is what has led me to do this. I’m a single parent. I can’t force [your father to pay] child support.

At that point, I was confused. ‘How do you want me to do this if you do that?’

Even though she did what she did, she never gave up on me and my sister.

Everything we got had to be earned. Bad grades, you don’t get anything.

We lived in Overtown, and then moved in with my grandmother [in North Miami Beach], that is when I knew things were getting rough.

Mom was arrested for a gun charge. Something happened, some incident. I sat down, I was older then. When I was a little kid, she wouldn’t listen to me.

‘You can’t do this for the rest of your life. You’re not going to be on top forever. This lifestyle only lasts a certain amount of time.’

She stopped, she got a regular 9-to-5 job, got out of the hole. She worked at the Port of Miami.

In 2003 it came back. An indictment from back then. She wasn’t still doing it. I know for a fact.

The case went so wrong. Accusations against my mom by people she hadn’t even met.

Even though she did [sell drugs], we were disciplined. I didn’t want to do this. I looked at my father’s lifestyle. I saw a way out of certain things by playing football.

My father left when I was 2 years old. He went to jail for miscellaneous things.

I was sitting in the front row [of the courtroom], hoping they don’t find her guilty. They did, and then the prosecutor said she would serve this amount of time. Two hundred forty months. I am doing the math, that is 20 years.

It hit me, my heart skipped a beat. My mom is going away for 20 years.

I was still playing high school ball. It was kind of hard for me to focus. Just to know the type of person my mom was, she was always a fighter.

Her mindset, she is a strong individual. She knew what she was doing would lead her into a certain direction. She knew the game she was playing she had to be tough.

She writes me before every game and calls me before every game. Letters twice a week. Phone calls three times a week.

Mom, look at me at 13 and look at me now.”

Jackson will graduate in the spring. Friday, he will line up at defensive tackle and try to help the Owls win their second straight bowl in his final college game.

And his proud mother will be watching from the prison in California.