A Mike Jinks Reading List

So with a little extra time on my hands, I decided to go back and see what was out there in the news media about Mike Jinks when he was a high school coach.  I must say it was pretty interesting....I'd recommend Falcon fans follow the links.  I have written plenty on Coach Jinks, and while I disagree with some of you on the whole thing, he's our guy until he wins and leaves or loses and leaves.  Let's hope it's the first.

So, here are some things that can be learned in the links below...

• When Jinks was a HS QB at Judson, his team won 28 straight games (with one forfeit.).

• Here is what his coach [Vandergriff] said in 2008 about him as a college QB

"He always had an unusual effect on the people around him," former ASU head football coach Jerry Vandergriff said of Jinks, who led the Rams to the 1994 NCAA Division II playoffs. "He was somewhat unconventional as a player, but he got the job done. He played hard, and everybody followed his lead."

"I can't tell you how many times I saw him get hit and thought there was no way he was getting up," Vandergriff said.

"I don't think you've heard the last of him. I think you'll see him go on and have a great career wherever it leads."

• We've all heard about how he was waiting tables when he was drafted into coaching and had to borrow money to move for the job.

• When he started at Steele HS...which was a new HS (but, to be fair, the kids were playing ball elsewhere), he told the team the following things:

“It was never about beating Judson. It was never about beating Clemens,” Jinks said of Steele’s neighboring rivals. “It was about doing what you needed to do to become a state power. And the kids bought into it.”

"From our initial team meeting, we kind of set a vision and set a goal and told them this is what would happen, that four or five years from now, when Dave Campbell’s (Texas Football magazine) comes out, when people talk about the top teams in the state, that Cibolo Steele will be mentioned in that voice,” said Jinks, who was Steele’s coach when the school opened in 2005."

That's interesting.  He said something similar in a presser this year at BG...that our vision is to be in the P5 bowl conversation every year.  That's a wow, as I said at the time.  It would make him BG's most successful coach since Perry.  Think that would be goood....  Now saying it and doing it are different things.  But, FWIW, he did say it once and he did make it happen.  Whether he can again, obviously no one knows.  And that was HS.  But he is not talking 100% out his ass.

“One of our players, Travis McKinney, he asked me, ‘Coach, do you really think we’re good enough to do that? Do you really think we’re good enough to go to the playoffs?’ I said, ‘I don’t think. I know.’"

• We all know they won the State Title in only his fifth season on the job, starting from, mostly, nothing.  Along the way they won 28 straight games...which is pretty good.  During that streak they trailed at halftime twice and entering the 4th losing only 3 times.  They outgained their opponents 402-247.

• I have always wondered why he went to Texas Tech.  I might be in the minority, but since Leach left (who, in my view is a successful scumbag), they have not been consistently good.  I have said they should be stealing our coaches.  His wife was a principal in the district where Steele HS was.  He was the AD and had a long-term contract.  Ten years to retiring.  Has passed up the job at his alma mater.

“I told my wife after the Angelo State deal I’d only leave for a Big 12 school in Texas. I just told her, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ So we started building our dream home. We did. We were two weeks from closing. We were two weeks from closing on our house when Kliff called.”

He knew the family, going back to the old man and Kliff's late Mom and felt it was a good fit, and "how often do you get to walk into a Big 12 school and its not a bottom feeder?"

• Well, we'll leave that one where it lies.  Not a bottom feeder, true.

• Anyway, on a more personal level, here is an interesting quote...

"Some people say I've made all the right moves at the right time," Jinks said. "That's not really the case. I made the moves I had to make. The Lord made it all work out for me.

"I went to Austin because my fiancee was finishing up school at UT. I moved back to San Antonio in 2001 because my mom got sick. I got to spend two years with her before she died on Super Bowl Sunday in 2003."

And this....

Jinks made history in 2010 when he became the first African American to lead a team from the San Antonio area to a University Interscholastic League football state title. That will be as big a part of his legacy as his sterling coaching record.

He talked about having the opportunity to make history a few days before Steele defeated Denton Guyer for the state crown in 2010.

“It is significant because it's never happened before, but I've had a lot of help from people,” he said.

“If what we've done this season can inspire more black kids to go into education and work as coaches and teachers, it makes me feel that much better about the whole experience.”

Jinks spoke about that again before he left for Tech.

“There are all kinds of stereotypes,” he said. “To me the toughest situation to get out of, knowing what I know from personal experience, is your environment. Coming from the inner city is hard. I know because that's where all my relatives come from, the inner city in Fort Worth.

“It's an unbelievable cycle. If inner-city kids see me and I look like them — or even if they're Hispanic or white — and that gives them hope that they can succeed, too, that gives me great joy.”

http://www.chron.com/sports/high_school/high_school_football/article/Steele-resolve-Anatomy-of-a-winning-streak-2403876.php

http://www.expressnews.com/sports/high_school/high_school_football/article/Steele-didn-t-take-long-to-evolved-into-a-state-9182786.php

http://lubbockonline.com/sports-red-raiders-football/2013-08-21/kingsbury-techs-appeal-persuaded-jinks-leave-highly

http://archive.gosanangelo.com/sports/high-school/football/former-asu-qb-jinks-making-his-mark-as-high-school-coach-ep-442321198-357906821.html

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sacultura/conexion/article/Coach-Jinks-finds-the-right-fit-at-Texas-Tech-4198863.php#ixzz2IHdvrFka