John Jenkins (born June 20, 1952) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach and former player. He served as the head football coach the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

from 1990 to 1992, compiling a record of 18–15. A proponent of the

run and shoot offense The run and shoot offense (also known as Run N' Shoot) is an offensive system for American football which emphasizes receiver motion and on-the-fly adjustments of receivers' routes in response to different defenses. It was conceived by former ...

, Jenkins also coached professional football in the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL), the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) and the

Fall Experimental Football League The Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL) was a professional football minor league that played two seasons in 2014 and 2015. This league's stated goal was to become a professional feeder-system for the National Football League (NFL). The lea ...

(FXFL). He served as the head coach of the CFL's

Ottawa Renegades The Ottawa Renegades were a Canadian Football League franchise based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, six years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded. After four seasons, the Renegades franchise was suspended indefinitely by the league ...

in 2006, the FXFL's Blacktips in 2014 and the

Hudson Valley Fort The Hudson Valley Fort was a team in the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL). The team played the 2015 season at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, New York. History After the 2014 season, the FXFL announced that three of its four teams would b ...

for part of 2015. During his career as a coach, Jenkins has mentored a number of notable

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

s such as

Andre Ware Andre Trevor Ware (born July 31, 1968) is an American sports analyst and commentator and a former American football player. He was the 1989 Heisman Trophy and Davey O'Brien Award winner as a quarterback for the University of Houston. He was t ...

David Klingler David Ryan Klingler (born February 17, 1969) is an associate professor of Bible exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary and a former American football quarterback. College career A 6-foot, 2-inch quarterback, Klingler rewrote numerous college p ...

Jim Kelly James Edward Kelly (born February 14, 1960) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent two seasons with the Houston Gamblers of the United State ...

Eric Crouch Eric Eugene Crouch (born November 16, 1978) is a former American football quarterback. He also is a TV sports analyst and recreational equipment vendor. Crouch played college football for the University of Nebraska. In 2001 Crouch won the Heisma ...

Kliff Kingsbury Kliff Timothy Kingsbury (born August 9, 1979) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the head coach for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously a collegiate football coach from 2008 to ...

Anthony Calvillo Anthony Calvillo (born August 23, 1972) is the quarterbacks coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and is a former professional Canadian football quarterback. He was professional football's all-time passing yards ...

and

Doug Flutie Douglas Richard Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is an American former football quarterback whose professional career spanned 21 seasons. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), eight seasons in the Canadian Football League (CF ...

Early life and playing career

Jenkins was raised in

Pampa, Texas Pampa (from the Quechua: ''pampa'', meaning "plain") is a city in Gray County, Texas, United States. Its population was 16,867 as of the 2020 census. Pampa is the county seat of Gray County and is the principal city of the Pampa micropolitan ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

Coaching career

Houston Gamblers

After serving as the special teams coach for the

Houston Gamblers The Houston Gamblers were an American football team that competed in the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. The Gamblers were coached by veteran NFL head coach Jack Pardee in both their seasons. They were noteworthy for introducing ...

of the USFL in 1984, Jenkins was promoted to

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

in 1985 with the departure of

Mouse Davis Darrel "Mouse" Davis (born September 6, 1932) is a retired American football coach and former player. A veteran coach at the high school, college, and professional levels, he last coached with Jerry Glanville at Portland State and with June Jon ...

, who moved to the

Denver Gold The Denver Gold was a franchise in the United States Football League, an attempt to establish a second major professional football league in the United States, playing a springtime season, from 1983 to 1985. The Gold played their home games at Mi ...

as head coach. Jenkins kept the

that Davis had installed, but modified the offense into his own version. In Jenkins' debut as offensive coordinator against

Steve Young Jon Steven Young (born October 11, 1961) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

and the Los Angeles Express, the Gamblers trailed 33–13 with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Employing a

hurry-up offense The hurry-up offense is an American football offensive style, which has two different but related forms in which the offensive team avoids delays between plays. The hurry-up, no-huddle offense (HUNH) refers to avoiding or shortening the huddle to l ...

, the Gamblers came back to win the game 34–33. Since the game was not televised, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' dubbed it "The Greatest Game Never Seen". In the fourth week of the 1985 season, the Gamblers met Davis'

in the first game ever to pit two run and shoot offenses. The two offenses showed only small similarities as Jenkins employed various new tactics such as motioning receivers out of the backfield and going into empty sets. The Gamblers won 36–17. After the game, quarterback

was on pace to finish the season with 7,434 yards and 78 touchdowns. But due to a leg injury, he missed six games of the regular season and he fell well short of those marks. However, Kelly and his backup, Todd Dillon, combined 6,118 yards passing on the season, a record for professional American football. The Gamblers offense also featured three receivers—

Clarence Verdin Clarence Verdin (born June 14, 1963) is a former American football wide receiver and kick returner in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins, Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons. He also was a member of the Houston G ...

Gerald McNeil Gerald Lynn McNeil (born March 27, 1962) is a former American football wide receiver and return specialist who played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons with the Cleveland Browns and Houston Oilers. He also played in the Unite ...

, and

Richard Johnson Richard or Dick Johnson may refer to: Academics * Dick Johnson (academic) (1929–2019), Australian academic * Richard C. Johnson (1930–2003), professor of electrical engineering * Richard A. Johnson, artist and professor at the University of ...

—that each totaled over 1,000 yards, a rarity that only Don Coryell's San Diego Chargers accomplished in the early 1980s. The Gamblers made the playoffs with a 10–8 record, and lost to the

Birmingham Stallions The Birmingham Stallions were a franchise in the United States Football League, an attempt to establish a second professional league of American football in the United States in competition with the National Football League. They played their h ...

, 22–20.

Dream Team

In 1986,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, owner of the

New Jersey Generals The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...

, bought the Houston Gamblers. The Gamblers and the Generals were merged, matching the USFL's leading rusher,

Herschel Walker Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He was also the Republican nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia. ...

, with its leading passer, Kelly, and creating what

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

called the "Dream Team". There were also rumors of Jenkins installing a two-quarterback system with

in the slot. However, after a failed attempt to launch the season in the fall, the USFL folded, and the "Dream Team" never took the field.

Houston Cougars

Offensive coordinator

Jenkins moved to the

and joined the

Houston Cougars football The Houston Cougars football program is an NCAA Division I FBS football team that represents the University of Houston. The team is commonly referred to as "Houston" or "UH" (spoken as "U of H"). The UH football program is a member of the Big 1 ...

staff as the offensive coordinator in 1987. There he inherited a

veer The Veer is an option running play often associated with option offenses in American football, made famous at the collegiate level by Bill Yeoman's Houston Cougars. It is currently run primarily on the high school level, with some usage at t ...

option offense featuring

, who only threw one touchdown pass his entire high school career, and converted it into one of the most prolific passing attacks in college football history. When Jenkins joined the Cougars, he had further developed his offense from a pure run and shoot attack into what he referred to as the "Multiple Adjusting Passing Offense" or "MAPO". Jenkins' new offense made an immediate impact in the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

as Houston beat the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

handily in each of his first three seasons: 60–40 in 1987, 66–15 in 1988, and 47–9 in 1989. In 1988, Jason Phillips and James Dixon became the first two college football receivers to finish a season with over 100 catches. In 1989, Houston scored over 40 points in nine of their 11 games, including a 95–21 rout of SMU in which they racked up 1,021 yards of offense. Ware finished the season with 4,699 yards and 44 touchdowns, set 26

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

records, and won the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

. The 1989 Houston offense averaged 624.9 total yards per game and 10.1 yards rushing per carry, both national records.

Head coach

In 1990, Cougars head coach

Jack Pardee John Perry Pardee (April 19, 1936 – April 1, 2013) was an American football linebacker and the only head coach to helm a team in college football, the National Football League (NFL), the United States Football League (USFL), the World Footbal ...

left the team to take the head coaching position with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

. Jenkins was promoted to head coach of the Cougars. With Ware gone,

took over at quarterback and continued the success of Jenkins' passing attack. Klingler threw for over 400 yards in nine of 11 games in 1990, including a 716-yard performance against

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

in the

Coca-Cola Classic Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

. He averaged 474.6 yards a game, a national record. Klingler also broke the national record for most touchdown passes in a game with 11 against

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

. He completed the season with 5,140 yards and 54 touchdowns, outpacing Ware's totals from 1989, but fell short in the Heisman race, finishing fifth behind winner

Ty Detmer Ty Hubert Detmer (born October 30, 1967) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. Detme ...

and three others. Houston finished the season 10–1. Their only loss came against Texas. The Cougars were not allowed to go to a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions for violations under former coach Bill Yeoman. Jenkins' teams featured the nation's leading receiver each year from 1987 to 1992. The Cougars started the 1991 season poised to pick up right where they left off. After routing Louisiana Tech 73–3 in the first game of the season, the next game was a nationally televised road game against the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

. They lost 40–10. Houston won only seven more games during the remainder of Jenkins' tenure. He resigned under fire in the spring of 1993.

Canadian Football League

After leaving Houston, Jenkins landed a job as a defensive backs coach with the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

of the

(CFL). Jenkins coached with a number of CFL teams before joining the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

as the offensive coordinator. There Jenkins installed a new offense built around the strengths of quarterback,

. The Argonauts won the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

in 1997.

FXFL

Jenkins was appointed as head coach for the

's Blacktips for the 2014 season. In 2015, he became the head coach of the

. He quit that position midway through the season, citing payment and player safety problems.

FCF

In 2021, Jenkins signed as a coach with

Fan Controlled Football Fan Controlled Football (FCF) is a professional 7-on-7 Indoor football league created in 2017 as the first sports league controlled by fans. All games are played at the Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia and broadcast on Twitch, NBCLX, DAZN, ...

Head coaching record

College

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, John 1952 births Living people American football quarterbacks American football running backs Arkansas Razorbacks football players Calgary Stampeders coaches Hamilton Tiger-Cats coaches Houston Cougars football coaches Mississippi State Bulldogs football coaches Ottawa Renegades coaches Toronto Argonauts coaches Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches Milwaukee Mustangs (1994–2001) coaches United States Football League coaches People from Pampa, Texas Fall Experimental Football League coaches