Coach Profile | Running Back Coach Mike Jinks

Coach: Mike Jinks
Position: Running Backs
Alma Mater: Angelo State
Coaching Experience:
1996-1997: Killeen Ellison High School, Quarterbacks Coach
1998: Judson High School, Quarterbacks Coach
1999: Austin Crockett High School, Offensive Coordinator
2000-2001: Galena Park High School, Offensive Coordinator
2002-2004: San Antonio Lee High School, Offensive Coordinator
2005: Burbank High School, Head Coach
2006-2012: Steele High School, Head Coach

I have done my best to piece together Jinks’ coaching career. I very well could have this incorrect as it was difficult to figure out where he has coached, but I believe this is accurate. Also, I think you can credit RRS.com's Chris Level for breaking the news first, but I haven't tracked down any time-stamps. I think this is accurate. Jinks gave some comments to KENS5, who had this to say about confirming the job:

"I'm gone," Jinks said when asked if he was going to Tech. "It looks good. It's a good deal."

Jinks then said he was "leaning heavily" toward taking the job, but wanted to tell his players first Thursday morning.

"That's not going too well because it's already out there," Jinks said.

Jinks also confirmed that he met with new Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury, a former standout quarterback at New Braunfels High School, in Lubbock on Wednesday.

This is a meteoric rise.

Mike Jinks is currently the head coach for San Antonio's Steele High School, but he got this job, just a handful of years ago.

But let's start at the beginning. Jinks was a terrific quarterback for Converse Judson and played in the state title game against Dallas Carter in 1988. Judson lost game game, but gets credit for the state title because Carter used an illegible player. Jinks then went on to play at Angelo State, starting his junior and senior years. I think that Jinks then graduated in 1994 from Angelo St. Then Jinks bounced around a bit, trying to catch on professionally, but ended up waiting tables in San Angelo at a Mexican food restaurant in 1995.

At that restaurant, Jinks met some coaches from Killeen Ellison, they struck up a conversation was offered a job within a few days. Jinks college coach, Jerry Vandergriff, loaned Jinks some money to make the move to Killeen as he apparently had no money or personal possessions to even make the move. And this started Jinks' coaching career.

From what I can tell, Jinks then spent a year or so at Ellison (2), Judson (1), Austin Crockett (1 - offensive coordinator), Galena Park (2 - offensive coordinator) and San Antonio Lee (3 - offensive coordinator) before taking the head coaching job at Burbank for one year in 2005 where Burbank had gone 0-50 before his arrival and then won three games in his first year. Then, Jinks is hired at Steele in 2006 and the rest is history.

Steele had not played football since 1968, so Jinks was starting from scratch and he built a monster of a program at Steele, which culminated in a state championship in 2010 (a really good article about his humble beginnings):

2006: 3-7
2007: 12-3
2008: 9-1
2009: 9-3
2010: 14-2
2011: 14-1
2012: 14-1

I can’t recommend enough these two articles if you want the full story, this one from GoSanAngelo and this one from the official site of Angelo St.. Jinks had this to say about his coaching:

"Coaching isn't just about X's and O's," Jinks said. "There are a lot of coaches and people who get hung up on the execution part of the game and neglect how they treat their players and other coaches. This is a relationship-driven profession where you are successful when you treat people the right way."

Theres a lot more at those two links and I highly encourage you to read them. One other thing, Jinks was recently reported as having an interest in the Judson job, but has formally turned that down.