View of coach Jinks from a veteran football coach

[bg1984]

For what it's worth I asked a HS coach with 30 years experience his impression of Coach Jinks. He has had interaction with every coach at BG since Moe Ankney and has spent considerable time watching them in practice and interacting with them. The first words out of his mouth were "great recruiter." He said he's a guy who knows how to make connections with HS coaches and he does the little things in recruiting that make a difference. Not surprisingly his comments about Baber's included the words "arrogant," "dismissive," "uncooperative" and "lazy" on recruiting. He put Jinks in the same recruiting category and ability to connect to HS coaches as Meyer and Clawson. His impression is that Jinks is piecemealing together what Babers left him. No way after year two could he have a team built. His one criticism, if you could call it that, was his flip flopping on his scheme and vision. But he gave him a pass on this point given the realization he had about the players he had to work with. His position on Jinks is that he's going to turn this around through recruiting. But that can't happen immediately. As a season ticket holder (4) and Falcon Club member I'm frustrated that for two long seasons now we can't at least muster 6 wins for bowl eligibility. I'm sick of being sick every time I leave the Doyt. But I'm more and more convinced that the culprit in this debacle is now living in upstate NY! He rode on the coat tails of a program builder ( Clawson) and then so selfishly concerned himself with his next job that the lifeblood of a program ( Recruiting) was simply an afterthought. It just seems that once we taste success we can't sustain it because we replace coaches too often. We have nice highs then terrible falls. The 2017 class ranked #2 in the MAC and 2018 looks like it could be equally as good. Shore up the defense, get the OL established, throw in the young skill players like Doege, Clair and Wilcox and I'll feel good about our chances for success.

[threestooges]

... But I'm more and more convinced that the culprit in this debacle is now living in upstate NY! He rode on the coat tails of a program builder ( Clawson) and then so selfishly concerned himself with his next job that the lifeblood of a program ( Recruiting) was simply an afterthought. ...

+1,000,000

Could.
Not.
Agree.
More.

Actually, I agree with pretty much everything you said, but especially the Babers-related stuff. As I and others have said repeatedly on this site, he had one foot out the door as soon as he got here. He had a solid team after five years of Clawson slowly but surely building a program, and he did what he needed to do to get that Power 5 job he so coveted.

As for Jinks, I'm willing to give him more of a chance simply because of the play of Doege and Clair. Look what they've done as true freshmen. I'm willing to wait and seewhat he (Jinks) can do once he gets some more of his recruits in here.

[bowlgreen]

Thank you for the sincere report from someone that knows. Well written.

[guest44]

LOL........Yep, it's all Babers fault. All those little things BG does to shoot itself in the foot game after game......Babers fault. The horrible concessions at the Doyt.....Babers fault. The talking points when you try to convince yourself of something. He looked lost at OSU. He looked lost at Memphis. He looked lost against South Dakota. Trust the eyes.

[Falco_peregrinusana]

As much as it pains me to see the beatings week after week, I am inclined to give our coach two more years with his recruits. It can be argued about schemes, play calling, and game time decisions. However, there is no doubt that the man can recruit. This is where championships are build... Fleck showed this. I am expecting much better times again as these freshmen develop as upper classmen...

[hammb]

Babers was not a great recruiter, but he was a damned good coach.

Jinks may be a good recruiter, but doesn't look like he could coach his way out of a wet paper bag.


I'll take the better coach any day. I'd much rather listen to Babers talk than clueless Jinks. And I'd much rather watch Babers teams than Jinks' teams. Jinks may eventually build a program here and learn how to coach, but right now he looks completely lost. We'll see how great his recruiting is if he cannot figure out how to actually win games.

More likely to me is not that Babers couldn't recruit or left us in some trainwreck. More likely to me is that Babers recruited kids that could play and win with his style of football. Jinks has no clue how to build an offense like that and that renders a lot of Dino's recruits less useful than they would have been to him. It sucks that we only got 2 years of that style of football, but it was a helluva 2 years. Beats the hell out of what we've got now where I don't even know what day of the week we play until I see a "game thread"

[jpfalcon09]

Babers was not a great recruiter, but he was a damned good coach.

Jinks may be a good recruiter, but doesn't look like he could coach his way out of a wet paper bag.


I'll take the better coach any day. I'd much rather listen to Babers talk than clueless Jinks. And I'd much rather watch Babers teams than Jinks' teams. Jinks may eventually build a program here and learn how to coach, but right now he looks completely lost. We'll see how great his recruiting is if he cannot figure out how to actually win games.

More likely to me is not that Babers couldn't recruit or left us in some trainwreck. More likely to me is that Babers recruited kids that could play and win with his style of football. Jinks has no clue how to build an offense like that and that renders a lot of Dino's recruits less useful than they would have been to him. It sucks that we only got 2 years of that style of football, but it was a helluva 2 years. Beats the hell out of what we've got now where I don't even know what day of the week we play until I see a "game thread"

Which is why it was painful not to retain someone from Dino's staff to coach the team after his departure. We've got seniors who have played under three separate schemes in their 4-5 years at BG. Clawson's possession and methodical offense, Babers' no huddle, lightning fast score at will and Jinks' air raid turned into a run first, pass second whatever it is he wants to do. So yes, we have players who aren't suited to run whatever it is Jinks is trying to do. At the very least I would say that Doege understands this offense and we can only hope he continues to develop into the QB the offense needs.

[bg1984]

I just don't know enough about the intricacies of offensive and defensive schemes to offer any kind of intelligent insight into the coaching ability of Jinks. I do know this: Average coaches can look really good with skilled athletes and great coaches can look really bad with average athletes. Bottom line is that coaches win with talent. Yes the coaches have to put players in position to make plays and timely calls are important but at the end of the day Players either make plays or they don't. The one game this year that gave me hope that this staff could play call was the OU game. Time and time again there were great calls made and plays there for the taking that simply were not executed. Coaches cannot make plays. Players do. This is not a criticism of players. It's just possible that some players on this team are simply doing the best that they can but they just aren't as talented as their opponents.

When I talked to the coach that I mentioned earlier, I asked him if he thought Jinks was in over his head. He didn't hesitate for a second with his answer: "no!" In his estimation as a guy who has run a football program for a long time, Jinks looks in control And the other positive comment he made was that he was not throwing players under the bus. He doesn't call out players publicly.

If nothing else, it could be argued that with 6 wins in two seasons a coach with lesser ability might have "lost the team" by now. I don't see any evidence of that at all. As the losses pile up and players are substituted it would be easy for them to start revolting. The fact that they haven't tells me that behind the scenes and in that locker room where NONE of us has access, the players are buying what Jinks is selling. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to motivate players under these conditions, but Jinks and his staff seem to be doing it. True character is rarely revealed under the best of conditions. Winning is easy. It's this losing that tests everyone involved.

I admit that I have softened on Jinks this season especially after witnessing the talent of 3 key players that he recruited: Doege, Clair and Wilcox. Look what Doege and Clair are doing behind an offensive line that resemble a M*A*S*H* unit. Imagine what they could do behind a healthy and developed O line!

I looked at the roster and found about 60% of the players to be red-shirt sophomores or below. It looks as if they have about 16 seniors on the roster but only 7 really contributing and one of those is Davidson. I just don't see how a team wins much with that number of young players. Am I defending Jinks some? Maybe. It's also possible I'm just trying to make myself feel better about how far we have fallen since 2015. But keep in mind, that 2015 team had names like, Lewis, Dieter, Johnson, Hardy, Hunter, Moore, Gallon, Greene, Burbrink, Turner, Coppet, Royster, Huttel and Lee.

Assembling a football roster is not an exact science, but on paper it looks like Jinks is doing it right: Building a program through solid recruiting. Since I don't really have an alternative, I've decided to take a wait to see attitude. I've seen enough flashes of success and skilled players to at least make me think it's headed in the right direction. Time will tell.

[Schadenfreude]

For what it's worth I asked a HS coach with 30 years experience his impression of Coach Jinks. He has had interaction with every coach at BG since Moe Ankney and has spent considerable time watching them in practice and interacting with them. The first words out of his mouth were "great recruiter." He said he's a guy who knows how to make connections with HS coaches and he does the little things in recruiting that make a difference. Not surprisingly his comments about Baber's included the words "arrogant," "dismissive," "uncooperative" and "lazy" on recruiting. He put Jinks in the same recruiting category and ability to connect to HS coaches as Meyer and Clawson. His impression is that Jinks is piecemealing together what Babers left him. No way after year two could he have a team built. His one criticism, if you could call it that, was his flip flopping on his scheme and vision. But he gave him a pass on this point given the realization he had about the players he had to work with. His position on Jinks is that he's going to turn this around through recruiting. But that can't happen immediately. As a season ticket holder (4) and Falcon Club member I'm frustrated that for two long seasons now we can't at least muster 6 wins for bowl eligibility. I'm sick of being sick every time I leave the Doyt. But I'm more and more convinced that the culprit in this debacle is now living in upstate NY! He rode on the coat tails of a program builder ( Clawson) and then so selfishly concerned himself with his next job that the lifeblood of a program ( Recruiting) was simply an afterthought. It just seems that once we taste success we can't sustain it because we replace coaches too often. We have nice highs then terrible falls. The 2017 class ranked #2 in the MAC and 2018 looks like it could be equally as good. Shore up the defense, get the OL established, throw in the young skill players like Doege, Clair and Wilcox and I'll feel good about our chances for success.

Thank you for this post. Very interesting. I hope you are right, and I sense you might be.

The way the offense seems to be coming along gives me some hope. Special teams have been great. Obviously, this team still has big issues, particularly on defense. But you can't question these players' heart. They haven't quit on Jinks. And some of Jinks's recruits are showing immense talent.

[daspollak]

Babers was not a great recruiter, but he was a damned good coach.

Jinks may be a good recruiter, but doesn't look like he could coach his way out of a wet paper bag.


I'll take the better coach any day. I'd much rather listen to Babers talk than clueless Jinks. And I'd much rather watch Babers teams than Jinks' teams. Jinks may eventually build a program here and learn how to coach, but right now he looks completely lost. We'll see how great his recruiting is if he cannot figure out how to actually win games.

More likely to me is not that Babers couldn't recruit or left us in some trainwreck. More likely to me is that Babers recruited kids that could play and win with his style of football. Jinks has no clue how to build an offense like that and that renders a lot of Dino's recruits less useful than they would have been to him. It sucks that we only got 2 years of that style of football, but it was a helluva 2 years. Beats the hell out of what we've got now where I don't even know what day of the week we play until I see a "game thread"

A lot of people were saying the same thing about Fleck early on. He was able to get better results in year two than Jinks, but he was a great recruiter who couldn't put it together on the field. I know we a tied to Jinks for at least another year, but I want to see a solid recruiting class with improvement next year before I make final judgement on him.

[Flipper]

Regardless of how he came to be here...my biggest issue with Jinks was his decision to hire people with the same limited experience level that he has. I would have liked to see him hire what amounts to a bench coach in baseball...a veteran set of eyes that can help a manager process what's in front of him. (E.g. Gene Lamont with Brad Ausmus)

On the plus side...he's upgraded the talent level here considerably. Sure, there's been some frustrating mistakes...Clawson's guys did that stuff too. I could look at Clawson's staff and figure he had enough experience on staff to overcome those mistakes. I'm not sure Jinks has that.

So far as Dino goes...I don't think he cared that much about recruiting because he knew he'd be gone in two years the moment he set foot on campus. He did what he had to do to land the big $$$ job. That's not a very flattering way to define a coaching "era"...but that seems to be all we have to work with

[Falconfreak90]

I just don't know enough about the intricacies of offensive and defensive schemes to offer any kind of intelligent insight into the coaching ability of Jinks. I do know this: Average coaches can look really good with skilled athletes and great coaches can look really bad with average athletes. Bottom line is that coaches win with talent. Yes the coaches have to put players in position to make plays and timely calls are important but at the end of the day Players either make plays or they don't. The one game this year that gave me hope that this staff could play call was the OU game. Time and time again there were great calls made and plays there for the taking that simply were not executed. Coaches cannot make plays. Players do. This is not a criticism of players. It's just possible that some players on this team are simply doing the best that they can but they just aren't as talented as their opponents.

When I talked to the coach that I mentioned earlier, I asked him if he thought Jinks was in over his head. He didn't hesitate for a second with his answer: "no!" In his estimation as a guy who has run a football program for a long time, Jinks looks in control And the other positive comment he made was that he was not throwing players under the bus. He doesn't call out players publicly.

If nothing else, it could be argued that with 6 wins in two seasons a coach with lesser ability might have "lost the team" by now. I don't see any evidence of that at all. As the losses pile up and players are substituted it would be easy for them to start revolting. The fact that they haven't tells me that behind the scenes and in that locker room where NONE of us has access, the players are buying what Jinks is selling. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to motivate players under these conditions, but Jinks and his staff seem to be doing it. True character is rarely revealed under the best of conditions. Winning is easy. It's this losing that tests everyone involved.

I admit that I have softened on Jinks this season especially after witnessing the talent of 3 key players that he recruited: Doege, Clair and Wilcox. Look what Doege and Clair are doing behind an offensive line that resemble a M*A*S*H* unit. Imagine what they could do behind a healthy and developed O line!

I looked at the roster and found about 60% of the players to be red-shirt sophomores or below. It looks as if they have about 16 seniors on the roster but only 7 really contributing and one of those is Davidson. I just don't see how a team wins much with that number of young players. Am I defending Jinks some? Maybe. It's also possible I'm just trying to make myself feel better about how far we have fallen since 2015. But keep in mind, that 2015 team had names like, Lewis, Dieter, Johnson, Hardy, Hunter, Moore, Gallon, Greene, Burbrink, Turner, Coppet, Royster, Huttel and Lee.

Assembling a football roster is not an exact science, but on paper it looks like Jinks is doing it right: Building a program through solid recruiting. Since I don't really have an alternative, I've decided to take a wait to see attitude. I've seen enough flashes of success and skilled players to at least make me think it's headed in the right direction. Time will tell.

Absolutely. I am willing to give Coach Jinks another year or two as well. Sure its been very difficult to see us go 6-16 in 2 years but Clawson was 9-16 when his first two years were done.

The jury is still out on whether he can pull this together. I remember Moe Ankney well in my time at BG (86-90). He could recruit like crazy but was a poor game day coach. There is validity to what Flip said. And I think Jinks needs to SERIOUSLY think about shaking up the staff after the season. Look for some veteran coaches to help.

And he has NOT lost this team despite all the hardships...THAT speaks volumes.

Time will tell indeed...#BeatslUT

[kdog27]

I agree with Flipper. His biggest mistake was not surrounding himself with better assistants. You are only as good as the people beneath you. I get that you want to elevate your friends but you have to mix in some seasoned veterans in there too. I don't get the 2 offensive coordinators either, too many cooks in the kitchen. They can obviously recruit and hope that continues.

[Falconfreak90]

I agree with Flipper. His biggest mistake was not surrounding himself with better assistants. You are only as good as the people beneath you. I get that you want to elevate your friends but you have to mix in some seasoned veterans in there too. I don't get the 2 offensive coordinators either, too many cooks in the kitchen. They can obviously recruit and hope that continues.

Never been a fan of the Co Offensive Coordinators.

[Schadenfreude]

A lot of people were saying the same thing about Fleck early on. He was able to get better results in year two than Jinks, but he was a great recruiter who couldn't put it together on the field.

P.J. Fleck? He got his Broncos to the Cotton Bowl.

Do you mean a different Fleck?