MONTGOMERY – “During this entire process the name of Brian Jenkins is the one that continued to come up,” Interim Athletic Director Melvin Hines said. “Everywhere I turned, everyone I talked to, everyone kept mentioning Brian Jenkins.” And with that the Brian Jenkins era has started at Alabama State University.
After five years at Bethune-Cookman University where he won an incredible 76 percent of his games and before a standing-room only crowd in the Club Lounge at New ASU Stadium, Jenkins has become the 26th head football coach at Alabama State.
“The opportunity is now, the opportunity is here and it’s time for us, not I, but us to get it done,” Jenkins said. “We have enough in place. There’s some work that can still be done, but we have to do it. I don’t want anyone to look at me as the answer; you have to first look at yourself and then come together and get it done.”
In his five years as a head coach at BCU, he had a 46-14 record, and that includes a 34-6 conference record in the MEAC. He led BCU to three NCAA FCS playoff appearances and had two wins over FBS teams.
After all of the accomplishments of his teams at BCU over the past five years, he was asked what intrigued him about coming to the SWAC to become a head coach. His answer was, “What intrigued me the most was ASU,” Jenkins said. “ASU is a phenomenal university. I think it is a hidden gem, I really do.”
“When you walk around town and get greeted by genuine people who enjoy each other, when you have leadership like you have here, when you have the facilities that you have, when you still have the potential for growth, when you have people who have a vision and have determination and who are never satisfied and want more, that should intrigue you enough and because of that it is a major attraction to me.”
Jenkins is looking to put a staff together over the next few days and to hit the recruiting trail. “Alabama is a powerhouse football state and a lot of people don’t know that,” Jenkins said. “People say Florida, California, Texas, but they don’t come to Alabama like they should. If we recruit 100 miles north, south east and west, we can attract enough players to build a program. I have some work to do, I’m unfamiliar with the territory of Alabama, but I’m not unfamiliar with recruiting.”
“We will hit the road running. We are in the process of recruiting some guys right now. I will take some of the consideration from the staff members that are on board and there are some Florida players and some out-of-state players that I think will fit as well, but I think the number one thing we need to do is sell ASU to Alabama. If we can do that in the right manner, I think we will be successful. So I’m going to put our ground roots of recruiting in the state of Alabama.”
Jenkins first official day at Alabama State will be January 1.
