Mike Jinks recounts 'interesting couple of days' after Kingsbury left

When USC hired Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator in its first big move of the offseason, there was some question about how he'd implement his system with an offensive staff he didn't handpick.

The lone exception was running backs coach Mike Jinks, who worked under Kingsbury at Texas Tech before spending the last three seasons as head coach at Bowling Green.

Jinks, who was hired in mid December, was the one fellow Air Raid disciple Kingsbury was going to have to lean on, and his hiring made a ton of sense given the Trojans' new offensive direction.

And then Kingsbury was gone weeks later, off to the NFL to become head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

"It was very difficult in that I couldn't look at my wife in the eyes for about three days," Jinks joked Thursday in his first interview since his hiring. "Because the day that I landed with my family -- I'd been here for a couple weeks -- we get off the plane and my son looks up and he's like, 'Dad, Kliff's going to Arizona. Did we just get fired again?' It was an interesting couple of days there."

Jinks, who was let go at Bowling Green midway through his third season there after going 7-24 as head coach, had previously coached the running backs at Texas Tech from 2013-15 under Kingsbury after coaching at a handful of Texas high schools over the previous decade.

When Kingsbury was hired by the Cardinals in early January, he and Jinks did discuss options, though Jinks did not say if he had a formal offer to follow his friend to the NFL.

"Kliff and I, we had some discussions. Coach [Clay] Helton and I had some discussions. He was honest, he wanted me -- he's a great man -- to make the decision that was best for me and my family, and I feel like I have," Jinks said of staying here.

When USC then hired Graham Harrell, another former Texas Tech QB and Air Raid disciple, Jinks' fit again made perfect sense for the Trojans.

But, yeah, he said, it was a crazy time for him nonetheless.

"It was an interesting couple of days there, but at the end of the day, I'm extremely happy for Kliff. It's a great opportunity -- it's one nobody would turn down -- but his situation and mine are completely different," Jinks said. "Again, guys, this is 'SC. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody, but this job is just as good as any NFL job. There may be two or three that may be on a whole other level, but I truly believe that.

"When you look at position coaches, it was kind of a no-brainer to me. And the fact that I'd been here for three weeks and had a chance to be on the road with Coach Helton for a little bit and get to know him as a man and as a person, it was tough because it's your buddy, but I wasn't telling [my wife] we were moving again."

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It will be interesting to see the impact Jinks has in recruiting with his deep Texas high school ties. According to his official bio, he went 76-18 as the head coach at Steele HS in Cibolo, Texas, over seven seasons after working as an offensive coordinator and assistant coach at five other Texas high schools.

USC has been very active on the recruiting front in Texas so far this cycle.

That topic didn't come up in Jinks' group session with reporters Thursday, but he did share his philosophy on coaching the running back position -- and it's distinctly different than the Trojans' approach last season.

"We want a complete back," he said. "... When we get the personnel we want on the field we want to keep that personnel. That allows us to play with great tempo. And if you're going to do that, I can't be rolling, OK, first, second down, here let me bring in my third-down back, and it slows down the tempo and they sub two defensive linemen. ...

"It's got to be a guy that can play all three. When you come out, it's because I'm scared you're tired and getting ready to fall. That's the only reason. So when they get in there they're going to roll and they're going to stay, because that's kind of the nuts and bolts of what we do."

Last season, USC stubbornly stuck to a running back rotation that at times meant the rusher having the most success was seemingly arbitrarily relegated to the bench for a long stretch.

Jinks added that he wants one of USC's running backs to show him they deserve 20-25 carries a game.

"He's on us, most definitely. He's on us. He doesn't give us room to breathe, but that's something that we need and that's something that I like about him," junior tailback Stephen Carr said.

With 2018 leading rusher Aca'Cedric Ware (825 yards on 125 carries) gone, Vavae Malepeai (93-501) and Carr (81-384) are the favorites to earn expanded roles with redshirt-freshman Markese Stepp also in the mix this spring and incoming freshman Kenan Christon joining in August.

As for the offense itself, though Kingsbury and Harrell come from the same background as QBs groomed under Mike Leach at Texas Tech, there are nuances to every version of the Air Raid. So Jinks was asked how he'd compare Harrell's system to the one he was familiar with under Kingsbury.

"There's some similarities. Again, what Graham's doing, what [Dana Holgorsen's] doing, what I did at BG, we're all kind of from that Air Raid tree," he said. "And when you look at the pass concepts, there's definitely some carryover so I was really excited about that. I guess from a selfish level, less learning from me, but there's a lot of similarities."