Jenkins Makes Right Call in the Long Run

The words came quietly, barely audible over the long-distance telephone line. It was Ronney Jenkins calling home.

The same Ronney Jenkins who as a senior at Hueneme High rushed for 619 yards in one game, setting a national record and getting his picture in Sports Illustrated.

The same Ronney Jenkins who chose to attend BYU, confident he could make his mark by running the ball at Quarterback U.--the alma mater of Steve Young, Ty Detmer and Jim McMahon.

But before he made it into a single college game, Jenkins was calling his grandmother.

“He talked very softly,” she recalls. “He said, ‘Grandma, I’m ready to come home.’ ”

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The BYU Cougars are in Dallas this week, preparing to face Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day.

While quarterback Steve Sarkisian has amassed predictably herculean statistics, the No. 5-ranked Cougars have also set a team record by rushing for more than 2,500 yards.

Jenkins has accounted for nearly a third of that record--his 733 yards rank him behind junior Brian McKenzie’s 950. He also leads the team with 1,341 all-purpose yards and 14 touchdowns, heady numbers that earned him freshman of the year honors in the Western Athletic Conference.

“We knew he had the potential to be a big-time player,” says Lance Reynolds, his running backs coach. “But he has come along quicker than we expected.”

When describing the 5-foot-11, 170-pound freshman, Reynolds uses terms such as “traffic feet” and “running fluidly.” He is talking about a gut instinct that enables some runners to find seams in the defense.

Other teams are beginning to notice those traits in Jenkins too.

“Good quickness, good vision. That’s what you always look for,” says Mike Stoops, the Kansas State defensive coordinator. “He’s a wide-open runner.”

Jenkins is also, like so many 19-year-olds, a curious mix of bravado and insecurity. One moment he predicts multiple touchdowns in the Cotton Bowl. The next, he quietly confesses that adjusting to college football has been rough.

It might have been different. He had hoped to stay close to home, to play for USC, but those hopes were dashed when he took too long to meet the NCAA requirement on the Scholastic Assessment Test. Trojan recruiters stopped coming by.

Of the remaining schools interested in his services, BYU won out by promising immediate playing time and a higher education in the fine art of catching passes out of the backfield.

“I thought it would make me a better running back,” he says. “I knew I could catch the ball if I got the chance.”

But he didn’t count on memorizing the myriad of pass routes that comprise BYU’s intricate offense. He didn’t count on watching for defenders who blitz from every conceivable angle. He says: “I didn’t know there was so much to learn.”

At the same time, Jenkins found himself alone on a campus that is overwhelmingly white and Mormon. He found himself separated from loved ones.

“He’s just a homebody,” says Jean Cobbs, the grandmother who took him in after his parents divorced five years ago. “Once, he went to football camp. It was just a week and he called home then, too.”

When he called from BYU, she could hear the pain in his voice.

“But I knew that he had to grow up,” she recalls. “I told him, ‘You have made a decision, you’re going to stick to that decision.’ ”

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The Cobbs home in Port Hueneme bustles with aunts, uncles and cousins. Cobbs has raised nine children of her own and four grandchildren--Jenkins and his older brother, plus two younger boys from a daughter who died. Sometimes she worries about being overprotective, but with so many children around, there must be rules.

“I’m not saying that Ronney did everything I told him to do,” she says. “But when I told him something, he was the one kid who would sit and listen. He would always listen.”

That capacity proved to be his salvation at BYU. First, he heeded his grandmother’s counsel and remained at school. Then he listened to his coaches.

“When you bring a kid to this level, you wonder if he will focus and do what you ask,” Reynolds says. “With Ronney, you never have to crack the whip. He’s intense in practice and he learns.”

The first few games of the season, Jenkins was relegated to returning kickoffs. As the weeks went by, as the Cougar offense grew less and less mystifying to him, he began getting carries.

In the fourth game, he ran for the winning touchdown against New Mexico. A week later, he rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns against SMU. The coaches began to see promise.

“Fast kids have a tendency to bounce everything outside because they were used to being the fastest kid on the field in high school,” Reynolds says. “Ronney is not afraid to run inside, tackle to tackle, take some hits.”

Stoops puts it more bluntly: “There is no fear in the kid.”

The big games continued. Two touchdowns against Tulsa, 109 yards against Rice. More important, his thoughts turned less often to his family far away.

“Things got better,” he says. “I guess playing more took my mind off just sitting around, thinking about where I’m at.”

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The BYU coaches figure they got a glimpse of the future. About a month ago, with the Cougars playing at Utah, Jenkins carried 29 times for 156 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-17 victory.

“He’s only at the tip of the iceberg,” Reynolds says. “He’s going to get more physical. He’s going to understand the passing game better.”

The assistant coach chuckles.

“It is going to drive people crazy when we start getting him the ball downfield.”

But football skills are only part of what Jenkins has acquired since arriving on campus. As he prepares to play the last game in a remarkable freshman year, his grandmother detects more important changes.

“He has matured,” Cobb says. “It’s just something I see in the way he walks, the way he carries himself . . . . [But] he doesn’t call home as much.”