MANY HAPPY RETURNS
As crazy as it sounds, as incredulous as it seems, Ronney Jenkins is glad to be a San Diego Charger.
Never mind that the Chargers, the NFL’s poster boys for incompetence, are 1-13 and bent on becoming the sixth team in league history to lose 15 games in a season.
Forget, too, that Jenkins is touching the ball almost only on kickoff returns.
For a rookie running back passed over by every team in the April draft, living a dream can’t be all bad, even with the nightmarish Chargers.
“I’m learning,” Jenkins said. “I’m just waiting for the opportunity.”
It’s unfamiliar territory for Jenkins, a former record-setting tailback at Hueneme High whose considerable skills have never kept him off a football field. Only a reluctance to obey team rules has done that.
After signing with the Chargers as a free agent, Jenkins impressed the team’s brass during training camp and preseason, going from longshot to union member in a few weeks.
Although slim for an NFL running back at 5 feet 11 and 188 pounds, Jenkins has breakaway speed and can zig and zag like William “Refrigerator” Perry at a buffet line.
He returned two kickoffs in preseason for touchdowns, one 89 yards against San Francisco and the other 86 yards against Minnesota, and rushed 10 times for 69 yards and one touchdown against the Vikings.
But with sixth-year pro Terrell Fletcher topping San Diego’s depth chart for running backs, Jenkins was relegated to returning kickoffs during the regular season.
“It’s going to take some time for [Jenkins] to learn the position, as far as the NFL is concerned,” running backs coach Ollie Wilson said. “He has a lot of talent and a lot of God-given speed.”
Jenkins is putting the afterburners to good use. He leads the AFC with 61 kickoff returns and 1,415 yards, and is ninth at 23.2 yards per return. Jenkins has broken Andre Coleman’s team season record of 1,411 yards set in 1995 and is one shy of his record for most kickoff returns set the same year.
He set the tone with an electrifying 93-yard return for a touchdown against New Orleans in his second game, dropping the kick before scrambling along the left sideline late in the second quarter to put San Diego ahead, 24-10.
Another return against the Saints went 46 yards and one of 48 yards was nullified because of a penalty. He finished with a career-high 221 yards on six returns, but it wasn’t enough to keep San Diego from losing, 28-27.
“My second NFL game and I ran one back,” Jenkins said. “I can’t describe the feeling.”
Jenkins also couldn’t put into words his most prolific game.
It came on Nov. 9, 1995, his final game at Hueneme. Playing against Rio Mesa, Jenkins carried 30 times for a national-record 619 yards and scored seven touchdowns, four covering 79 yards or more.
The next day, he was still searching his emotions.
“Nothing has hit me yet,” he said.
Offers from four-year schools poured in and Jenkins chose Brigham Young because he could play immediately. That he did, rushing for 733 yards and 11 touchdowns as a freshman in 1996, but his days with the Cougars were numbered.
Jenkins was suspended for 1997 for having sex with his girlfriend, a violation of the Mormon school’s code of honor, and was expelled during the 1998 season for the same reason. He transferred to Division I-AA Northern Arizona to avoid sitting out a season under NCAA rules and rushed for 1,051 yards and seven touchdowns in 1999.
His production at Northern Arizona was unspectacular, but Jenkins believed college football held no more challenges. He aimed for the next frontier, declaring for the NFL draft and watching round after round rush by without hearing his name.
“I was a little disappointed,” Jenkins said. “But as far as coming [to San Diego] to try out, I thought I was going to make it. I knew I was ready to be here. I don’t regret coming out early just because I wasn’t drafted.”
Jenkins is not unhappy with the Chargers, but he has bigger goals for himself on the team. He plans to spend the off-season bulking up and refining his blocking and ball-carrying skills to challenge Fletcher and anyone else for the starting running back spot.
He also wants to spend more time with his one-year-old daughter Nayana, who lives in New Jersey with her mother, Jenkins’ girlfriend at BYU. The two married but are separated.
The Chargers have tossed Jenkins into the backfield mix a little more in recent weeks. He was in for several plays late in San Diego’s 45-17 loss to San Francisco, giving Wilson a glimpse of what might lie ahead.
“He did some good things in pass protection,” Wilson said. “I look for him to be a real good player in the league in years to come.”
Jenkins can hardly wait.
“I have to have patience,” Jenkins said. “There’s people ahead of me. I just practice hard. I feel the way you practice is how you play. You never know when your time will come.”