He’s Not Cool

Jack Del Rio’s ability to lead, his unbridled passion for football and his singular focus on what it takes to win earned him the job as coach of the struggling Jacksonville Jaguars.

It also cost him a pair of really nice sunglasses.

When Carolina linebacker Dan Morgan intercepted a pass near the end of last season’s opener to clinch a 10-7 victory over Baltimore, Del Rio -- then the defensive coordinator for the Panthers -- was too excited to celebrate from the sideline. He sprinted onto the field and joined the pile of defensive players. Finally, he emerged from the fray with a huge smile and his shades snapped in two.

“It was just a spontaneous reaction,” said Del Rio, who returns to Carolina today to make his regular-season coaching debut. “It was a game-clinching play against a team I had coached with the year before. It was just a very exciting time.”

Exciting because the Panthers were coming off a 15-game losing streak, and exciting because they were beginning one of the most remarkable defensive makeovers in NFL history. In Del Rio’s only season with the team, Carolina went from last place in the defensive rankings to second behind eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay. Matching that incredible ascent is the meteoric rise of Del Rio, the All-American from USC, who needed only six seasons to go from an assistant strength coach under Mike Ditka in New Orleans -- a.k.a. glorified weight stacker -- to head coach in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars hired him in January to replace Tom Coughlin, making Del Rio, then 39, the second-youngest head coach in the league to Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden. As only the second coach in Jaguar history, Del Rio is responsible for resuscitating a franchise hemorrhaging with on-field problems, and now scandal.

Citing police reports, the Florida Times-Union wrote Saturday that a Jacksonville businessman arrested in a downtown drug sting, Don Brown Jr., told police he sold marijuana to Jaguars Marcus Stroud and John Henderson and to former Jacksonville player Stacey Mack, now with the Houston Texans. The players haven’t been charged, and Stroud and Henderson have denied any dealings with Brown. The paper said Mack has been unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, All-Pro Jacksonville receiver Jimmy Smith is serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s drug policy.

Those are merely the latest blows to a franchise that has gone 19-29 the last three seasons and is coming off an exhibition finale against Washington that drew an all-time low crowd of 44,314 to Alltel Stadium -- even with wildly popular Steve Spurrier in town.

When the Jaguars suffered a humiliating loss to the expansion Texans last season, someone in the home crowd leaned over the railing and spit on Coughlin.

Yes, times are tough in Jacksonville, where fans were spoiled almost from the start with the franchise reaching the AFC championship in only its second season. Before their current three-season playoff drought, the Jaguars reached the postseason four times and twice fell a victory shy of the Super Bowl. No expansion team has had as much success so quickly.

“Jack can get them back there,” said ESPN’s Sean Salisbury, who played with Del Rio at USC and with the Minnesota Vikings. “I believe that players take on the personality of their head coach. I can guarantee that when Jack gets his players in there, they will win again.”

Del Rio, who played 11 seasons in the NFL, is masterful when it comes to seizing opportunities. He played for five teams -- among them New Orleans, Kansas City, Dallas and Minnesota -- and walked away from playing after Miami cut him in 1996.

Because he played as a freshman at USC, Del Rio used his eligibility in four years and had a lot of academic work left when Kansas City made him a third-round pick. Later, when playing for the Chiefs, he enrolled at the University of Kansas so he could pick up the remaining credits he needed to get his degree. But the Chiefs cut him shortly thereafter, and he was signed by the Cowboys.

All but immovable when he focuses on a goal, Del Rio stuck around in Kansas City and took 30 credits in spring 2000 -- so much that he was attending classes from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- and got his degree before he moved to Dallas.

“When we played together, I was the scholastic guy,” said Duane Bickett, a bookend to Del Rio at USC who spent 12 seasons as a pro linebacker. “Jack was focused on the NFL. He figured at some point he’d need his education, and the light just went on. He’s exceeded what I thought he’d do. Far exceeded.”

Del Rio worked as a stockbroker for a year after his playing career ended, then, at the urging of Tony Dungy, Buccaneer coach at the time, he eased back into football by attending a couple of college all-star games. Ditka eventually offered him a low-level job with the Saints, and Del Rio parlayed that into a job as linebackers coach with Baltimore, a position that got him a Super Bowl ring in 2000. Then, he was off to Carolina in 2002, and finally to Jacksonville.

“I knew he would wind up being a head coach somewhere,” Panther Coach John Fox said. “I’m just surprised how fast it happened.”

Many aspects of football came naturally to Del Rio, who attended Hayward High and was among the best schoolboy athletes ever to come out of the Bay Area.

Not only was he an outstanding football player, the nation’s most recruited linebacker his senior year, but he was an all-star point guard and catcher.

He continued his baseball career at USC, where he played with future Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Mark McGwire. Legendary Trojan baseball coach Rod Dedeaux said Del Rio had a very promising career in that sport and was “an outstanding major league prospect.”

“Jack was so quick, he didn’t hit into one ground-ball double play,” Dedeaux said. “And he was so big, it really made plays at the plate fun. You’d see a guy start giving him that jackrabbit step before he got there. And nobody ever challenged him when a pitch came inside.”

Del Rio chuckled when asked if he might do what Gruden did last season when the Tampa Bay coach took some snaps at quarterback against the No. 1 defense.

“I’ll illustrate how I want techniques done, but those are always half-speed at best,” Del Rio said. “I would hate for our offensive line to get a false sense of security blocking me when they’ve got to block Dan Morgan.”

Yes, Del Rio’s days of clobbering people are over.

Just ignore the shattered sunglasses.