TAMPA — His track and field odyssey, with its myriad turns, straightaways and hurdles, has evolved into a Walter Mitty existence, a surreal journey with a stopwatch.
As a senior at Panhandle powerhouse Quincy Shanks in 1995, Erik Jenkins competed for iconic coach James Pelham and helped lead the Tigers to a Class 4A state title alongside boyhood friend Dexter Jackson, the Super Bowl 37 MVP as a Bucs safety. At Western Kentucky, he learned under another legend — Hilltoppers coach Curtiss Long — and befriended the school’s slender, shifty quarterback, Willie Taggart.
Then as the Hilltoppers coach for 11 seasons, his competed against — and culled wisdom from — Middle Tennessee’s Dean Hayes, a hallowed name in track and field circles who led the Blue Raiders to 21 NCAA top-25 finishes in a 57-year career.
“One of the coolest things was, one day (Taggart) and I were just out at the (Western Kentucky) facilities and we’re both standing on the field,” Jenkins recalled. “I’m getting ready to go to track practice and he’s getting ready to go to football practice and he said, ‘Man, can you believe we’re both head coaches here?’ ”
Like Taggart, Jenkins’ journey has led him to the bay area. And similar to his college pal, he has resuscitated the fortune of a once-foundering Bulls program. But whereas Taggart bolted USF with Usain Bolt briskness for a Power Five opportunity, Jenkins speaks like a guy just rounding the initial turn in Tampa.
Which is to say, USF track and field — on the final stretch of a breakthrough season that has included American Athletic Conference men’s indoor and outdoor titles — might just be getting started.
“I think any place can be a sleeping giant, but it takes the right person, the right resources, and if you’re into athletics, it takes the right administration, the right coaches,” said Jenkins, a 47-year-old married dad of three wrapping up his fifth season at USF.
“And I felt that in (USF athletic director) Michael Kelly, I had the right administrator at the top, and he was willing to listen.”
Jenkins is taking 12 Bulls athletes (eight men, four women) to this week’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, a 3,000-mile trek symbolic in itself: The journey to this national stage included no shortcuts.
Upon his hiring in the summer of 2019, Jenkins — a long jumper and sprinter in a previous life — first had to foster confidence in a program that had none. The season prior to his arrival, USF’s men had placed seventh in the American Athletic Conference indoor and outdoor meets, the women 12th.
“You see it in the hallways,” Jenkins said. “You can say it all the time, but they just didn’t believe.”
The COVID-19 outbreak also set him back. Then he had to sell his athletes on a rugged fall program that created a degree of attrition.
And much like on-campus peers Alex Golesh (football) and Amir Abdur-Rahim (men’s basketball), Jenkins had to replenish his roster via the portal. Eighteen athletes in his program (nine men, nine women) transferred from NCAA four-year schools. A handful of others came from the junior college and NAIA levels.
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Explore all your optionsWhen asked to identify Jenkins’ greatest attribute, two of those transfers — men’s NCAA qualifiers Shevioe Reid and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu — uttered the same one-word response, in separate interviews:
Discipline.
“He will hit you with the training,” said Saminu, a Ghana native who won AAC outdoor titles in the 100 and 200 meters and 4x100-meter relay.
“We have a long season so far. Fall was a very good program; our fall training was a little bit too much on us, but when you sit down and look at it ... oh my god, it’s a good program. Everybody’s feeling good, everybody’s feeling happy to compete. Your body’s ready.”
The results are unmistakable. The men’s indoor and outdoor AAC titles were the program’s first conference championships, while the women placed third in both meets after never finishing better than fourth in either meet in the league’s 11-year history.
Additionally, 35 total indoor and outdoor school records (21 men, 14 women) have been set on Jenkins’ watch, and the 12 athletes headed to nationals is a program record.
“There’s no easy way to put it — we work,” Jenkins said. “You just can’t get away from that. And that’s not for everybody, and we’re trying to identify people who understand that we are going to work. We’re not going to shy away from it, and we’re going to expect you to do certain things the right way.”
Meantime, the investment into the program has been reciprocated by the administration. A resurfacing of the Bulls’ home track and field stadium was the initial phase in a three-phase renovation that will include new locker rooms, as well as a new press box and video board.
And presumably, wall space for freshly minted conference title banners.
“(Kelly) has been true to the things he said he was going to do, and I’ve tried to be true to the things I said I could do,” Jenkins said. “And I think we’re now starting to scratch the surface of where South Florida can go for a long time.”
Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.
NCAA track and field championships
Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon
TV: Wednesday-Friday, ESPN2; Saturday, ESPN
Men: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 9 p.m. Friday
Women: 8:30 p.m. Thursday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday
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