Jenkins Among Maryland Seniors Who Conclude Their Career at Byrd on Saturday
11/17/2000 7:00:00 AM | Football
Baltimore Sun
Nov. 17, 2000
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - When Kris Jenkins comes around, you feel that you're going to hear or see something interesting. That's what the Maryland football program will miss most after this defensive tackle plays his final college football home game tomorrow against Georgia Tech.
No one else but Jenkins would so colorfully verbalize his team's ire when it saw Wake Forest players stomping on the M at Byrd Stadium's midfield and messing around with the turtle statue in front of the Gossett Team House. "One thing you don't do is touch our turtle," he said after a 37-7 win over the Deacons.
No one else but Jenkins would bound out of the locker room on a cold November afternoon, causing much ruckus and saying "Can't touch this" because he was wearing the caution yellow jersey of injured quarterback Chris Kelley.
"He's kind of a jokester," Maryland coach Ron Vanderlinden said of Jenkins, who was benched a year ago but now leads his team in sacks (seven) and in tackles for lost yardage (15 for 53 yards). "Not when he's playing, but when he's in the locker room, he likes to enjoy himself and have a good time."
The senior from Ypsilanti, Mich., probably gets his outgoing nature from his father, Darome, with whom he seems to share an infectious gift of gab.
Darome Jenkins, who teaches performing arts at a middle school in Ann Arbor, doesn't skip a beat when asked if he's flying out of Detroit Metro Airport in order to reach tomorrow's game.
"I'm going to be flying F-O-R-D," the father said, referring to the car he's driven to College Park three times this season. "We're using those rubber wings."
He was a player once himself, at Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti during the mid-1970s before returning to his native Detroit. After several years in that city, evicting people for the bailiff, he went back to Ypsilanti to earn his degree and took his sons, Kristopher and Cullen - then 3 years and 18 months old, respectively - with him.
It was in this town of tree-lined streets built around B-52 factories that Kris Jenkins grew from his beginnings as a small, clumsy child who was put on the defensive line on his recreational team so that he would be out of the way.
Kris learned to be a confident speaker from his father. Also, in the blue-collar style of the town, Darome Jenkins taught Kris to simply do his job, beginning with his assignment to the defensive line at age 8.
"Whatever you were told to play, you played," Darome Jenkins said. "If that's where they have you, you have to be the best, and it paid off."
Vanderlinden, while still a Northwestern assistant, began recruiting Jenkins out of Belleville High in Ypsilanti, then shifted those efforts for Maryland's benefit once he replaced Mark Duffner as Terps coach in late 1996.
Jenkins committed to Maryland after 15 minutes on the campus and played in every game as a freshman in 1997. But he missed the final three games of 1998 with a pinched nerve in his shoulder.
Last year, the departure of defensive line coach Ruben Carter to the Redskins affected Jenkins, who had his most disappointing season as a junior.
It was bad enough for Vanderlinden - who tends toward the bland - to be blunt during a 1990 news conference after benching his defensive tackle in favor of Charles Hill: "Maybe I overestimated his potential. I hope I'm wrong ... but he still hasn't made a lot of plays."
The demotion jolted Jenkins. He spoke to his father, who told him he needed to look at the reasons he was playing football.
"You can just play football, or you can play football to be the best," Jenkins said. "I didn't have that attitude that I wanted to be the best or to work to play after college. Changing that attitude helped a whole lot."
Things went smoothly this fall for Jenkins, who regained his starting role by the end of spring practice, and has enjoyed by far the strongest season of his career. Several weeks ago, he had five tackles for a loss against Duke, including two sacks.
Vanderlinden said that pro scouts have talked about Jenkins' good season. The only rocky parts have been an ankle injury suffered against Clemson, and the team's 5-5 record.
Jenkins hopes that the record situation will change tomorrow. A win would mean a winning record, and a possible bowl bid. That would also extend his college career.
"After this season, I'm on the outside looking in," Jenkins said. "Some of the old cats that come back, they come in and they're looking around and you know, they kind of miss it."
