Texas Tech has hired Cibolo Steele High School coach Mike Jinks to be part of Kliff Kingsbury’s new staff, according to media reports Wednesday in San Antonio.

Jason Minnix with 1250 ESPN radio in San Antonio posted on Twitter that Jinks confirmed to him in a text message he is leaving Steele to become the Red Raiders’ running backs coach. WOAI-TV and the San Antonio Express-News also reported Jinks’ departure.

There was no announcement from Tech

Jinks, 40, has a career record of 79-25, including 76-18 at Steele, where he was head coach since the program started in 2005. He led the Knights to a state championship in 2010, a state final in 2011 and a state semifinal in 2012 — all in the Class 5A Division II bracket.

Jinks played quarterback at Converse Judson High School and at Angelo State. He was head coach at San Antonio Burbank for one season before going to Steele.

He coached the West team at last week’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio.

In a story last week in the San Antonio Express-News, Jinks said he hated the offseason because speculation the last few years about when he would leave Steele. On the other hand, Jinks said he would love the challenge of recruiting.

“I’m a competitor,” he told the Express-News. “If I became a college coach, it would be to become a head coach someday. I don’t want to be a position coach for the next 15, 20 years.”

Kingsbury says that he wants coaches with ambition on his staff.

During a December interview with the A-J, Kingsbury said, “I want guys who want to be a head coach. I think that’s how you get the best work. I want them to want to have my seat.”

Comments (7)

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Coach Jinks

Submitted by td02428 on January 10, 2013 - 1:19am.

As a long time resident of the Schertz-Cibolo area, and a huge Tech supporter, hopefully Steele's loss will be a huge gain for the Red Raiders. Congratulations Coach Jinks!

Jinks...

Submitted by FactsRFacts on January 10, 2013 - 9:08am.

is a pure winner.

It's nice to have ambition,

Submitted by RedRaider07 on January 10, 2013 - 9:39am.

It's nice to have ambition, and I'm glad we're filling out our staff and all, but this guy already has one foot out the door!

I'd MUCH rather be reading about how our crappy recruiting class is being salvaged as much as possible...

You cant salvage

Submitted by Agallion on January 10, 2013 - 10:57am.

without someone to salvage it.

No kid is going to come to Tech without his coach being hired yet. Position coaches come and go, this is just part of the industry. All you can do is take advantage of their talents while you have them. Glad to have Coach Jinks with us.

RR07

Submitted by elbycuspapa on January 10, 2013 - 3:17pm.

Just about 90% of assistant football coaches coaches have their "foot out the door". It's the nature of the business. Position coaches go from place to place quite frequently. I would think serving as an offensive position coach for certain head coaches would be a springboard to something bigger. I think Kingsbury's staff is just one of those places, along with a few other select head coaches (Gundy at OSU, Kevin Sumlin, just to name a couple).

If Tech will take care of him financially, he'll be here for a few years until he gets a chance to be a coordinator or better. He's following a similar path to that of Art Briles, going from a successful HS coach to a position coach at a D1 school with a high-octane offense. Briles was here 3 seasons, which is about all anyone can wish for from a position coach.

Good Hire

Submitted by Thrash on January 10, 2013 - 7:43pm.

Cibolo Steele has a solid reputation in the high school ranks among coaches and players. This will help recruitiing and we are picking up a coach with a winning tradition. What's not to like about this coach?

Now let's find a DC co-ordinator and D-line coach.

For the first time ever, I agree with ...

Submitted by petebenishek on January 12, 2013 - 12:37pm.

RedRaider07. Well, kinda sorta. I could care less about the position coach/foot-out-the-door comment, which others noted applies to almost every position coach out there.

I would like to hear about recruiting, and more specifically why we let the CB from Bastrop go. CB may be this teams biggest need, though one could argue for DT or C. And a CB with size is definitely a priority. Obviously, there's a reason in somebody's mind for letting him go, and I'm willing to bet it's not football related.

A badly needed and way too thin defensive crop just got worse. I'm not sure salvaged is the right word, maybe you meant dismantled?