Jennings named cornerbacks coach
1/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 24, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU football has announced the hiring of Clay Jennings as cornerbacks coach.
Jennings, who has coached five current NFL defensive backs, comes to the Horned Frogs after serving as the cornerbacks coach at Baylor last season. He replaces Charles McMillian on the TCU staff. McMillian left to become a defensive backs coach at Texas A&M.
Prior to serving the 2007 campaign at Baylor, Jennings worked two seasons (2005-06) as safeties coach at Houston. He helped the Cougars to back-to-back bowl appearances and the 2006 Conference USA championship. In 2006, Cougars' free safety Will Gulley earned Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year honors while Brandon Brinkley was named to the league's all-freshman squad.
In his first season at Houston, Jennings saw Rocky Schwartz earn Conference USA third-team all-league honors and Kenneth Fontennette be named an honorable-mention Freshman All-American by The Sporting News.
Prior to his two-year stint at Houston, Jennings spent two seasons (2003-04) as the defensive backs coach at Louisiana-Lafayette, where he helped the Ragin' Cajuns to a No. 11 national ranking in pass defense. At Louisiana-Lafayette, Jennings tutored current NFL players Antwain Spann (New England Patriots), C.C. Brown (Houston Texans) and Michael Adams (Arizona Cardinals).
Jennings also worked two years (2001-02) as secondary coach and recruiting coordinator at Sam Houston State. He helped the Bearkats to a share of the 2001 Southland Conference championship and the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. At SHSU, Jennings coached All-American and Buck Buchanan Award finalist Keith Davis, who just completed his fifth season with the Dallas Cowboys.
Jennings also coached the secondary at Southern Arkansas (2000), Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa (1999) and Morehouse College in Atlanta (1998). At SAU, Jennings mentored Jordan Babineaux of the Seattle Seahawks. At Morningside, Jennings coached first-team All-American Matt Walker.
A four-year letterwinner (1992-95) as a defensive lineman and special teams standout at North Texas, Jennings was a member of the Mean Green's 1994 Southland Conference championship team and the school's first NCAA Division I-A squad in 1995. He began his coaching career as a student assistant (1996) and then graduate assistant (1997) at North Texas before moving on to Morehouse.
A 1992 graduate of Waco's La Vega High School and a 1996 North Texas alumnus (bachelor's of science in kinesiology), Jennings and his wife, Belinda, have two children: son Kirby and daughter Kenzie.
