McKinney to use recruiting connections gained at UH, A&M to give Tigers a lift

In 2010, Texas Southern won its first conference football championship in more than four decades only to have it vacated as a part of NCAA sanctions imposed upon the school in 2012. Prior to that, the Tigers’ last title came in 1968.

On Monday, Texas Southern appointed the man they hope will end that streak.

“This program will change for the better,” new TSU coach Clarence McKinney said. “I promise you I will do everything in my power to bring a championship here.”

In McKinney’s last heading coaching role in 2007, he led Yates High School to a 30-8 record in three seasons. He’d go on to follow Kevin Sumlin from the University of Houston to Texas A&M to Arizona, coaching running backs and

most recently doubling as the associate head coach.

In his news conference Monday, McKinney emphasized that timing is everything. He expects the skills he acquired in his previous roles — including his time as the Aggies’ offensive coordinator in 2013 — to help him navigate his first year running a collegiate program.

“I think it’s going to help me be well-rounded,” he said. “Coach Sumlin taught me a lot in those 11 years about being a head coach, taught me a lot of things to do and a lot of things not to do. I soaked it up. I was like a sponge.”

“I was once in charge of about 10 guys. Now we’re talking about 100 guys, so I’m up for the challenge and I plan on hiring some really good guys to the staff and we’re really getting this ball rolling.”

Knows the talent pool

McKinney, who received a fiveyear contract, already has hired his director of operations in former TSU receiver Darrell Colbert. He intends to corral his remaining staff between recruiting visits in the coming weeks.

“I’ve been recruiting Houston for 11 years now,” McKinney said. “The thing that’s helped me in recruiting is that I’m a Texas high school football coach and I have a tremendous amount of friends who are head coaches, assistant coaches, and I trust those guys and they trust me.”

For Texas Southern administrators, McKinney’s reputation as a recruiter was an obvious selling point although they’d had their eye on the Houston native since his time in College Station.

“He’s been one of the top recruiters in the state of Texas for the past five, six, seven years,” interim vice president of athletics Kevin Granger said. “I also said we want to make sure we find somebody that really, really cared about us.”

Emotional day

McKinney sniffed back tears as he spoke at his introductory news conference.

When he addressed his new players around 7 a.m. Monday, he talked about on-field expectations and graduation rates, but he also took time to connect with some whom he’d encountered during past recruiting trips to their high schools.

“Part of it is being able to follow my dream, part of it is coming back home, another part of it is just the support that I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” McKinney said of his emotions, before pivoting to some of the challenges he may face.

“We’re going to do what we can to improve our resources, but in the meantime we have to do the best we can with our current resources.”

McKinney hasn’t gotten a chance to look at film from TSU’s recently completed 2-9 season that cost third-year coach Michael Haywood his job and he doesn’t intend to.

“I want these guys to have a clean slate,” he said. “We going to get in here in January and start evaluating guys in the offseason. We’ll evaluate them further in the spring, then the summer.”

For McKinney, coaching at Texas Southern is something that exceeds his childhood dreams. But he’s not just happy to be there, he’s intent on winning.

“I’ve had a chance to watch our women’s basketball program and all the other sports here that brought championships to this university,” he said. “We’ve got to get the football program on the same page.”