Meet Jackie Hinton

(All information courtesy the Internets. Links at the end.)

Let’s start a few years back. Jackie played receiver, running back and safety at Channelview High School, just outside of Houston. He also played baseball. He was First-Team All-District in every facet of the game: offense, defense and special teams.

High School Numbers
Junior – 30 catches for 421 yards, seven touchdowns, three interceptions, 429 yards in returns
Senior – 1,030 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns; 23 receptions for 196 and a touchdown; 205 kickoff return yards

Those numbers made him a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and Scout.com, and ESPN gave him a grade of 74. The offers came from Houston, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Rice and Utah. After originally committing to OSU, Jackie decided to stay close to home and committed to Houston. ESPN’s evaluation included “Hinton is a pure athlete who is very dynamic as a football player.” We’ve already seen that much.

As a Cougar
At Houston, he played in the first three games of his true freshman season, but missed the rest of the year with a shoulder injury. (He’s listed as a redshirt freshman on our roster, so he must have already been granted a medical hardship for last year?)

During those three games he totaled 7 carries for 33 yards; 2 receptions for 2 yards; 1 punt return for 2 yards; 1 tackle.

After the spring, it looked like he would enter the fall as the starting free safety and the backup punt returner. Then, without finding any word on what took place, he left Houston for “disciplinary reasons.”

Now
He’s arrived on the UCA campus, been cleared to play, and is already making an impact on offense. He’s already made himself the third-leading rusher on the team, scored a touchdown, returned a kick and made a tackle on special teams.

LINKS
Rivlas | Scout | Houston Bio | ESPN Eval | Chron Blog – UH Depth Chart | Chron Blog – “Disciplinary reasons”

News Roundup

Bears v. NW State Football

• Bears blank Demons in more ways than one
• Bears dominate Demons in SLC opener

Tristan Jackson

• With Tristan Jackson mishandling four returns last Friday in Winnipeg, head coach Richie Hall hinted there’s a possibility of Green playing on Friday vs. the B.C. Lions.

  “A lot depends on what’s going on with Tristan”, said Hall. “We’re not going to have both of them on the roster. If Tristan can’t go, then there’s a good chance Skyler will be on”. LINK

Eric Ware

• replaced Eric Ware, who quietly left town after being cut for a second time this season. LINK

Marquez Branson

• The mischievous Marshall was on display Wednesday, when he stole the helmets of rookie tight ends Richard Quinn and Marquez Branson during the stretching period before practice, and slyly hid them behind a goalpost. After more warm-up drills, Marshall finally gave the rookies a clue as to where they could reclaim their headgear. LINK

Clint Conque

• Briefly mentioned as a candidate for Memphis’s head spot. LINK

Quick MST look back

Can someone tell me what’s going on in the first quarter?

We’ve scored 14 first-quarter points this season. One of those was after a Hawaii fumble gave us only 16 yards to go. In the last two games – against what should be lesser competition – we’ve been dominated in time of possession, 21:46 to 8:14. That’s only resulted in allowing three points, but still…

The Miners had no answer for Isaiah Jackson. He totaled 212 yards rushing and returning kicks/punts. The only thing he didn’t do was find one last whole each time to take it to the house. Gambles started out at the punt return spot to open the season, but it looks like even when Gambles returns the coaches would have to stick with Isaiah.

We finally threw the ball deep. And, no, I haven’t forgotten about the pass to McNeal for 73 yards against WKU. That was a busted covered that worked out for us. The third-quarter pass from Robbie to Lovett was a called go route that was executed perfectly. I am not a coach, but I can’t believe we haven’t had opportunities to take shots down the field in previous games. Maybe we’ve been holding things back? One can hope.

The offense moved the ball seemingly at will after the first three-and-out, scoring on seven out of eight possessions. Grimes scored two more touchdowns, one a 40-yarder. 184-pound Ceaser was able to pound it in – granted it took him a few times. Robbie continued to be a model of efficiency with the exception of his second interception of the season. But he only had to throw it 18 times this week. That’s 15 fewer than last week with two MORE touchdowns this week.

The defense was amazing after the first quarter. The longest Miner drive was four plays. Unfortunately for them, that resulted in -8 yards and a 13-yard punt. We played a lot of people, were without Taylor Scott and Gambles, and saw some good plays made by the reserves. The defense allowed just 2.2 yards per rush. There were only two Miner passes attempted in the second half, so the Bears only had 1 sack. That leads me to…

…the only other thing I’d mention. The MST decision to call a timeout before halftime – putting three seconds back on the clock – is certainly one that they almost immediately regretted. In what appeared to be an attempt at a 41-yard hail mary, MST quarterback Jason Schlueter dropped back and was hit by Larry Hart. Not only did he never get the pass away, but he also never returned to the game. It was just another in a long line of injuries to MST players.