Jerrel Jernigan, Giants' third-round pick, could heat up team's offense
Published: Sunday, June 05, 2011, 4:30 AM By Mike Garafolo/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

Linebackers couldn’t stop Jerrel Jernigan in high school. Neither could defensive backs. Defensive linemen? Please. Jernigan blew right past them on his way to making future SEC and NFL players look like, according to his former coach, “idiots.”

Frankly, there was only one thing that slowed down Jernigan during his time at Eufala High School: a freak dip in the Alabama temperature during a 10-7 loss in the state championship game in his senior year.

“It just so happened it was 14 degrees at kickoff time. It was freakin’ cold,” Eufala coach John Gilmore said by phone. “Our kids from South Alabama, they don’t like that cold weather.

“So that’s what Jerrel said when he found out he was going to (the Giants). He said, ‘Coach, it’s cooooold up there.’”

The Giants are hoping Jernigan can heat things up for the offense. The team picked the Troy (Ala.) wide receiver in the third round of last month’s NFL Draft and, according to a pair of his former coaches, they got quite a bargain: a versatile threat, an unselfish person, a hard worker and a tough little guy who plays much bigger than his listed size of 5-9, 185 pounds.

“Fabulous young man, number one, and a dynamite player for four years for us,” Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. “He can do everything you want a skill guy to do. He can play inside or outside, run back punts and kickoffs. He’s a fearless guy, makes a lot of plays. After he catches it or put his hands on it, it’s not over at that time because he’ll make you miss.

“According to where they got him, it was a steal in my estimation.”

In four seasons with the Trojans, Jernigan set school and Sun Belt conference records with 3,128 receiving yards, 262 receptions and 5,971 all-purpose yards. He also ran for 892 yards and five touchdowns and scored a touchdown on a punt return and a kickoff return. And after running a 40-yard dash in less than 4.4 seconds at his pro day, he climbed draft boards this spring.

Blakeney valued Jernigan highly because of his game-breaking ability as a receiver, returner and Wildcat quarterback. Among the clutch plays he made were a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Oklahoma State (“He hit a crease on the left side and it was over against a pretty good football team,” Blakeney recalled), a 49-yard touchdown run in a victory over Bowling Green when he shed a tackler in the hole and his game-winning 75-yard punt return touchdown against Louisiana-Lafayette last fall.

On the punt return, Jernigan made a quick shimmy as he caught the ball to avoid the first defender.

“That guy was going a hundred miles an hour,” Blakeney told reporters after the game, “and he moved six inches to his left and that guy fell on his face.”

Gilmore says Jernigan has been making tacklers look silly for years, often with a patented spin move he gives defenders who fail to hit him flush.

Jernigan, who played quarterback in high school, displayed his moves on a pair of long touchdowns — one for 80 yards and one longer, according to Gilmore — in the state semifinals.

“Every time he had the ball, something big was fixin’ to happen,” Gilmore said. “We always told him, reading the option, it was never a bad read for him to keep it.”

But Jernigan isn’t all speed and quick moves, say his former coaches. He apparently plays with plenty of toughness. Though Blakeney believes Jernigan might be best suited as a slot receiver, he says he’s strong and determined enough to line up outside as well. Blakeney also believes he’ll answer the Giants’ challenge to play physical football on special teams.

“And he’s not allergic to blocking either,” Blakeney said with a chuckle.

Jernigan’s toughness extends to the training room as well. Last season, he had surgery to remove a bursa sac from his elbow; three days later, he scored a touchdown against Middle Tennessee State.
Jernigan missed only one game in his college career. Well, 1 1/2 games to be exact.

One week after sitting out a 1-point loss to Louisiana-Monroe, Jernigan was stuck on the sideline for the first two quarters. At halftime, he successfully petitioned the training staff to allow him to play, and caught six passes for 88 yards in the second half.

Yup, it was quite a successful career for Jernigan at Troy, where he landed only because Auburn wasn’t willing to commit to him until he was academically eligible.

“Their loss,” said Blakeney, who never doubted Jernigan would qualify, “was certainly our gain.”

The Giants will eventually get the chance to figure out what they’ve gained in Jernigan once the labor squabble is rectified. Gilmore said Jernigan is antsy to get to work, though he’s taking advantage of the opportunity to finish his degree.

If the lockout is lifted this season, Jernigan will be in uniform. And Gilmore will be at Giants Stadium late in the year with his wife (Jernigan calls the couple his other “mom and daddy”) — with plenty of layers on, of course.

“He just wants the opportunity. Biggest market in the country, so that’s good,” Gilmore said. “And they got themselves a dang good one now. A good kid, good character, ain’t gonna get in no trouble and he will be a team player, he’ll do whatever they ask him to do.”

I found this a good read, Jernigan seems like a very good kid.

I think he could be used in a variety of way as well.