Clay Jennings
Defensive Coordinator (Safeties)
BIRTHDATE:
November 3, 1973
HOMETOWN:
Bellmead, Texas
EDUCATION:
B.S., North Texas, 1996
COACHING:
Student/Graduate Assistant, North Texas, 1996-97
Assistant Coach, Morehouse, 1998
Assistant, Morningside, 1999
Assistant, Southern Arkansas, 2000
Assistant, Recruiting Coordinator, Sam Houston State, 2001-02
Assistant, Louisiana, 2003-04
Assistant, Houston, 2005-06
Assistant, Baylor, 2007
Assistant, TCU, 2008-13
Assistant, Arkansas, 2014-15
Assistant, Texas, 2016
Assistant, Houston, 2017
Assistant. Texas Tech, 2018
Assistant, North Texas, 2019-20
Assistant, UNLV, 2021
Assistant, Texas State, 2022
Assistant, North Texas, 2023-24
Defensive Coordinator, Hampton, 2026-present
A veteran of 30 years in the collegiate coaching profession, Clay Jennings has made 18 stops throughout the south since his first job as a student assistant at North Texas in 1996. He has spent 23 of his 30 seasons in the state of Texas includes stops at North Texas (three times), Sam Houston State, Louisiana, Houston, Baylor, TCU, Texas, Houston, Texas Tech and Texas State.
He will serve as Hampton’s defensive coordinator and safeties coach on Head Coach Van Malone’s first Pirate coaching staff. He is widely recognized as one of the most successful secondary coaches in the nation.
Jennings comes to Hampton after spending two seasons at his alma mater, North Texas.
Jennings has been a part of several top defensive units in the country, from Arkansas in 2015, where the Razorbacks ranked 11th in the nation in scoring and total defensive, to TCU, which had three nation-leading defenses for three straight years from 2008 to 2010.
Jennings has tutored numerous NFL draft picks and free-agent selections during his career, including Tevin Mitchel (Arkansas), Alan Turner (Arkansas), Jason Verrett (TCU), Kevin White (TCU), Greg McCoy (TCU), Malcolm Williams (TCU), Rafael Priest (TCU), C.C. Brown (Louisiana), Michael Adams (Louisiana), Antwain Spann (Louisiana), Keith Davis (Sam Houston) and Jordan Babineaux (Southern Arkansas), DeShon Elliott (Texas), PJ Locke (Texas), Kris Boyd (Texas), Upton Stout (North Texas), Noel Williams (UNLV), Isaiah Johnson (Houston) and Adrian Frye (Texas Tech).
A 1996 UNT graduate, Jennings was a four-year letterwinner during his playing career at North Texas (1992-95) where he was part of the Mean Green’s Southland Conference championship team in 1994. He began his coaching experience at North Texas as a student assistant in 1996.
He and his wife, Belinda, are the parents to two children, Kirby and Kenzie and a granddaughter, Kirby Jane.
