For eight years Sacramento State students have seen a familiar face patrolling the sidelines during men’s basketball games in the Hornets Nest: that of coach Jerome Jenkins. But when the basketball squad returns to action next season, there will be a new face leading the Hornets out onto the hardwood.

Sac State Athletic Director Terry Wanless decided not to renew Jenkins’ expiring contract on March 7, ending the coach’s tenure with the university.

“It just became evident to me that our program had kind of stalled out,” Wanless said. “I just didn’t feel, based upon our current success level, that we could move the program forward the way I feel it should.”

Last season Jenkins led the team to a 4-24 record (2-14 in conference), notching his lowest overall win total as Sac State’s head coach and matching his worst conference record. The Hornets also failed to qualify for the Big Sky Conference Tournament for the second straight year.

Despite the lopsided win-loss record, freshman guard Vinnie McGhee said he was not expecting the change.

“(Jenkins) was actually getting ready for next season,” McGhee said via telephone. “We had talks about what we’re going to do next season, about who he was going to bring in and stuff like that. So I was surprised that they let him go.”

Junior forward Loren Leath said over the phone that the move did not come as much of a shock to him.

“I knew that it was the last year of his contract and we didn’t do too good,” Leath said. “I mean, it was kind of a given.”

Even though it was the last year of Jenkins’ contract, Wanless said a decision wasn’t made on Jenkins’ future until after the season ended on March 2.

“I wanted to give coach every opportunity to give his best effort,” Wanless said.

Upon the completion of every season Wanless said he sits down and evaluates the program, and it was during that period that he determined that a change was necessary.

Leath said he understood Wanless’ assertion once he heard the athletic director’s reasoning for the decision.

“When Dr. Wanless expressed to me that he wanted to go to another level and go in a different direction ? I guess I agreed with him at that point,” Leath said.

When asked if qualifying for the conference tournament might have saved Jenkins’ job, Wanless said that although he doesn’t like to comment on speculative issues, a tournament appearance would have been “a factor in (Jenkins’) favor.”

McGhee said that Jenkins was a good coach, but sometimes had problems with his players.

“Some of the players just wanted to rebel and that’s why things went how they went his year,” McGhee said. “Sometimes players didn’t want to listen.”

“He had his own way of (communicating),” Leath said. “People probably took offense to a couple of things he said but he meant well, all in all.”

During his time with the Hornets, none of Jenkins’ teams finished a season with an overall record over .500 and he never took the Hornets to the conference title game or the NCAA Tournament. Jenkins did experience some success with Sac State, however, including a span from 2002-06 in which he led the Hornets to four consecutive conference tournament appearances.

“I want to complement coach Jenkins,” Wanless said. “He certainly left the program better than he found it.”

Wanless also said the program has some talented players on the roster and can return to the conference tournament next season.

“You have to be realistic,” Wanless said about the team’s future. “It’s not going to be instantaneous. It’s going to take time to build a solid foundation for the future of the program.”

Among the players returning are McGhee, who was named the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year this season, and Leath, who led the team in scoring this season with 13.1 points per game and has averaged 12.5 points per game in his Sac State career. Overall the Hornets stand to lose three seniors, of which only guard Clark Woods started more than 11 games during the year.

“We have a whole bunch of weapons,” McGhee said. “To me, we were the most athletic team in the conference, like, hands down. So we just need a way to just bring everybody together so we can use everything on the court.”

The process of selecting a new coach certainly will not be hampered by a lack of candidates: Wanless said he has received over 80 applications for the position already from a variety of different people – including NBA, Division I and community college coaches and former NBA players – from all over the country.

Both McGhee and Leath said they would like to see more organization with the next head coach, but also had other qualifications in mind.

“Somebody that just wants to win, that doesn’t like to take losses and gets the team under control,” McGhee said.

“I’ll say a little bit more x’s and o’s and just a little bit more structure where it’s needed,” Leath said.

The rest of the coaching staff received two-month extensions, Wanless said, and they will continue to represent the department during the coaching search. Once a new coach has been hired it will be at his or her discretion to retain members of the coaching staff or hire replacements

Jenkins could not be reached for comment.

Fernando Gallo can be reached at [email protected]