Auburn great Jeris McIntyre loving life as his alma mater’s head coach

TAMPA, FLORIDA —Former Auburn receiver Jeris McIntyre bleeds orange and blue, and he isn’t the only one in his family. Secdrick McIntyre, his father, was a running back for the Tigers in the mid-1970s. Jeris’ twin sisters also attended the school. For good measure, so did his mother.

“My dad met my mom at Auburn,” Jeris McIntyre said this week.

If anything can compete with McIntyre’s affection for Auburn, it’s his love for another school he attended, Tampa Catholic. When we caught up with him Thursday morning, McIntyre was in that school’s weight room at the Kevin Knox Fieldhouse keeping track of the Crusader football players.

He’s now entering his fifth season as head coach of the program for which he once played before leaving Florida for the Plains. Even when he was at Auburn, where McIntyre led the Tigers with 41 catches in 2003 , the green and white of Tampa Catholic never was far from his thoughts.

McIntyre has had great success at Tampa Catholic

Not long after his professional football career ended in 2009, McIntyre was back at TC as it’s called down here as an assistant coach. Nate Craig-Myers, a touted 4-star receiver recruit, was one of his players. Later, so was another 4-star, running back Devan Barrett. Both signed with Auburn. 

In 2018, TC hired McIntyre, now 40, as head coach.

When he was hired, a headline in the area’s paper of record, the Tampa Bay Times, read “Just call new football coach Jeris McIntyre Mr. Tampa Catholic.”

Though McIntyre, who helps run his family’s underground utility company, never had been a head coach, the school likely hasn’t regretted hiring him. The Crusaders have made the playoffs each of his seasons at the helm. In Year 1, they went 8-4. That was followed up by a 7-6 finish. In 2020, TC reached the state semifinals. Last year, they went 7-4. With another strong roster, one that feature 4-star Auburn linebacker target Lewis Carter along with a handful of other Power 5 targets, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the Crusaders made a playoff run this fall.

In high school, he was a Tampa-area star

“It’s the alma mater,” McIntyre said. “I just want to be a proud alumnus and do the best I can for the school. I went here and I’m trying to do everything I can do to win ball games. And develop the young men we have here. There’s always a lot more that I can learn. But I’m starting to get the hang of it.”

Back in the late 1990s, McIntyre was a star at Tampa Catholic and as the Tampa Bay Times wrote in 1998, his senior season, “He has emerged as a big-time performer, perhaps Hillsborough County’s top offensive threat. He averaged about 20 yards per reception.”

“I think we use Jeris in the same way that the Bucs maybe should use with Warrick Dunn,” TC coach Bob Henriquez told the Times that season. “When the defense lines up, they need to account for Jeris McIntyre on every play. They need to identify where he is. At running back, he got a lot of touches , but the other team could put eight in the box and be better equipped to stop him. At receiver, he can help create one-on-one situations at other spots on the field. He has great numbers, true. But his presence has led to great numbers from our other players as well.”

His high school teammate became a movie star

The season prior, McIntyre had a teammate who would later become famous. But not in football. It was Channing Tatum, the actor.

“I call him Chan — we grew up playing youth football together for the Citrus Park Bills. I knew him even before we went to TC. I kind of grew up with him. He was a really good ballplayer here. Good guy, hard worker, vicious football player. He’d hit you. He played strong safety and I played receiver. My junior year was his senior year.”

Asked if they kept in touch, McIntyre laughed and said, not really. As he noted, “He’s got a lot going on.”

At TC, the players seem to respect McIntyre quite a bit. They said he’s more than a coach; he’s someone they feel truly cares about them on and off the field. He’s been there and done that, which resonates with the players we chatted with. And, Carter for one said he likes the fact McIntyre hasn’t shoved Auburn down his throat during his recruitment. 

He doesn’t push his players to a school — even Auburn

“I decided on my own that I liked it. He never really mentioned it to me,” Carter said. “I respect him for that all the way. One hundred percent.”

It’s not that McIntyre wouldn’t love for each of his top players to attend Auburn someday. But he remembers what it was like to be a recruit. He knows how important it is to give these players their space and let their hearts lead them — not someone else’s.

“I’ve been asked this because I’ve had guys go to Auburn that I coached,” McIntyre said. “But I will never push a kid to a school. That is their decision. I don’t even talk about it. I kind of leave it up to that kid. Now, Auburn is a beautiful place and when you visit it sometimes you can fall in love. It’s a really great place. I went there. My family went there. I love Auburn. If you get to see it, more often than not you’re probably gonna want to go there.”

Owen Pappoe

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