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In football, it’s simple enough: speed kills.
So that makes Carl Jenkins Jr. a veritable Tyrannosaurus rex of the 2025 wide receiver class in Florida high school football.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking speed is the only way that the St. Augustine receiver chews up defenses. The pass-catching touch. The teamwork. The guiding hand from a Jackets mentor. The work in the weight room to make it all come together.
“That’s really given me that explosiveness to help me get that really good change of direction on top of my speed,” he said.
A receiver with a big-time deep threat, the St. Augustine rising senior wideout brings blazing speed to the Times-Union’s Super 11 for the First Coast’s top-rated recruits entering the 2024 high school football season.
Ranked No. 75 in the USA TODAY Florida Network Top 100 for the summer, Jenkins is a four-star wideout for Rivals and a three-star for 247Sports and ESPN.
On the field, he said he likes to follow the pattern of veteran wide receiver Julio Jones: “I loved the way he’s got a lot of athleticism, high-pointing the ball and always using his speed.” But to make the most of his speed, he’s picking up pointers from a different former pro.
FINDING A JACKETS MENTOR
Although Jenkins played some football around age 5, he soon stepped away from the sport to focus on basketball. He said his father encouraged him all throughout middle school to try the gridiron again, but it wasn’t until his freshman year that he decided to return to the field.
Even when he gave the sport a second try, it wasn’t exactly instant success — he earned a spot on the junior varsity team but suffered an injury that sidelined him for almost his whole freshman year.
To take the next step, he needed a helping hand. And he found one in St. Augustine offensive coordinator Brandon James.
Like Jenkins, James always had speed, timed at 4.45 in the 40 in his high school days. And he’s got the resume: a Jackets graduate who won an FHSAA title in 2005, earned consensus All-American honors as a double national championship winner at Florida and lined up in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts.
“He’s always going to keep it real with you, going to tell you what you’re doing right and what was not right,” Jenkins said. “And he’s been there at the highest level.”
In a passing attack that also includes Super 11 quarterback Locklan Hewlett and two more deadly receivers in Trenton Jones and rising junior Somourian Wingo, Jenkins helps keep the Yellow Jackets offense within one play of a game-changing highlight on any snap.
The state semifinal against Dunbar was a typical example. The visitors from Fort Myers largely contained Jenkins for the first two and a half quarters, but one perfectly-timed acceleration blasted past the secondary for a back-breaking score in St. Augustine’s 35-14 victory.
It wasn’t the only time. For the season, Jenkins caught 60 passes for 1,172 yards and 15 touchdowns, more than a score per game. His receptions averaged 19.5 yards, following a 21.7 yards-per-game average as a sophomore in 2023 — not bad for someone who wasn’t even playing football four years ago.
He’s planning to continue showing off that speed in the Sunshine State. At the end of June, Jenkins committed to college football at UCF, selecting the Big 12 Knights ahead of rival South Florida, Louisville and Mississippi State.
But before he changes ZIP codes from St. Augustine to Orlando, Jenkins is planning to zip downfield for a few more Jackets touchdowns, and maybe another championship race.
“I’m ready to go out with a bang with my brothers,” he said. “I’m definitely feeling like we’ve got big potential this year.”
TIMES-UNION SUPER 11: Carl Jenkins Jr.
Wide receiver, St. Augustine
Height/weight: 6-2, 177.
Recruiting status: Committed to UCF.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Carl Jenkins Jr.: Super 11 football, St. Augustine wide receiver