Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood shares memories of his high school football coach Brent Hall

Before he competed with a broken left leg in three playoff games, including the Super Bowl, and the Pro Bowl for the Los Angeles Rams in 1979, NFL Hall of Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood who played for the late Brent Hall at Monticello Jefferson County in the mid-1960s.

Youngblood shared his memories of the Florida coaching great Hall, a 22-year high school football coach with a 149-98-3 record and three FHSAA championships, after he died June 18 from prostate cancer at age 83. A memorial service for Hall is at 11 a.m. on Friday at the First Presbyterian Church of Ocala.

Youngblood said the best advice he ever got from Hall was to take a load off.

Jefferson County was playing a game in nearby Quincy, and Youngblood was a starter at middle linebacker and center. Defense was going fine, but offensively, there were problems.

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“They had this quick nose guard who was like a water bug,” Youngblood said. “I could not catch him, and on every play, it was my responsibility to stop him. So, I said ‘to heck with this’ and decided I was going to hold him on every play. That led to four holding penalties in a quarter-and-a-half.”

Youngblood jogged to the sidelines after one offensive series late in the second quarter and Hall pointed to the bench, saying “go sit down and figure out how to play.”

There, Youngblood stewed. Soon after, he wanted to hide. His mother (and biggest fan), Kay, wanted to know why the Tigers’ backup center was on the field.

“Jack,” she yelled, as he acted like he didn’t hear.

“Jack,” she tried again, as, despite nudges from teammates, he continued to pretend he was focused solely on the game in front of him.

“Then, the third time, she screamed ‘Herbert Jackson!’, and I knew I was in trouble,” Youngblood said with a laugh. “She came over and asked what I was doing on the bench, and I pointed to Coach Hall and said ‘he told me to sit here’ and she was OK with that.

“He heard it all, and a few minutes later, he called me over and said ‘do you think you can play now?’”

Youngblood re-entered the contest but never delivered another snap in a game. He said Hall understood Youngblood had the chance to be special, but, in order to do that, his responsibilities needed to be cut in half.

“Things took off from there,” Youngblood said.

Boy, did they, as 22-player Jefferson County rolled to a 10-1-1 record and the 1966 Class B state championship, defeating Graceville and Avon Park by a combined score of 48-12 in the semifinals and final.

Youngblood finished the season with 70 tackles and earned first-team all-state honors, but colleges didn’t exactly covet the 6-foot-3, 194-pound kid who never seemed to tire. An assistant from nearby Florida State University left at halftime of one game, saying Youngblood wasn’t good enough. And then-Army assistant Bill Parcells said after seeing Youngblood live that he couldn’t play in college (something Youngblood said he teased Parcells about at a luncheon during NFL Hall of Fame week in 2001).

Hall kept these opinions quiet from Youngblood because “I think he just wanted me to think positively.” And then, with Florida Gator baseball coach/assistant football coach Dave Fuller in attendance, Youngblood was the best player on the field in the 28-12 defeat of Avon Park in the state final. Fuller offered a scholarship postgame, and soon after, Youngblood accepted.

In a college varsity career that spanned from 1968-1970, Youngblood grew an inch, put on 51 pounds of muscle and graduated as a first-team All-American defensive end after recording 58 tackles and 10 of his career 29 sacks as a senior.

Youngblood was selected 20th overall by the Rams in the 1971 NFL Draft and went on to play 14 seasons, earning All Pro honors five times and once starting 201 consecutive games.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992, the NFL Hall of Fame in 2001 and was in the first class of UF’s Ring of Honor in 2006.

“Without Brent, that probably doesn’t happen,” Youngblood said. “It all goes back to ‘sit down.’”

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Jack Youngblood remembers Jefferson County football coach Brent Hall