It was 7 p.m. on a Thursday night and everything was in place at Bar 5015 for the start of The Tremaine Jackson Coaches Show.
Cameras working. Check
Bustling crowd. Check
Co-hosts Karl “King” Mayes and Jaylyn Cole. Check
The only thing or person missing was the show’s star, Tremaine Jackson. It seems that practice in preparation for the home opener against the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) had run a little long, and that 45-mile trek from the Prairie View A&M campus to the heart of Third Ward at that time of the evening is no joke, either.
Nonetheless, 60 minutes later, Jackson appeared and, with his wit and no-holds-barred honesty, the fast-moving 38-minute show was live.
“It’s not bad,” Jackson said of the drive that’s 1 hour and 13 minutes on a good day. “It’s not bad at all.”
The drive can be debated, but what can’t be debated is the value of Jackson and Prairie View broadcasting the weekly football coach’s show clear across town. The goal was to go somewhere where the alumni and Panthers’ faithful are.
On Thursday nights, Bar 5015 – a popular urban Black-owned sports bar—is the place to be. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s the NFL’s Thursday Night Football and Steak Night.
“When I first got here, people said we didn’t do enough in Houston, where our alums live,” said Jackson, who is in his first season coaching the Panthers. “Getting people out to the Hill during the week was kind of tough, so I said we will come to them. We will come to wherever they are. We don’t want there to be any excuse about why people aren’t supporting us, not just for football but all of our programs.
“So we decided to come down here. I think it blends in with the night that they are already having and it’s a chance for us to reconnect or maybe make new fans or connect with old fans.”
And don’t expect Jackson to shy away from the fact his show is being shot just 1.1 miles away from rival Texas Southern’s campus. While Jackson is deep into enemy territory, the former TSU player and assistant coach quickly reminds us that he also grew up in Third Ward.
Texas Southern coach Cris Dishman does not do a coach’s show.
“It is where it is. I can’t change the location,” said a shrugging Jackson, who was a few days removed from the season-opening 22-21 win over TSU in the Labor Day Classic. “I think we were trying to find places that people frequent, create an atmosphere for our people. I think everybody who went to school somewhere comes to 5015, so it really didn’t matter where it was for us. It wasn’t like we did that on purpose. It just worked out that way.
“But it’s the battle for Houston. This year, Houston belongs to us, and we want to take full advantage of that.”
The show itself is a blend of insightfulness, rare behind-the-scenes looks at the football program and just an overall good time. While The Tremaine Jackson Coaches Show has all of those elements, Jackson’s candor and the fact that you never know what he might say will make this season pop.
The show tapes on Thursdays during the football season and can be seen streaming on YouTube on Fridays starting at 12 pm.
“He is a realist. He doesn’t code switch; he is always going to be who he is,” said Mayes, who goes by King and is a PV alum. “He has always wanted to give you the real … People throw the word transparency around – he is truly a transparent brother. Whether it’s good or bad, he is going to be transparent.”
“A conversational approach to a show is always a good thing. We do know each other outside of this, but at the same time, I want to make sure we are giving great information and we want to make sure it’s entertaining.”
Karl “King” Mayes
To that point, Jackson revealed some truths that he had never said either before or immediately after the Panthers’ win against rival Texas Southern. He told the audience that quarterback Cam Peters, the star of the season-opening win and a holdover from Bubba McDowell’s team, came real close to a forced position change in the spring.
“I remember very vividly that I was about one day away from making him a receiver,” Jackson offered. “I said if this guy don’t play better at quarterback, he is going to be a wideout because he is a good athlete and he is a big, tall guy. Me and him got into when it was raining one night in spring ball. It was pouring down raining and we got into it because he threw his hands up and I just don’t think that’s a sign of great leadership. So it was a teachable moment for him. And from that day on, it clicked for him and he ended up beating some guys out and being a good quarterback.”
He also talked about the one person who exited Shell Energy Stadium when things looked hopeless for the Panthers after TSU took a five-point lead with 1:16 left to play in a game that was minutes away from seeping into the next day. In true coach’s form, Jackson used any hint of a slight, even by his mother, as a motivational moment for his players.
“When TSU scored, my momma left. So, my momma is in timeout,” Jackson confessed. “My momma said, `I didn’t see what happened because I left.’
“So I said, even when my momma left, y’all stayed in. A lot of people left when TSU scored that touchdown. But this team has had an ‘in spite of’ mentality and they stayed together. That’s something that we preach.”
In addition to the behind-the-scenes material, Jackson also has segments where he talks about the upcoming opponent and breaks down film of key plays from the previous week’s game. For Week 3 of the show, the biggest play was the last, which was a walk-off touchdown pass to receiver Rodny Ojo from Peters. Peters had noticed a tendency of the TSU defense when they went with an empty backfield, and it held true on the final play when Ojo was left uncovered in the end zone for the 17-yard touchdown catch as time expired.
“If you come to the show, or you look at the show, then you will hear something that maybe I wouldn’t say during the week because we are going to try to give you the best insight that we can because I think people are really curious about what goes on in the football program,” Jackson said. “I’ve been honest about it—maybe not at the beginning of the week, but certainly postgame, we will go ahead and give you what it was.”
The Prairie View fans have come to expect and enjoy Jackson’s insightfulness and honesty about their new coach.
Quincy Beasley, a 1998 Prairie View graduate, compared Jackson’s efforts to create attention for the football program to what Deion Sanders did at Jackson State and now Colorado.
“Deion, he is doing his program,” Beasley said. “We’ve got our own Deion right here with our coach.
“You look at him, he is humble, a great leader, he inspires and mentors our young men.”
Jackson is also aware of giving back to his community while reaching out to alumni. He purposely sought Bar 5015 because of its location and because he is trying to be where the Prairie View alumni are. Jackson and Mayes indicated that at some point this season, the show may be taped at Quotes, a popular Black-owned restaurant in Northwest Houston with Prairie View ties.
“It’s Houston. It ain’t nothing like it,” Jackson said about starting out at Bar 5015. “Being a Houstonian, being a guy who went to school in Third Ward, I think where Houston has grown to with gentrification and African American business owners doing well, I think that is something you want to be a part of. If you get a chance to make new fans, people who probably went to another HBCU or went to a PWI across the country, who now live here, know what Prairie View A&M is. So, we are going to always take that opportunity.”
