Jerry Pettibone’s Football Career

The Jerry Pettibone Group, LLC

Jerry Pettibone has a rich background as a football player, football coach and as a football scout.

Playing Career

Assistant Coach

Oklahoma

Nebraska

Texas A&M

Head Coach - North Illinois University

Head Coach - Oregon State University

Playing Career

He earned the Catholic All-State honors as a running back with the state championship high school football team at Jesuit High School in Dallas, Texas, in 1956 and 1957.
He received the honor of being in the first class inducted into the Jesuit sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
After graduating from Jesuit High School, Pettibone received a college football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, where he played running back and defensive back from 1959 to 1961 under the legendary Bud Wilkinson.

Assistant Coach

In his career as an assistant coach, Jerry was with programs that participated in 11 major bowls, and with college football teams that won eight Big Eight championships.
Teams he worked with as an assistant coach achieved impressive football scores, producing a collective record of 168-64-3 (.721).
He was with two national championship teams in 1974 and 1975 at Oklahoma.
Jerry’s long list of college football recruits includes 20 consensus All-Americans, two Heisman Trophy winners, two Outland Trophy winners and a Lombardi Award winner.

Oklahoma

Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma was Billy Sims, running back in 1978 after rushing for 1,782 yards.
The Outland Trophy winners were Lee Roy Selmon, defensive tackle in 1975 and offensive guard Greg Roberts (1979).
Lee Roy Selmon also won the Lombardi Award in 1975.
One of Pettibone's early Oklahoma classes graduated 17 of 25 football players into the National Football League.
At Oklahoma, he was part of eight bowl games and was with two national championship teams. He was part of seven Big Eight championship teams at Oklahoma.

Nebraska

He was an assistant coach for three bowl games at Nebraska.

1980 Cotton Bowl.
1981 Sun Bowl.
1982 Orange Bowl.

As a recruiting coordinator, he helped recruit consensus All-Americans’ Irving Fryer, running back Mike Rozier, and center Mark Traynowicz. Rozier won the Heisman Trophy in 1983 after rushing for 2,148 yards.

Texas A&M

Named as the No. 1 recruiter in America by Sports Illustrated in 1984, Pettibone's initial recruiting class at Texas A&M ranked first in the Southwest Conference, and No. 5 in the nation. With Jerry Pettibone's college football leadership, that class produced six Aggie starters in the first year.

Head Coach - North Illinois University

Inducted into the 2019 Northern Illinois Sport’s Hall of Fame.
As a head coach at Northern Illinois University, his football team defeated the first Big Ten Team in the history of the school, defeating Wisconsin 19 to 17 in 1987. NIU recorded a 9-2 record to tie best-ever record in history of the school in 1989. Pettibone was named ‘Coach of the Year’ in 1987 for major Northern Independent schools by Sporting News.
NIU established four school records (most points, most touchdowns, most rushing touchdowns and most possession time) and the Huskies were ranked among the top 25 in five different categories.
NIU recorded its first ever victory over a top 25 rated team when it downed Fresno State 73 to 18 in 1990.
NIU established 51 school records and 7 NCAA records during Jerry's final three years.

Head Coach - Oregon State University

While at Oregon State University, Pettibone became only the fourth football coach in history to defeat Oregon in his first season. Jerry's team defeated Oregon at Autzen Stadium for the second straight time in 1993. This football team set nine school records. OSU finished second in the nation in rushing.
OSU won its first Pac-10 road game out of the state of Oregon under Pettibone, when it defeated UCLA in 1994, 23-14 at the Rose Bowl. It was also the Beavers' first-ever victory in the Rose Bowl.
OSU also recorded its first football game victory over a ranked team under Pettibone, when it defeated Washington State 21-3 in 1994.

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Jerry was named co-runner-up for the Division 1-A Coach of the Year honors following the 1993 season by Sports Illustrated. He was also appointed to the American Football Coaches Association's Ethics Committee in 1992 by Executive Director Charles McClendon.

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Testimonials

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"Coaches have a great deal of respect for" Jerry Pettibone

I am very enthusiastic about sharing our experience working with Jerry Pettibone over the past year. Jerry has always been very straightforward and honest through this process starting with his message that John, as a junior sharing the QB position with a team mate would be way behind in the recruiting process. We sent Jerry John's highlights and his evaluation was amazingly thorough and turned out to be right on target. Jerry's evaluation not only indicated where he thought John could play at the time but also indicated where he thought John could play if he improved in a few areas.

The last year has been a roller coaster of experiences and emotions and we were so blessed to have Jerry by our side through the entire process. His perspective could only come from someone who has been on the inside of college football. Knowing we had access to someone who has spent his entire career evaluating, recruiting and coaching kids just like John was invaluable and gave us a great deal of comfort. He is a man of character and it is obvious that coaches have a great deal of respect for him. I can't imagine going through the recruiting process without him. John will be playing for a D1 BCS football program starting this fall!

Brad S. - Shawnee Mission, Kansas

Jerry Pettibone is a "Football Genius"

The man is an encyclopedia of knowledge on how to recruit a college football player. With his coaching experience & his seemingly unlimited network of contacts, Jerry's services are an excellent barometer of your recruit's ability to play at the next level. With the price of an education today & the limited number of scholarships available, your investment will be money well spent. I know mine was.

Thanks Jerry

Tim L - Plano, Texas

Jerry is "up front and honest"

I would highly recommend using Jerry Pettibone's football evaluation services. His process was up front and honest. There were no promises made to mislead us. This allowed us an opportunity to see where our son would fit in without spending a lot of money. Jerry hit the nail on the head as far as his evaluation went. Our son ended up in a program at the exact level as Jerry's initial evaluation.

Jerry opened doors for us that we had not been able to get through. He has the ability to talk to coaches and make connections that the average family can not.

With great appreciation,