Tallahassee, Fla. – Former Broncos nose tackle Rubin Carter will be introduced today as the head coach at Florida A&M.
Carter, 52, spent the past 16 months as defensive line coach at Temple and was a key player for the Broncos’ famed “Orange Crush” defense on Denver’s first Super Bowl team in 1977.
“A homegrown Floridian who has come through the high school ranks, playing his college ball at Miami, an All-American, in the NFL for more than a decade,” Florida A&M athletic director Newton Jackson said Tuesday. “That’s what all the kids aspire to.”
Contract negotiations were to be finalized before today’s news conference, Jackson said.
A native of Pompano Beach, Fla., Carter replaces Billy Joe, a former Broncos fullback who was fired by the Rattlers last month along with two assistants amid an ongoing cheating probe.
Joe, who earned $135,000 annually, was 86-46 in 11 years at the school. Details of Carter’s contract haven’t been released.
“We said our goodbyes yesterday,” Temple football administrative recruiting specialist Patrice Cohill said. “Our loss, your gain. We’re going to miss him. He did a terrific job here.”
Carter has not been a head coach and his selection continues a long-standing Florida A&M tradition of elevating assistants. They include the legendary Jake Gaither, Ken Riley, Big Bill Bell and Rudy Hubbard, who was just 28 and an assistant for Woody Hayes at Ohio State.
“I understand the players were saying he was their No. 1 choice,” state Sen. Al Lawson, a 1970 Florida A&M graduate, said. “Everyone that I’ve talked to gives him high praise.”
Carter has little time to prepare for the start of the 2005 season. Players are due to report Aug. 7 and the season opener is Sept. 3 against Delaware State.
Carter takes over a program in the midst of a school-wide funding crisis and an NCAA investigation into hundreds of rules violations throughout the athletics program. FAMU was stripped of MEAC championships from 2000 and 2001 after an investigation showed 196 NCAA rules violations throughout its athletics program.
Carter, who started in Super Bowl XII, spent a dozen seasons in the NFL before coaching 17 years at the pro and collegiate levels. He coached collegiately at Howard, San Jose State and Maryland in addition to NFL assignments at Denver, Washington and the New York Jets.
