If you want a look at the status African-Americans have coaching major college football, watch Saturday’s Washington-UCLA game. You won’t see just a partial picture. You won’t see just half the picture. You’ll see the majority of the picture. There is one appalling reason.
Washington’s Tyrone Willingham and UCLA’s Karl Dorrell represent two-thirds of the African-American head coaches in all of Division I-A football.
That’s three out of 119. A sport that has given us the worst method of determining a national champion of any major competition has also given us the worst minority hiring record for head coaches or managers of any major sport – not counting the NHL, in which so few minorities play.
Minority Major League Baseball managers are at 16.7 percent; head coaches in the NFL, 19 percent; men’s college basketball is at 26 percent.
For those without a calculator, I-A football stands at 2.5 percent.
Said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association and a former Colorado football assistant, “It amazes me that in the world of pro sports, where it’s all about business and it should not have all the influence of education and fair play and all those things they’re infatuated with in the college ranks, that they’re more diverse.”
What’s even more startling is that, according to USA Today, 29 percent of starting I-A quarterbacks are African-American. So why is the most important position on the field entrusted to African-Americans but the one in charge of making that selection is not?
Some black coaches are getting chances, and some are getting good jobs, such as Bobby Williams had at Michigan State, Bob Simmons had at Oklahoma State and Willingham had at Notre Dame and now has at Washington. But there aren’t many. There have been only 19 African-American coaches in I-A history, and when they get their shot, they had better not blow it.
Only one fired African-American coach ever got rehired as a Division I-A head coach, and that didn’t occur until this year when Washington hired Willingham. Williams is the running backs coach for the Miami Dolphins, Simmons is on Willingham’s Washington staff as tight ends/special teams coach and former New Mexico State coach Tony Samuel is the defensive ends coach at Purdue. Louisiana-Lafayette’s Jerry Baldwin is out of coaching.
If you’re African-American in I-A, it’s one and you’re done. It’s as if college presidents say: “Well, see? Someone tried it, and it didn’t work. Now leave me and my martini alone.”
White coaches don’t have that problem, or did you notice last Friday night on ESPN that the coach who replaced Samuel at New Mexico State was Hal Mumme, who was run off at Kentucky for NCAA violations?
The significance of Saturday’s game is not lost on Willingham and Dorrell. It’s only the 12th time two African-American coaches have faced each other.
“We’ve been talking about this for 300 years if you go back to the origin of the country and talk about slavery and coming forward,” Willingham said on Tuesday’s Pacific 10 conference call. “This is no different than some of the religious battles other groups have had to fight.”
It’s probably no coincidence this matchup is occurring in the Pac-10. The conference, laden with liberal campuses and administrations, has invited minority coaches from all of its schools to its past three spring meetings in Phoenix. They meet all 10 head football coaches, as well as the athletic directors, and hear speakers who give valuable tips on how to climb the coaching ladder. The idea is growing legs nationally.
While the NFL requires teams to contact at least one one minority candidate when it makes a hire, Willingham doesn’t believe that works: “When taxation is forced on us, most of us want to rebel. That’s not necessarily the way to go.”
Three of the most highly respected coordinators in college football – of any color – are Miami defensive coordinator Randy Shannon, Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong and North Texas offensive coordinator Ramon Flanigan, all African-American. They won’t have time to watch Saturday’s game, but they’ll follow the results Saturday and beyond.
Dorrell has jump-started UCLA to a 3-0 mark and No. 20 ranking, and Sylvester Croom has lifted 2-2 Mississippi State back to respectability. The climb Willingham faces in Seattle is higher than Mount Rainier.
Dorrell, Willingham and Croom are the remaining guiding lights. However dimly three lights can shine.
No one’s laughing
Two highly disturbing thoughts surfaced from the colossal gaffe in Sunday’s first Harris Interactive Poll. OK, maybe the cretin who ranked 0-4 Idaho 21st didn’t alter the overall complexion of the poll.
However, The Associated Press media poll and USA Today coaches’ poll have safeguards. If an Alabama reporter doesn’t drop the Crimson Tide after it loses by five touchdowns, he gets a call. Whatever alleged “verification system” Harris uses did not find it alarming that a moron voted for an 0-4 team, one that got shut out by college football’s human highway stripe, Hawaii.
“We have to decide if it’s acceptable, and in our opinion it is,” Harris spokeswoman Nancy Wong told the San Jose Mercury News.
Here’s what won’t be acceptable: What happens if No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Virginia Tech stay unbeaten and are neck and neck for the other Rose Bowl spot opposite USC? What happens if a similar brain lock makes a difference in who’s No. 2 and 3 in the final BCS poll?
Come on, guys. You’re not that old. Wake up and get a clue.
Footnotes
Tennessee is finally sticking with Rick Clausen at quarterback. … Michigan State has three running backs averaging at least 6 yards a carry. … A major reason UCLA is 3-0? It hasn’t committed a turnover. … Miami coach Larry Coker said he would not have scheduled South Florida if the Bulls hadn’t been elevated to the Big East. … Alabama is 4-0 and ranked 15th despite playing 10 true freshmen. … Now it really is the Big Least: Only Louisville remains in the top 25. … Only at Central Florida. After the Golden Knights ended their nation-leading 17-game losing streak, the fans tore down a goalpost in order to parade it through Orlando. It got stuck in the Citrus Bowl tunnel.
