College Football Needs More Minority Head Coaches
1-liner, College Football, Race May 12th. 2009, 11:30amCollege Football: Only nine of the 120 head coaches (7.5 percent) are minorities. In the NFL, six of 32 are minorities (19 percent). The good news: There are 39 college football offensive/defensive coordinators who are minorities, and if that position is a stepping stone to a head coaching gig, then there might be change on the horizon. (USA Today)
28 Responses to “College Football Needs More Minority Head Coaches”
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May 12th, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Typical reporting here by the USA Today, but the core points are never made clear. So what steps are advocated to remedy the situation for the problem you describe? What steps politically as well? Whose political water are you carrying there in Metro Washington DC USA Today (or others otherwise). How does your piece of crap paper in a piece of crap Metro area still exist?
May 12th, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I find it hard to believe that a school would deny an African-American a shot at head coach if it really thought that it could win even one more game than a white coach. Even in the SEC.
But then I see mediocre retreads like Mike Shula, Dave Wannstedt and Rich Brooks get jobs at BCS schools and it makes me wonder.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:44 AM
While I feel that there should be more minority coaches, I’m not sure what anyone can do about it. If I am an AD, I am going to hire who I want to hire. Now, I do think the forced minority interview (Rooney rule) is a good thing. It may not get a coach the gig but he gets to be face to face with the higher ups and that is always a good thing. But, in the end, AD’s are going to hire their choice, white or black.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:46 AM
I agree Jay. If you told a team in the SEC that coach X would win more games they wouldn’t care…unless it was Bama or Ole Miss…those are some racist bastards.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Tony Dungy will solve every sports problem in existence when Obama appoints him to the new position of Secretary of Sports. Scourges and plagues like steroids, equal opportunities for all, gambling, rehabiliation of wanton athletes, etc will all be handled by St. Tony.
/Rhoden’d
May 12th, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Honestly, I don’t think W – L’s are the only things that matter in CFB. If the boosters don’t like you and don’t contribute, you’re gone.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:59 AM
+1 JPQ +1 Thriller +1 Gods +1 Jay
As Thriller implies heavily, let’s just follow the heavy money trail not going enough to the players themselves in college sports …that’s how decisions are made in the end that otherwise are “debated” endlessly by East Coast douchebag and ninnie media, also in on the take of course for whatever is the position of their paymasters in the NCAA and BCS.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Sad but true.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:05 PM
It will be more difficult in the south… but a Rooney rule is absolutely necessary… the old institutions of coaching are going to need to get vocal about this (Paterno, Bowden, Holtz, hell even Stoops) in order for more minorities to get a chance.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:09 PM
I think *most* schools put winning above everything, but then again we heard the rumors last season that Turner Gill was passed over at Auburn because he has a white wife. A Rooney rule couldn’t hurt in anyway, so why not have it.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:09 PM
It will be more difficult in the south
Randy Shannon- NFLU
May 12th, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Problem is, who could pass a rooney rule? The NCAA has little to do with major college football, and any attempt to dictate who a college hires would immediately get challenged in court. The individual conferences would probably stand a better chance, but it couldn’t be targeted only towards football- it’d have to be applied to all sports. That opens up an entirely different can of worms (how many minority golf/field hockey/lacrosse/etc coaches are there?).
May 12th, 2009 at 12:14 PM
It’ll be interesting to see if in the next decade or two whether Tryone Willingham and Dennis Green become the Wade Phillips and Norv Turner of black coaches.
/There has to be other qualified candidates, right?
May 12th, 2009 at 12:23 PM
What kind of change are you looking for, TBL. How about tossing out a number.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:27 PM
The stepping stones are there for a great number of black coaches to make the head coaching leap in the next 5-10 years. There weren’t enough guys who got O and D coordinator jobs to be considered for head coaching jobs. Now that there are, there is potential for a great deal of black coaches getting head coaching jobs. Not that a coordinator, no matter how good, makes a good head coach, but the experience factor alone is worth an interview…
May 12th, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Turner Gill was passed over at Auburn because he has a white wife.
Florida’s DC says that’s why he’s not a head coach right now too. The thing is, if that is even close to an issue, why would you even want to coach there? Let the racists go 4-8 under Chizik. You’ll get the last laugh when you go to a school that respects you.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Turner Gill was passed over at Auburn because he has a white wife.
Mike Singletary’s WIFE almost passed him over because he was black. What does that say?
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/mike-singletarys-wife-wishes-he-was-white-23789
May 12th, 2009 at 12:43 PM
@jpq- I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that on Sports Reporters a few days ago. For the love of God..
May 12th, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Good for Singletary’s wife for admiting that. At least she is willing to tell the truth.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:56 PM
@jpq- I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that on Sports Reporters a few days ago. For the love of God..
@cj: this is not really a “political” comment, but more of a societal one: I don’t think 99.9% of the media will ever say a negative thing about either Obama or Dungy, no matter what they ever did or said. The butt-kissing of the two of them is palpable.
I respect both guys for what they have done in their lives, but I get nauseated when the soapboxes come out and the fawning begins
@thrillb: I agree. I just posted it because I thought it was interesting
May 12th, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Only nine of the 120 head coaches (7.5 percent) are minorities. In the NFL, six of 32 are minorities (19 percent)
If you think these numbers are terrible, how about the almost non existent minority ownership. If we can jump to that solution, the positions of less power, (i.e. coaching) will come along with it
/realizes 2 steps forward 1 step back is the only way this country operates…
May 12th, 2009 at 1:09 PM
@jpq1999
but I get nauseated when the soapboxes come out and the fawning begins
I think we can add any prominent figure to that list. It seems to be the nature of things today. People are built up to the point that a backlash develops and then we all revel in their “downfalls”.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:29 PM
College football is so wealthy booster-oriented that it’s probably going to take a while to change, if at all. It’s behind the times in a lot of ways. That being the most blatant.
I actually don’t think there is a problem in the NFL right now. Teams are becoming smarter. They are using science, analyzing data. They are going to find the best coaches regardless of race.
Though, the Rooney rule and the success of Dungy and Tomlin have obviously been helpful.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Absolutely… lemme tell you, the most hated people in Tuscaloosa are Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Glen Coffee, Andre Smith, Rashard Johnson, Tyrone Prothro (they STILL hate his ass!), Rolando McClain, Antoine Caldwell (interior linemen are supposed to be white–get rid of the darkie!), Terrence Cody, Javier Arenas, and Donta Hightower. I don’t know as much about Ole Miss, but I’m sure that McCluster has to arrange his route to classes and practice so that he avoids the multitudinous lynch mobs which seek him out daily.
No, we heard opinions about this, many of them fueled by one Charles Barkley, one of the most foolish peole currently alive.
Eh, this whole subject pisses me off. It’s idiotic.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:57 PM
And all of those players you named are coaches how? That’s the subject, here.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:58 PM
Jonesing,
It’s one thing to pick cotton, it’s another thing to run the plantation where the cotton is picked.
May 13th, 2009 at 1:17 AM
Actually the subject was racism… if a fan base loves people who will help their team win (including a team that is, what, 90% black?), it’s kinda-sorta-completely ridiculous to assume that they’re so f-ing racist that they just wouldn’t be able to stand letting one of them negros wear the headset. I think if you promised Bama fans a national championship, they would let an Iraqi who graduated from Auburn coach the team. Boosters/fans are concerned with winning… if they think a guy can do it, they hire him.
May 14th, 2009 at 2:40 AM
Have you spent any time in the South outside of perhaps much of Atlanta or on any given college campus? This is utter BS.