Commentary
The Plight Of Black Football Coaches (Part Two)
By Gary Norris Gray
Dec 3, 2007

Turner Gill

CALIFORNIA -- Well, it's that time of the year when colleges and universities hand out pink slips and walking papers to their football staff if they have not produced a winning team. As of Friday, there are 12 new head coaching positions open.

The good news is not a single African American Head Coach was fired or handed walking papers in 2007. The bad news is that three African American coaches will be watched very closely during next football season because of their team's meager performance.

The list of walking papers is lengthy and came very early this season. Could it be these universities and colleges want to keep the recruitment stream flowing without interruption? The fired, released, or retired coaches are as follows:

Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech; Bill Callahan, Nebraska; Lloyd Carr, Michigan; Houston Nutt, Arkansas; Bill Doba, Washington State; Jeff Bower, Southern Mississippi; Ted Roof, Duke; Ed Orgeron, Ole Miss; Guy Morriss, Baylor; Sonny Lubich, Colorado State; and Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M.

The Merry Go Round has already started. The head coach of Arkansas (Houston Nutt) who stepped down last Monday and had a job that afternoon at Ole Miss. Art Briles now has the head coaching position at Baylor replacing Morriss. Mike Shermann replaced Franchione at Texas A&M. these three men where hired apparently without any interviews.

The NCAA and it's hiring practices it make it very difficult for young, bright, intelligent, African Americans to acquire head coaching positions. If the universities or college administrations and presidents do not interview minority candidates, how can they become head coaches?

The National Football League addressed this issue ten years ago with resounding results two African American Coaches went to the Super Bowl last year. The Black Coaches Association should investigate each and every hire until the NCAA sets a standard for interviews. Then maybe the universities and colleges will get the message.

This is a blatant civil rights violation and should be addressed.

One more coach should be added to the long list of fired football mentors. There is a team in the midwest that plays under the Golden Dome. There is an image of Touchdown Jesus at one endzone. This team plays on NBC Sports on Saturdays. This offensive coaching genius will not be fired this year because of the lengthy extension this university gave him mid season.  

They will not fire him because he is one of their own. This university will not fire him because he is an alumni member. This coach has made some questionable calls at the end of three games and lost to Navy and Air Force in the same year.

The football team mid season went into the tank and lost seven games in a row. Yet he will remain at this proud and prestigious college for another year. The invisible old boy networking system would curtail or even stop with the NFL's Rooney Rule.

In the meantime, there are three African American Coaches that will be on the hot seat next year and might be looking for a new job in the 2009 football seasons. Coach Randy Shannon (5-7) at Miami (Fla.), Karl Dorrell (6-6) at UCLA., (UCLA) and Tyrone Willingham (4-9) at Washington.

All three coaches struggled this year and are at the bottom half of their conferences. All three have been given chances to improve and failed. However there is a very bright side to this predicament.

Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom (4-4) has been one of the biggest surprises of this year. The Bulldogs became competitive in the tough SEC. Historically, MSU has struggled and other teams loved to play them because it fattens their winning percentage.

Well, Coach Crooms changed all of that this year making when the Bulldogs bit a few opponents in the rearend. MSU will no-longer be a walkover. Also Ron Prince (5-7) at Kansas State, Norries Wilson (2-9) at Columbia University, and Turner Gill (5-7) at Buffalo are holding their own.

Gill, who was a finalist for the head coaching job at Nebraska, was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Bulls to the most in its Division I-A history. The program had won 10 games in its first seven years in I-A, they won half of that total this season.

UB finished with a 5-3 conference record, including a 4-2 mark in the MAC East Division to claim a share of the regular season title. Prior to the 2007 campaign, UB had won eight MAC games total in the previous eight years.

The NCAA seems to be dragging its proverbial feet on minority head coaching hiring. And it is still dragging its collective feet on a division one football playoff. Maybe things will change next year.