Anthony Wilson
Newly hired UCLA football coach DeShaun Foster made waves on social media and in headlines in January when he lured multiple Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy away from the team. NFL. This move caught the attention of many top offensive recruits and was hailed as a groundbreaking move.
But what really caught my attention was that nine of Foster’s ten coaches on the field were minorities.
In conjunction with CBS Sports Power Four Rankings coaches this week, I reached out to a handful of black coaches — some who have been ranked by CBS Sports, some coaches at the Group of Five level, others who are doing important work out of the spotlight — for a sort of State of the Union on how they think representation on a large scale college football it’s fashionable. The bottom two coaches in the CBS Sports rankings were Syracuse’s Foster and Fran Brown; Argue if you want, but it’s standard protocol to set new hires last – and the most important thing is that they were hired for the job.
O The 2024 training carousel has seen progress. There were 14 Black head coaches at 133 FBS schools in 2023. At the start of the 2024 season, there will be 16 Black head coaches at 134 FBS schools (Kennesaw State is the newest addition). UCLA (Foster), Syracuse (Brown), MTSU (Derek Mason), Georgia State (Dell McGee) and Michigan (Sherrone Moore) were the schools that hired black coaches; the three outgoing black coaches were at Syracuse (Dino Babers), Michigan State (Mel Tucker) and Buffalo, where Maurice Linguist left to join the Alabama staff as co-defensive coordinator.
An increase in numbers is commendable, but we are fooling ourselves if we think that a 12% representation is a number worth boasting about, given how the demographics split among FBS players.
| Total | 5,652 | 8,151 | 2,868 |
| Percentage | 33.9 | 48.9 | 17.2 |
In Michigan, Moore debuted at No. 52 in the CBS Sports Coaches Rankingswhich is the best mark a first-year coach has achieved (Moore accomplished that after going 4-0 as interim coach of the Wolverines last season).
Of the coaches CBS Sports ranked 60-68, five are black (again, two of them are new hires in Foster and Brown). I don’t mind saying that I disagree with Deion Sanders’ 61st ranking, given his work at Jackson State, his quick turnaround at Colorado from 1-11 to 4-8, and how he got high-quality players to Boulder, which represents more half of a coach’s work. Sanders’ ranking was likely influenced by recent developments this offseason. Sanders is cited later in this article.
Anyway, back to Foster and how he built his team.
“All of these coaches are the best in their field; I chose the right guys for the roles they play,” he told me this week.
Foster also had this advice for young minority coaches:
“Don’t let yourself be pigeonholed as a recruiter,” he said. “You have to show and prove that you can really coach the ball.”
With opportunities for Black coaches already limited, you don’t typically see a team composition like this. Many Black coaches, when given the opportunity to step into the top spot, don’t always feel comfortable reaching back to hold the door open. The pressure to win and the feeling that this will be their only opportunity often leads them to make hires they think will be accepted, rather than the hires they want.
In the ballroom of a Las Vegas hotel, the room was packed with people looking for answers during a session at the National Coalition for Minority Coaches Convention. A panel of search firm titans, led by Herb Courtney of Renaissance Search and Consulting and Chad Chatlos of Turnkey, answered questions from the group of minority coaches about how to position themselves for opportunities.
Purdue coach Ryan Walters was a coach Chatlos named specifically because he was prepared when his name was called.
Ryan Walters was fresh off a great season as defensive coordinator for Bret Bielema’s Fighting Illini program after also serving as defensive coordinator at Missouri under Eli Drinkwitz and now-UNLV head coach Barry Odom.
“I definitely feel like the doors are opening more than they have in the past, but I would still like to see more Black offensive coaches have opportunities,” Walters said when I spoke to him this week. “Normally, you have to be great as a coordinator to get noticed by search firms and administrators. I did that. The problem on the offensive side of the ball is there aren’t many black offensive coordinators because typically your OC is your QBs coach. There just aren’t many black QB coaches out there. My hope is that with the trend of more black quarterbacks in college and around the world. NFLthese guys will go into coaching and not qualify as good recruiters.
“In terms of why I was so prepared, I was prepared because I knew this was what I wanted to do for 15 years. I’ve been preparing for 15 seasons. I took notes on every show I was on, I kept a roster of staff as I went along. and I received great help from my agency, who recognized my potential and nurtured my growth.”
Arizona running backs coach Alonzo Carter chairs the executive committee of the National Minority Coaches Coalition. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his Zoom clinics on the West Coast brought together virtually the entire minority coaching and executive population nationally.
“The goal of the coalition is to prepare, promote and produce coaches of all levels, especially coaches looking to make the leap to another level of coaching,” Carter said. “While we are not a search firm, the coalition provides leadership, guidance and, most importantly, year-round professional development. The professional development you receive as a member can help prepare you for all levels of football, from youth football to youth football. NFL.”
Many people look at Sanders as an outsider, a person who was given the keys to a Jackson State program because of his on-field accomplishments and off-field personality. But in my conversations with him, he always rejected this and tried to educate on how the process needed to be handled. Sanders said his relationships with search firms were vital to his hiring at Jackson State and Colorado.
“Most of us don’t know about search firms and how to build the relationships we need to have, and even more importantly, who to build those relationships with,” he said. “I’m trying to fill the gap that has existed for decades. I want to reach qualified Black coaches, administrators, trainers, GAs, equipment men and women, as well as minorities on social media and in security.”
Sanders also wanted to emphasize that Colorado athletics director Rick George took a risk for him, but the search firm’s sticking point keeps coming up in conversations with black coaches who have started to rise through the ranks.
“You need people talking about you in rooms where you’re not,” Kent State coach Kenni Burns said. “You have to position yourself to be part of the conversations that ADs, search firms and administrators are having. Go to events like the NCAA Future Head Coaches Academy and the NCAA Champions Forum. You need your head coach trying to help you too and telling your story to you.”
Getty Images
Who you have the opportunity to work for will also be important. Marshall coach Charles Huff, who had wins against Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, credits working with not only Nick Saban but also Mike Locksley. But he believes there are things that need to be done to position himself better.
“I am the minority checker; I might be on the list because of my resume,” Huff said. “After they meet with me, they can say they spoke to a minority. We have to get to a level where we earn enough to be wanted, just because they want me to coach, and not to check a box.”
Huff’s full quote is worth highlighting and delving deeper into.
“You have to connect with the right people. You may have to spend less money to work for the right guy or go out of your comfort zone regionally. You have to connect with the right guy who can win so your name can get in. the mix for jobs Because ultimately, schools want to hire winners. It’s not always about going to a big school, it’s about going to the right school where you can win.
We also need help, guys like Nick Saban and Mike Locksley who can and are willing to pick up the phone and help by saying they’re ready.
Young people need to be focused on entering a building. It doesn’t matter how much money you’re going to make, or what position you’re going to hold, just get in the building and work.”
We had many conversations about situation of black and minority coaches. The numbers are low, the opportunities are few and the solutions sometimes seem distant.
In my opinion, the biggest threat to the future of black coaches is the inability of players to accept when they are not going to play in the NFL. The thousands of guys who didn’t get drafted should work with coaches and organizations like the Coalition to get roles like grad assistants, analysts, recruiting analysts, etc.
When I was a high school coach in St. Louis, one of my favorite players I coached was Aqeel Glass, who would go on to become a two-time SWAC Offensive Player of the Year at Alabama A&M. Glass wasn’t drafted, but his football acumen and offensive intelligence are impressive. He’s trying to move up the FBS college football ranks as a GA, somewhere. People like Glass can be rising stars if given the opportunity to thrive. And these are the opportunities we need to present to our young people to continue breaking down doors.
