Houston, TX, – Texas Southern University Director of Athletics Dr. Charles McClelland announced today that Johnnie Cole is no longer the head football coach effective today. Defensive Coordinator Kevin Ramsey will serve as interim head coach.
“We want to thank Coach Cole for his years of service at Texas Southern, however at this time, we have agreed that Coach Cole’s separation from the program is best for all parties,” McClelland said. “We will utilize the next nine months to thoroughly search for a head football coach; one that will ensure that the needs of our students are met, and engage the alumni, employees and the entire TSU community.”
Cole was named TSU’s 13th football head coach on November 30, 2007. He led the Tigers to their first outright SWAC Championship title in 2010 and finished the season with a 9-3 overall record.
TSU Athletic Director McClelland stated that “the university’s commitment to compliance is undaunting. TSU will be held to the highest standards of compliance and will run a clean program. The person that we hire as our head coach will be someone who has an extensive background in coaching Division I football, shows high moral values and upholds the standards and integrity set forth by the university.”
McClelland added, “We anticipate major NCAA violations toward our football program with regards to recruiting, unethical conduct and academic inconsistencies among other things. Please be assured that compliance is at the top of our list as we move forward with building a premiere athletic program. With coach Ramsey at the helm this football season, this will allow us to have continuity in this process. We want the program to run smoothly and with Ramsey’s impressive resume, we can be assured of that.”
McClelland said that coach Ramsey knows that the first priority right now is to make sure that the student-athletes’ needs are met. According to McClelland, Ramsey led the number one defense in the nation and served as defensive secondary coach for the Arizona Cardinals. But more impressive than that is the fact that Ramsey was the defensive coordinator for the University of Georgia where the team won the Outback Bowl in 2000. He coached linebackers at Kansas State, he was defensive line coach and secondary coach at Northwestern University, a defensive secondary coach at the University of Tennessee where the team won the Fiesta Bowl in 1999, and the Orange Bowl in 1998, and was SEC Champions from 1997 – 1998. Prior to that, Coach Ramsey was defensive secondary coach at the University of West Virginia where the team won the Sugar Bowl in 1994, and was the Big East Champions in 1993.
Upon assuming the helm Ramsey stated ”We have a good core group of young men on this team. I will certainly do everything in my power to keep us together and moving in a direction that exemplifies what the TSU Athletic administrators and the university expects and what the players, community and alumni deserve whole heartedly.”
McClelland says a permanent new football head coach will be named after the 2011 season.
I do not believe Coach Cole did any thing wrong.He has done a great job there. God will pay you when you do people wrong.If it is suched out right. Johnny is not guilty of wrong doing. If he did something wrong he did not mean to.He might not be Reigning now, he made that team reign and he did not do wrong to get it done,but I say to you Johnny leave it to God, he is looking all around.He seem so happy working there. I just hate to see people hurt when they are not at fault.I just don’t believe he would take chances doing wrong. God will bless you for what you have done there.
I suggest that you should get all your facts before jumping out there in defense of someone.
Lucy – you speak from the heart and should be commended for that. You obviously are a God-fearing woman who looks for the good in people. Inside Source – you seem to imply that you know the facts . . . what are the facts? Whether Coach Cole commited NCAA violations has yet to be determined, as stated in the article, because the NCAA has not provided that specific information. In my years I’ve seen several the results of ‘in-house’ investigations that have not been able to withstand the scrunity of a thorough NCAA investigation conducted by experinced NCAA staff. TSU was smart enough not to list anything specific so as not to be a future litigant in a defamination of character law suit. It will be interesting to see if the results of NCAA investigation live up to the hype of Coach Cole’s termination.
Lucy? Spelling and comprehensive is important! Are you one of those on his list?
Get over it he cheated,got caught,take the title back, t.s.u. don’t deserve the championship it would be tainted.