Re: JSU football left in limbo as Bell goes into Year 3
Now I know they got to be extremely frustrated.
JSU sticks with Bell as coach
Some expected his ouster after 2 losing football seasons
By Mark Alexander
[email protected]
In the final seconds of Jackson State University's 16-14 loss Saturday to Alcorn State University, some Tiger football fans chanted, "Bell must go! Bell must go!"
Those fans won't get their wish. James Bell, whose teams have won six games and lost 17 over the last two seasons, will continue to coach the team, school officials said Tuesday.
Bell has one year remaining on a guaranteed three-year contract paying him $85,000 per year. "We decided to honor that contract," JSU athletic director Roy Culberson said.
Under Bell, JSU posted its first back-to-back losing seasons since the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The Tigers finished 2-10 in Bell's first season ? the worst mark in program history ? and 4-7 this season.
As the losses mounted, so did speculation among fans that Bell might be fired.
Bryan Jackson, 33, a JSU fan from Clinton, said he was "surprised" Bell was retained.
"His record speaks for itself," said Jackson. "I've got a question: Why should I buy a season ticket? I've got another question: Why is this man not held to the same standard as the former coach? How can you justify firing a guy who won seven games every season and keeping a guy who barely won four?"
Robert Hughes, Bell's predecessor, was fired after three consecutive 7-4 seasons.
JSU is 1-9 in games in Jackson under Bell, and has beaten just one team with a winning record. JSU has lost to rival Alcorn State the past two seasons, ending an eight-year winning streak over the Braves.
"Won-lost record is not the final determination," Culberson said. "There are a lot of other intangibles involved. We're not happy with where we finished in the standings. However, when we went through the evaluation process, there were a lot of positives."
Culberson and JSU president Ronald Mason have both pointed to Bell's fund-raising abilities and the football team's improved grade point average as examples of improvements Bell has made that don't show up on the field.
Shelly Hart of Huntsville, Ala., president of the JSU Alabama Alumni Chapter, said in an e-mail this week that Bell should remain.
"He has great skills to improve our program and the leadership abilities to get the job done," Hart said in the e-mail.
Culberson said a contract extension was not discussed.
"We're going to be looking for total improvement within the program ... there needs to be significant improvement," he said. "We're being very optimistic that will happen. We're looking for a good season."
When asked if entering next season without additional years on his contract bothered him, Bell replied: "No. That's part of the business. It's what we do."
Bell said he was confident he would return.
"I'm a positive thinker," Bell said. "We've done positive things here. We've moved forward."
Bell said his next focus is recruiting. "We've already begun," he said.
Attendance for JSU games at Mississippi Veterans Stadium has declined significantly, from an average of 29,068 in 2001 to 16,273 this season.
Bell says there's more to building a program than selling tickets.
"Anybody in the country that runs a program knows that just tickets is not going to make a program go," Bell said. "You have to have other areas of bringing in income. Those are the things we have to continue to evaluate."
In his own evaluation of the program, Bell said, "We've made a lot of improvements." JSU doubled its win total this season from Bell's first year. Bell also pointed out that the Tigers were more competitive in several of their losses against top-flight competition.
Four of the losses came to teams currently ranked in the top 20 in The Sports Network Division I-AA poll: No. 11 Hampton, No. 15 Northwestern (La.) State, No. 19 Alabama State and No. 20 Southern University.
JSU loses 10 senior starters off this year's team, including quarterback Brian Green, leading receiver Chris Jones, leading tackler Joseph Scott and top defensive lineman Deon DeBoise. The Tigers do return their top three running backs ? David Kennebrew, Olandus Rogers and Curtis Hayes.
Bell remains confident he can turn things around despite the departure of those seniors and the lack of success in his first two seasons. "I have a lot of people that know where my heart is," he said. "They know what I'm trying to do."
