cetmo
CIO
Black coaches hit career roadblocks
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/2sports/local/022202_bcoach.html
By Josh Moon
Montgomery Advertiser
Alabama State's L.C. Cole has been one of the nation's most successful NCAA Division I-AA coaches, but major-college opportunities have not followed for him and other winning black coaches.
-- Staff photo by Mickey Welch
During his career in football, Alabama State football coach L.C. Cole has heard almost everything.
He?s heard the cheers of 80,000 rabid Nebraska fans as a player at Memorial Stadium. He?s heard praise from colleagues after turning a pair of Division I-AA schools into champions. He?s heard his name called for conference and national coaching awards.
But Cole hasn?t heard his phone ring. Not one Division I-A college has inquired about Cole?s availability for a head coaching position during his 22-year career. He?s won 10 different coaching awards, accumulated an overall record of 42-29 in six years as a head coach on the I-AA level, led his Tennessee State team to a pair of Ohio Valley Conference championships and, this past year, led Alabama State to a Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division championship. He even recorded an unbeaten regular season, going 11-0 at Tennessee State in 1999.
Tuskegee coach Rick Comegy has produced a similar resume. Comegy won Black College national crowns at Central (Ohio) State and Tuskegee. The Golden Tigers are 23-1 over the past two seasons, and at the end of last season, his name came up for several I-AA jobs. But none felt right, he said.
Comegy said he?s in a good situation at Division II Tuskegee, and he?s willing to wait for a I-AA opportunity that will allow him to compete against the best competition at the higher level.
Cole has won games and respect at the I-AA level. But now, he has run up against the same obstacles faced by many frustrated black coaches who want to move on to head coaching jobs at the Division I-A level. Statistics indicate that Cole and other qualified African-Americans will have their patience tested more than their coaching ability. The wait has not been easy.
?When I look around my office at all these plaques and stuff, it don?t mean nothing,? said Cole, who is 14-9 in two years as Alabama State?s head football coach. ?Coach of the Year in the Ohio Valley. American Football Coach of the Year. What does it mean? You?re not going anywhere. I mean it?s like saying, ?Hey, you?ve done a great job, but you ain?t getting no promotion.??
Few black coaches are getting a promotion these days.
Of the 117 Division I-A football programs, only four have an African-American head coach. The current black head coaches are Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, Bobby Williams at Michigan State, Tony Samuel at New Mexico State and Fitz Hill at San Jose State.
The Black Coaches Association last month expressed dismay with the lack of progress in hiring at the NCAA convention in Indianapolis. The BCA said it contacted 13 I-A schools with coaching vacancies this year and supplied information on more than 50 black candidates for those positions.
Only one black coach was hired, and that was a fluke.
Notre Dame first passed on Willingham to hire George O?Leary from Georgia Tech. The Irish were embarrassed when O?Leary?s resume was revealed to contain false information. Only after O?Leary resigned did Notre Dame lure Willingham from Stanford.
?Right now, the colleges don?t have the courage to make the decision to hire black coaches,? said Floyd Keith, executive director of the BCA. ?It?s not that they?re not qualified, they?re certainly qualified. We just need to break that barrier of comfort.?
A college head coaching position is more than just a job, Keith pointed out. It?s a commitment, and a relationship that involves winning the hearts and the trust of fans, alumni, students, faculty. ?You don?t marry someone because of their resume,? he said. ?You marry someone because you?re comfortable with them. And that?s what it?s going to take to get more black coaches in college football ? a level of comfort. And the only way to achieve that is through the hiring of more black coaches.?
The problem is not just at the I-A level. In 1995, African-Americans held 5.3 percent of the head coaching jobs at Division I-AA schools, excluding historically black institutions. Over the next four years, black coaches actually lost ground, as the figure dipped to 1.1 percent calculated in 1999.
"When I look around my office at all these plaques and stuff, it don't mean nothing. Coach of the Year in the Ohio Valley. American Football Coach of the Year. What does it mean? You're not going anywhere. I mean, it's like saying, 'Hey, you;ve done a great job, but you ain't getting no promotion.' "
-- L.C. Cole, Alabama State University head football coach
Comegy understands the frustrations of black coaches, and he has been frustrated many times himself. But he said it just motivates him to work harder.
?It doesn?t do any good to get frustrated,? he said. ?I mean, this is just the way it is. It may not be right, but it?s the way it is.?
Ethnic minorities represent just 2.7 percent (15 of 547) of all head football coaches in NCAA institutions, excluding historically black colleges and universities.
And it?s not just at the head coaching level.
Other positions of authority ? positions like associate and assistant head coaches and offensive and defensive coordinators ? are nearly as uncommon. Of the 1,870 Division I-A assistant coaches as of last January, just 381 were black.
The dearth of black coaches is magnified by the fact that almost 50 percent of all college football student-athletes are minorities. There is a vast difference between the ethnic makeup of coaching staffs and their athletes or, for that matter, society in general.
So what exactly is the problem?
?That?s hard to say,? said Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer, who points to the sharp increase in African-American basketball coaches over the past 10 years as a sign of progress and hope.
?I think that will gradually occur in football,? he said. I optimistically believe that. Not as fast as some people would like, but I think it will gradually occur.?
With his contract at Alabama State in limbo last fall, Cole decided to again test the market at the I-A level.
He sent his resume to Vanderbilt, Arkansas State, Kansas, California-Berkley, Navy and Missouri. He applied to the Naval Academy after it sent out a letter specifically asking for minority candidates. He said he knew the athletics directors at Kansas and Vandy.
Again, no one called him.
?Right now, it?s like mud and concrete. I?m stuck,? said Cole, who signed a five-year contract with ASU in early December. ?I?ve got to find a way to cross that big barrier I?ve got in front of me. When we went 11-0 and finished No. 1 (at Tennessee State), I was sure the phone would ring. It?s just like a guy who had a great football season and is waiting for a call from the draft.
?As a matter of fact, I had a guy like that at Tennessee State ? a tackle named Mike Johnson. They told him he would be a first-day draft choice. He had a party and everything. He didn?t even get drafted that day. He fell asleep at his party.
?That?s how I felt.?
The recycling bin
Black candidates are often discouraged by a prevailing cycle of college football coaches being fired by one school only to be hired by another.
As the same coaches churn through the system time and again, younger coaches are left waiting and wondering when ? or if ? their opportunity will come.
?Growing up, I wanted to be a head football coach, and I didn?t see a lot of people around who looked like me in those types of situations,? Hill told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently. ?Now, I have a 1-year-old son, and I?m hoping that one day he?ll grow up and perceive that he has opportunities to obtain a leadership position based upon qualifications, hard work and the American dream. I sure hope race is not a factor that keeps him from having those opportunities.?
Cole has grown increasingly frustrated as some coaches continue to get jobs despite sub-par records, while he has yet to receive even an interview or inquiry.
?It?s like a recycling bin. Same guys get jobs over and over,? he said. ?Look at the guy they just hired at Indiana ? (Gerry) DiNardo. Come on. Give me a chance.
"It takes a strong athletics director and a strong university president to make the decision to hire a black coach. You also need the backing of the alumni where most of the money comes from. And the only way you can get that is if those people are comfortable with the person they're hiring."
-- Floyd Keith, Executive director of Black Coaches Association
?He coached the Birmingham team in that XFL league. They were horrible. He coached at LSU. They were horrible. He was at Vanderbilt. Horrible. But how does he keep surfacing instead of a new candidate? Give someone else a chance. I?m not just saying hire a black coach. I think you should hire the most qualified head coach, and I think I fit into that category.?
Only experienced need apply
The BCA, NCAA and Minority Opportunities Athletic Association have researched and compiled a growing resource list of qualified diverse candidates for head coaching positions. The BCA has a database containing more than 300 names and the NCAA has a minority job bank on the Internet.
The problem is a classic Catch-22.
There are many proven black coaches around the nation, but few have experience as a I-A head coach.
?Someone put a list out there of qualified black coaching candidates. I was on there,? Cole said. ?Then they put a list out there of qualified candidates with Division I-A experience. Well, how many is that? It ain?t very many. You?re talking about the same four or five guys.?
LSU coach Nick Saban, who was head coach at Toledo when Cole was an assistant at the school, says it?s hard for any coach to break into the I-A ranks.
?The people that are doing the hiring of college coaches often don?t know a good coach from a bad one. They just want a name that looks good in lights. They want a name people recognize,? Saban said.
Kramer agreed that experience is a huge sticking point for minority coaches, but that change is coming.
?We?re finding more (black) coordinators now,? he said. ?We?re finding more (black) individuals in those positions and, as that begins to change, you?ll see that pool of black coaches grow,? he said.
?It?s been slow. I understand that, and I think it?s an area we have to work on.?
The savior?
Keith said one way for the handful of black head coaches to help others break the color barrier is simple: Win, and win a lot.
That could give Willingham the opportunity to single-handedly change the course for minority coaches, or at least alter it significantly.
After leading Stanford to a 44-36-1 record in seven years as head coach, he now has taken over the highest profile job in college football at Notre Dame.
?Tyrone Willingham?s hiring certainly won?t hurt the chances of other black coaches,? Keith said. ?Other universities may see that and take the next step. But why wasn?t he hired to begin with at Notre Dame? He was certainly more qualified than the first guy (O?Leary). I think what happened there could have been divine intervention. Hopefully, it will open some eyes.?
?It?s huge,? said Tennessee receivers coach Pat Washington, a former Auburn quarterback. ?There?s finally a guy in position to win a national championship.?
Willingham remains low-key about his new job, calling it ?significant, but not Jackie Robinson significant.?
Hill said while he believed Willingham?s hiring would help the cause if he is successful, he also cautioned that ?as unfortunate as it is, African-American coaches are evaluated collectively.?
But most people look at the hiring as the first truly significant step in a long, long journey.
?Clearly, the hiring at Notre Dame was a step in the right direction,? Auburn athletics director David Housel said. ?Every coach, no matter what race, should be judged by the same criteria: Won-loss record, how he runs his program and if he?s successful at it.
?If Coach Willingham does well and is successful, I think it will help in the long run. If he does not, I don?t think it will hurt necessarily.?
Cole is not so sure.
?I don?t think it will make any difference really,? he said. ?Basically, what they did was to take one guy who already was a head coach and move him to another job. A lot of black coaches think and hope this will change things, but I don?t think that way.?
Starting from the bottom
Cole said Willingham?s connection with legendary San Francisco 49ers? head coach Bill Walsh was a key factor in his career progression.
But Cole has seldom used his connections to the likes of Saban, former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne and current Cornhuskers coach Frank Solich, opting instead to try to work his way up from near the bottom of the coaching ladder.
He played under Osborne at Nebraska in the late 70s and was a graduate assistant coach there in 1981. He then had assistant jobs at New Mexico State (1982-83), Ball State (1984-85), Kansas State (1986-87), Wisconsin (1988-89) and Toledo (1990).
Cole served as defensive coordinator at Morgan State for a year and was an assistant head coach at both Eastern Michigan and Cincinnati.
?While I was coming through, everyone would say, ?you need some experience, get your resume, get some experience. Be offensive coordinator, be defensive coordinator,?? Cole said. ?Well, I?ve done all those things. I did every last one of them and it didn?t help. I applied for jobs and nothing came.?
Finally, in 1996, Cole got his first head coaching shot. He took over a doormat Tennessee State team against the advice of many of his colleagues. The first two years, TSU posted consecutive 4-7 seasons.
But Cole hasn?t posted a losing record since. He led the team to a 9-3 season and the Ohio Valley Conference title in 1998 and went 11-1 and won the title again in 1999. He garnered five coaching awards that season, including the American Football Coaches Association Division I-AA National Coach of the Year.
He figured he had punched his ticket to the next level. He figured wrong.
?A lot of good football coaches came out of the OVC. (Arkansas coach) Houston Nutt came out of there, so did (Frank) Beamer at Virginia Tech,? Cole said. ?Those guys won in that conference and got head jobs. I didn?t get one phone call. I didn?t get one sniff. And that?s after we finished No. 1 and ranked at the top of the nation in offense. We blew the OVC out of the water.?
Still frustrated, Cole decided to approach his dream of becoming a I-A head coach from another direction.
He left TSU to take his current job at Alabama State. At the time, former trustee Donald Watkins was spearheading a plan to make ASU the first historically black college to play at the Division I-A level. But Watkins resigned from the Board less than a year later and little has since been said about the plans to jump to I-A. Plans for a new on-campus stadium seem to be on hold or scrapped entirely.
?The main reason I came here is I thought maybe I could go through the back door to the Division I-A level. It didn?t work that well, at least not yet,? Cole said.
But his dream isn?t over. Cole has plenty of high-profile coaches in his corner, and they believe he not only deserves consideration as a I-A head coach, but that one day he will eventually land a job.
?I know L.C. well,? Saban said.. ?He?s well organized, well spoken, a great coach and recruiter. It?s really not about him, though. It?s the perception. But L.C. shouldn?t get discouraged. He?ll land a job before too long. Things often look darkest before the dawn. Things will turn around for him and he?ll get the job he deserves.?
Solich said it?s all about patience. He served 19 years as an assistant coach at Nebraska before succeeding Osborne four years ago.
?People understand in this day and age that there are quality black head coaches out there. You just have to hope that they are getting the chance they deserve,? Solich said. ?I would hope that the race issue would play no part in the hiring of any coach.
?I know L.C. He?s a great person and has a lot of the characteristics that it takes to be a good head coach. L.C. will get his chance. He just has to be patient.?
But at age 46, Cole feels time may be running out. Along with the six Division I-A schools he sent his resume to this past year, he also applied at a pair of in-state Division II schools ? North Alabama and Samford. He said he did it just to see what might happen.
Nothing happened. He said he received letters from both schools saying their respective positions had been filled.
Asked if a NCAA investigation into the Tennessee State program during Cole?s tenure put a shadow on his resume, Cole said that?s not likely. He said the NCAA sent a letter to ASU during the hiring process saying he was cleared of all charges.
Breaking the barrier
There is no timeline for change, there is no blueprint for the best way for black coaches to work their way into a I-A job.
Cole said he?s been listening to advice for years. People told him to be an assistant coach at a major college. Some told him to be a coordinator at a I-A school. Others told him he needed head coaching experience at any level.
Now, he is being advised to hire an agent and get his name out in public more prominently.
He?s at a standstill. Again.
?I don?t know what else I can do,? Cole said.
The next move may have to come from a college president or athletics director who wants to take a chance on a coach with no I-A head coaching experience, but a proven track record at every other level. Winning the support of alumni will be critical, and that may be the hardest part of all.
?It takes a strong athletics director and a strong university president to make the decision to hire a black coach,? Keith said. ?You also need the backing of the alumni where most of the money comes from. And the only way you can get that is if those people are comfortable with the person they?re hiring.?
Cole said he believes the only way the current situation will change significantly is if black athletes? parents make a conscious decision to steer their sons and daughters to a school with a black coach.
?Sometimes, I think people are afraid to give a black guy one of those good jobs,? he said. ?If someone got one of those jobs and started winning, they might start dominating and getting all the talented black players. That could easily happen.?
For now, though, Cole and his peers can only continue to do what they have always done: Wait. Patience is a difficult virtue for anyone. For a football coach, it may be harder.
?We live in a microwave society, and everyone wants change right now,? Texas A&M assistant coach and AFCA trustee Ken Rucker told the Star-Telegram. ?What we?ve got to do is bring about change through our work. I may go to my grave and not see more than four (black) head coaches, but I don?t believe that. I think it?s going to change. It?s just a process that?s going to take time.?
In the meantime, Cole says he?ll never give up.
?You know what they say,? he smiled and looked at his office walls filled with awards and memories from his career. ?Keep the dream alive and keep fighting for what you think is right and maybe one day someone might say, ?This guy deserves an opportunity.? "
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Josh Moon, a sports writer for the Advertiser, can be reached by phone at (334) 240-0192 or by fax at (334) 261-1586.
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http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/2sports/local/022202_bcoach.html
By Josh Moon
Montgomery Advertiser
Alabama State's L.C. Cole has been one of the nation's most successful NCAA Division I-AA coaches, but major-college opportunities have not followed for him and other winning black coaches.
-- Staff photo by Mickey Welch
During his career in football, Alabama State football coach L.C. Cole has heard almost everything.
He?s heard the cheers of 80,000 rabid Nebraska fans as a player at Memorial Stadium. He?s heard praise from colleagues after turning a pair of Division I-AA schools into champions. He?s heard his name called for conference and national coaching awards.
But Cole hasn?t heard his phone ring. Not one Division I-A college has inquired about Cole?s availability for a head coaching position during his 22-year career. He?s won 10 different coaching awards, accumulated an overall record of 42-29 in six years as a head coach on the I-AA level, led his Tennessee State team to a pair of Ohio Valley Conference championships and, this past year, led Alabama State to a Southwestern Athletic Conference Eastern Division championship. He even recorded an unbeaten regular season, going 11-0 at Tennessee State in 1999.
Tuskegee coach Rick Comegy has produced a similar resume. Comegy won Black College national crowns at Central (Ohio) State and Tuskegee. The Golden Tigers are 23-1 over the past two seasons, and at the end of last season, his name came up for several I-AA jobs. But none felt right, he said.
Comegy said he?s in a good situation at Division II Tuskegee, and he?s willing to wait for a I-AA opportunity that will allow him to compete against the best competition at the higher level.
Cole has won games and respect at the I-AA level. But now, he has run up against the same obstacles faced by many frustrated black coaches who want to move on to head coaching jobs at the Division I-A level. Statistics indicate that Cole and other qualified African-Americans will have their patience tested more than their coaching ability. The wait has not been easy.
?When I look around my office at all these plaques and stuff, it don?t mean nothing,? said Cole, who is 14-9 in two years as Alabama State?s head football coach. ?Coach of the Year in the Ohio Valley. American Football Coach of the Year. What does it mean? You?re not going anywhere. I mean it?s like saying, ?Hey, you?ve done a great job, but you ain?t getting no promotion.??
Few black coaches are getting a promotion these days.
Of the 117 Division I-A football programs, only four have an African-American head coach. The current black head coaches are Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, Bobby Williams at Michigan State, Tony Samuel at New Mexico State and Fitz Hill at San Jose State.
The Black Coaches Association last month expressed dismay with the lack of progress in hiring at the NCAA convention in Indianapolis. The BCA said it contacted 13 I-A schools with coaching vacancies this year and supplied information on more than 50 black candidates for those positions.
Only one black coach was hired, and that was a fluke.
Notre Dame first passed on Willingham to hire George O?Leary from Georgia Tech. The Irish were embarrassed when O?Leary?s resume was revealed to contain false information. Only after O?Leary resigned did Notre Dame lure Willingham from Stanford.
?Right now, the colleges don?t have the courage to make the decision to hire black coaches,? said Floyd Keith, executive director of the BCA. ?It?s not that they?re not qualified, they?re certainly qualified. We just need to break that barrier of comfort.?
A college head coaching position is more than just a job, Keith pointed out. It?s a commitment, and a relationship that involves winning the hearts and the trust of fans, alumni, students, faculty. ?You don?t marry someone because of their resume,? he said. ?You marry someone because you?re comfortable with them. And that?s what it?s going to take to get more black coaches in college football ? a level of comfort. And the only way to achieve that is through the hiring of more black coaches.?
The problem is not just at the I-A level. In 1995, African-Americans held 5.3 percent of the head coaching jobs at Division I-AA schools, excluding historically black institutions. Over the next four years, black coaches actually lost ground, as the figure dipped to 1.1 percent calculated in 1999.
"When I look around my office at all these plaques and stuff, it don't mean nothing. Coach of the Year in the Ohio Valley. American Football Coach of the Year. What does it mean? You're not going anywhere. I mean, it's like saying, 'Hey, you;ve done a great job, but you ain't getting no promotion.' "
-- L.C. Cole, Alabama State University head football coach
Comegy understands the frustrations of black coaches, and he has been frustrated many times himself. But he said it just motivates him to work harder.
?It doesn?t do any good to get frustrated,? he said. ?I mean, this is just the way it is. It may not be right, but it?s the way it is.?
Ethnic minorities represent just 2.7 percent (15 of 547) of all head football coaches in NCAA institutions, excluding historically black colleges and universities.
And it?s not just at the head coaching level.
Other positions of authority ? positions like associate and assistant head coaches and offensive and defensive coordinators ? are nearly as uncommon. Of the 1,870 Division I-A assistant coaches as of last January, just 381 were black.
The dearth of black coaches is magnified by the fact that almost 50 percent of all college football student-athletes are minorities. There is a vast difference between the ethnic makeup of coaching staffs and their athletes or, for that matter, society in general.
So what exactly is the problem?
?That?s hard to say,? said Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer, who points to the sharp increase in African-American basketball coaches over the past 10 years as a sign of progress and hope.
?I think that will gradually occur in football,? he said. I optimistically believe that. Not as fast as some people would like, but I think it will gradually occur.?
With his contract at Alabama State in limbo last fall, Cole decided to again test the market at the I-A level.
He sent his resume to Vanderbilt, Arkansas State, Kansas, California-Berkley, Navy and Missouri. He applied to the Naval Academy after it sent out a letter specifically asking for minority candidates. He said he knew the athletics directors at Kansas and Vandy.
Again, no one called him.
?Right now, it?s like mud and concrete. I?m stuck,? said Cole, who signed a five-year contract with ASU in early December. ?I?ve got to find a way to cross that big barrier I?ve got in front of me. When we went 11-0 and finished No. 1 (at Tennessee State), I was sure the phone would ring. It?s just like a guy who had a great football season and is waiting for a call from the draft.
?As a matter of fact, I had a guy like that at Tennessee State ? a tackle named Mike Johnson. They told him he would be a first-day draft choice. He had a party and everything. He didn?t even get drafted that day. He fell asleep at his party.
?That?s how I felt.?
The recycling bin
Black candidates are often discouraged by a prevailing cycle of college football coaches being fired by one school only to be hired by another.
As the same coaches churn through the system time and again, younger coaches are left waiting and wondering when ? or if ? their opportunity will come.
?Growing up, I wanted to be a head football coach, and I didn?t see a lot of people around who looked like me in those types of situations,? Hill told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently. ?Now, I have a 1-year-old son, and I?m hoping that one day he?ll grow up and perceive that he has opportunities to obtain a leadership position based upon qualifications, hard work and the American dream. I sure hope race is not a factor that keeps him from having those opportunities.?
Cole has grown increasingly frustrated as some coaches continue to get jobs despite sub-par records, while he has yet to receive even an interview or inquiry.
?It?s like a recycling bin. Same guys get jobs over and over,? he said. ?Look at the guy they just hired at Indiana ? (Gerry) DiNardo. Come on. Give me a chance.
"It takes a strong athletics director and a strong university president to make the decision to hire a black coach. You also need the backing of the alumni where most of the money comes from. And the only way you can get that is if those people are comfortable with the person they're hiring."
-- Floyd Keith, Executive director of Black Coaches Association
?He coached the Birmingham team in that XFL league. They were horrible. He coached at LSU. They were horrible. He was at Vanderbilt. Horrible. But how does he keep surfacing instead of a new candidate? Give someone else a chance. I?m not just saying hire a black coach. I think you should hire the most qualified head coach, and I think I fit into that category.?
Only experienced need apply
The BCA, NCAA and Minority Opportunities Athletic Association have researched and compiled a growing resource list of qualified diverse candidates for head coaching positions. The BCA has a database containing more than 300 names and the NCAA has a minority job bank on the Internet.
The problem is a classic Catch-22.
There are many proven black coaches around the nation, but few have experience as a I-A head coach.
?Someone put a list out there of qualified black coaching candidates. I was on there,? Cole said. ?Then they put a list out there of qualified candidates with Division I-A experience. Well, how many is that? It ain?t very many. You?re talking about the same four or five guys.?
LSU coach Nick Saban, who was head coach at Toledo when Cole was an assistant at the school, says it?s hard for any coach to break into the I-A ranks.
?The people that are doing the hiring of college coaches often don?t know a good coach from a bad one. They just want a name that looks good in lights. They want a name people recognize,? Saban said.
Kramer agreed that experience is a huge sticking point for minority coaches, but that change is coming.
?We?re finding more (black) coordinators now,? he said. ?We?re finding more (black) individuals in those positions and, as that begins to change, you?ll see that pool of black coaches grow,? he said.
?It?s been slow. I understand that, and I think it?s an area we have to work on.?
The savior?
Keith said one way for the handful of black head coaches to help others break the color barrier is simple: Win, and win a lot.
That could give Willingham the opportunity to single-handedly change the course for minority coaches, or at least alter it significantly.
After leading Stanford to a 44-36-1 record in seven years as head coach, he now has taken over the highest profile job in college football at Notre Dame.
?Tyrone Willingham?s hiring certainly won?t hurt the chances of other black coaches,? Keith said. ?Other universities may see that and take the next step. But why wasn?t he hired to begin with at Notre Dame? He was certainly more qualified than the first guy (O?Leary). I think what happened there could have been divine intervention. Hopefully, it will open some eyes.?
?It?s huge,? said Tennessee receivers coach Pat Washington, a former Auburn quarterback. ?There?s finally a guy in position to win a national championship.?
Willingham remains low-key about his new job, calling it ?significant, but not Jackie Robinson significant.?
Hill said while he believed Willingham?s hiring would help the cause if he is successful, he also cautioned that ?as unfortunate as it is, African-American coaches are evaluated collectively.?
But most people look at the hiring as the first truly significant step in a long, long journey.
?Clearly, the hiring at Notre Dame was a step in the right direction,? Auburn athletics director David Housel said. ?Every coach, no matter what race, should be judged by the same criteria: Won-loss record, how he runs his program and if he?s successful at it.
?If Coach Willingham does well and is successful, I think it will help in the long run. If he does not, I don?t think it will hurt necessarily.?
Cole is not so sure.
?I don?t think it will make any difference really,? he said. ?Basically, what they did was to take one guy who already was a head coach and move him to another job. A lot of black coaches think and hope this will change things, but I don?t think that way.?
Starting from the bottom
Cole said Willingham?s connection with legendary San Francisco 49ers? head coach Bill Walsh was a key factor in his career progression.
But Cole has seldom used his connections to the likes of Saban, former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne and current Cornhuskers coach Frank Solich, opting instead to try to work his way up from near the bottom of the coaching ladder.
He played under Osborne at Nebraska in the late 70s and was a graduate assistant coach there in 1981. He then had assistant jobs at New Mexico State (1982-83), Ball State (1984-85), Kansas State (1986-87), Wisconsin (1988-89) and Toledo (1990).
Cole served as defensive coordinator at Morgan State for a year and was an assistant head coach at both Eastern Michigan and Cincinnati.
?While I was coming through, everyone would say, ?you need some experience, get your resume, get some experience. Be offensive coordinator, be defensive coordinator,?? Cole said. ?Well, I?ve done all those things. I did every last one of them and it didn?t help. I applied for jobs and nothing came.?
Finally, in 1996, Cole got his first head coaching shot. He took over a doormat Tennessee State team against the advice of many of his colleagues. The first two years, TSU posted consecutive 4-7 seasons.
But Cole hasn?t posted a losing record since. He led the team to a 9-3 season and the Ohio Valley Conference title in 1998 and went 11-1 and won the title again in 1999. He garnered five coaching awards that season, including the American Football Coaches Association Division I-AA National Coach of the Year.
He figured he had punched his ticket to the next level. He figured wrong.
?A lot of good football coaches came out of the OVC. (Arkansas coach) Houston Nutt came out of there, so did (Frank) Beamer at Virginia Tech,? Cole said. ?Those guys won in that conference and got head jobs. I didn?t get one phone call. I didn?t get one sniff. And that?s after we finished No. 1 and ranked at the top of the nation in offense. We blew the OVC out of the water.?
Still frustrated, Cole decided to approach his dream of becoming a I-A head coach from another direction.
He left TSU to take his current job at Alabama State. At the time, former trustee Donald Watkins was spearheading a plan to make ASU the first historically black college to play at the Division I-A level. But Watkins resigned from the Board less than a year later and little has since been said about the plans to jump to I-A. Plans for a new on-campus stadium seem to be on hold or scrapped entirely.
?The main reason I came here is I thought maybe I could go through the back door to the Division I-A level. It didn?t work that well, at least not yet,? Cole said.
But his dream isn?t over. Cole has plenty of high-profile coaches in his corner, and they believe he not only deserves consideration as a I-A head coach, but that one day he will eventually land a job.
?I know L.C. well,? Saban said.. ?He?s well organized, well spoken, a great coach and recruiter. It?s really not about him, though. It?s the perception. But L.C. shouldn?t get discouraged. He?ll land a job before too long. Things often look darkest before the dawn. Things will turn around for him and he?ll get the job he deserves.?
Solich said it?s all about patience. He served 19 years as an assistant coach at Nebraska before succeeding Osborne four years ago.
?People understand in this day and age that there are quality black head coaches out there. You just have to hope that they are getting the chance they deserve,? Solich said. ?I would hope that the race issue would play no part in the hiring of any coach.
?I know L.C. He?s a great person and has a lot of the characteristics that it takes to be a good head coach. L.C. will get his chance. He just has to be patient.?
But at age 46, Cole feels time may be running out. Along with the six Division I-A schools he sent his resume to this past year, he also applied at a pair of in-state Division II schools ? North Alabama and Samford. He said he did it just to see what might happen.
Nothing happened. He said he received letters from both schools saying their respective positions had been filled.
Asked if a NCAA investigation into the Tennessee State program during Cole?s tenure put a shadow on his resume, Cole said that?s not likely. He said the NCAA sent a letter to ASU during the hiring process saying he was cleared of all charges.
Breaking the barrier
There is no timeline for change, there is no blueprint for the best way for black coaches to work their way into a I-A job.
Cole said he?s been listening to advice for years. People told him to be an assistant coach at a major college. Some told him to be a coordinator at a I-A school. Others told him he needed head coaching experience at any level.
Now, he is being advised to hire an agent and get his name out in public more prominently.
He?s at a standstill. Again.
?I don?t know what else I can do,? Cole said.
The next move may have to come from a college president or athletics director who wants to take a chance on a coach with no I-A head coaching experience, but a proven track record at every other level. Winning the support of alumni will be critical, and that may be the hardest part of all.
?It takes a strong athletics director and a strong university president to make the decision to hire a black coach,? Keith said. ?You also need the backing of the alumni where most of the money comes from. And the only way you can get that is if those people are comfortable with the person they?re hiring.?
Cole said he believes the only way the current situation will change significantly is if black athletes? parents make a conscious decision to steer their sons and daughters to a school with a black coach.
?Sometimes, I think people are afraid to give a black guy one of those good jobs,? he said. ?If someone got one of those jobs and started winning, they might start dominating and getting all the talented black players. That could easily happen.?
For now, though, Cole and his peers can only continue to do what they have always done: Wait. Patience is a difficult virtue for anyone. For a football coach, it may be harder.
?We live in a microwave society, and everyone wants change right now,? Texas A&M assistant coach and AFCA trustee Ken Rucker told the Star-Telegram. ?What we?ve got to do is bring about change through our work. I may go to my grave and not see more than four (black) head coaches, but I don?t believe that. I think it?s going to change. It?s just a process that?s going to take time.?
In the meantime, Cole says he?ll never give up.
?You know what they say,? he smiled and looked at his office walls filled with awards and memories from his career. ?Keep the dream alive and keep fighting for what you think is right and maybe one day someone might say, ?This guy deserves an opportunity.? "
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Josh Moon, a sports writer for the Advertiser, can be reached by phone at (334) 240-0192 or by fax at (334) 261-1586.
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