A Necessary Change

[Little Jerry Lawler]

As of today there are four African-American head coaches in Div 1-A football: Kevin Sumlin (Houston), Randy Shannon (Miami), Mike Locksley (New Mexico), and Turner Gill (Buffalo). Recently, the University of Auburn hired Gene Chizik as their football coach and notable alum Charles Barkley stated that Turner Gill, who interviewed for the position, did not get the job because he was black. Another reason stated was that he is married to a Caucasian woman. Chizik went 5-19 in two years as head coach of Iowa State University and Barkley said if you compared Chizik's and Gill's resume, Chizik's was the worst.

One of the reasons I think not enough African-Americans are being hired is because most programs want people with ties to their university. In case of Auburn, they wanted somebody who was familiar with the program and would help better in terms of recruiting and since Chizik was their defensive coordinator as recently as 2004, he would be the perfect choice. They didn't ever consider Mike Leach of Texas Tech because they felt he was too quirky or Gill because he wasn't familiar with the university.

The naming of successors hurts the opportunity for African-Americans also. Bobby Bowden of Florida State has named Jimbo Fisher as his successor as well as Mack Brown of Texas with Will Muschamp. They want a smooth transition but it is looked at as a way around not interviewing minority candidates. Who knows if a minority candidate would have succeeded better than Muschamp or Fisher.

So what can be done? I would start with the mid-majors in hiring minority coaches. See how they do in a four or five year time period and if they are successful then the more tauted college programs can give them a shot. There are plenty of capapble minority offensive and defensive coordinators and most are not given a fair chance. An African-American head coach can help recruiting as a young black male can be more comfortable with and relate more to. I believe a Rooney Rule needs to be implemented in college football or there will be virtually no minority coaches within five years.

What are your thoughts and opinions on this subject?

 

[Slyfox696]

My thoughts on the subject? Who gives a fuck if white people are coaches?

Seriously, why is this even a topic? We have the Rooney Rule in the NFL, which states that an NFL team MUST interview a black candidate. Why? Is there a rule that says they must interview a white one? A Hispanic one? An Asian one? Or, is the only race that actually matters in this country, the one that has dark skin?

This whole nonsense is just ridiculous. Why aren't there more black coaches in the NCAA? I don't know, maybe because every one that has been hired has sucked? Maybe because the majority of black coaches hired are not successful? Or maybe it's just because ownership/Athletic Directors wishes to put their financial future in the hands of people they trust, and the people they hire are the ones they trust. And since most (if not all) owners are white, it simply makes sense that they would associate with (as well as have more in common with) other white people.

This nonsense that we are supposed to care about the number of blacks as coaches is just stupid. I don't care, and never will. If you're a good coach, you'll get a job. Hell, Herm Edwards is a terrible coach, and he still has a job. The color of skin has NOTHING to do with this.

Finally, I must ask. How many Asian-American coaches are in the NCAA?

 

[klunderbunker]

Amen Sly. Seriously, what diffference does it really make? This has always been my problem with anythine related to Affirmative Action: at the end of the day, the most talented person will get the job. Ty Willingham: awful. Ron Prince: worse. Sylvester Croom: worst of the three. Sure there aren't a lot of African American coaches, but show me some candidates. So you want to make sure they get interviews? Good for you. If a pro owner or an AD has his mind set on a specific coach that's his own business. Resumes are pieces of paper with words on them. Maybe Chizik owned Gill in the interview part, and won the job there. Anyone can have a great resume. I could care less about that. You know what I care about? How many games can you win and how many average players can you turn into great players. If resumes are all that matters, let's get robots to coach games. At the end of the day, coaches are humans. Get the best person for the job, regardless of color.

 

[FoleyIsGod]

I can say the same thing about the football/soccer over in the UK. Off the top of my head, they have about 5 managers from around 92 league clubs. And thats it.

Hell, I can even name them;

Jean Tigana (Fulham)
Paul Ince (Blackburn)
Ruud Hulliet (Chelsea)
Keith Alexander (Macclesfield)
Keith Curle (Was at Torquey)

Nad of course you have some government do-godder saying this is wrong and football is racist.

What a load of horseshit. Have these morons ever thought "well hang on, hes not a very good manager?"

And before you say "well hang on, you dont know till you try them out", its harder to get a job in football over here if you are a new manager. Unless you were a big name player in your playing days (Dennis Wise, Tony Adams, Paul Ince), its usually the same names going around the same merry go round.

I'm all for trying to get more black(and even Asian) faces into the English managerial game. But whats the point in doing so if the talent is just not thier?

 

[Tastycles]

I can say the same thing about the football/soccer over in the UK. Off the top of my head, they have about 5 managers from around 92 league clubs. And thats it.

Hell, I can even name them;

Jean Tigana (Fulham)
Paul Ince (Blackburn)
Ruud Hulliet (Chelsea)
Keith Alexander (Macclesfield)
Keith Curle (Was at Torquey)

You're right, there hasn't been many, the only other ones I can think of are Carlton Palmer at Stockport and Leroy Rosenior at Torquay, who are obviously the purveyors of racial equality.

Nad of course you have some government do-godder saying this is wrong and football is racist.

What a load of horseshit. Have these morons ever thought "well hang on, hes not a very good manager?"

To be honest, in spite of your next point, you can't know unless you've tried people. When you consider how many black people there are in football, 7 people out of 92 would be low, but here we're talking about 7 in history, that is ridiculously low.

And before you say "well hang on, you dont know till you try them out", its harder to get a job in football over here if you are a new manager. Unless you were a big name player in your playing days (Dennis Wise, Tony Adams, Paul Ince), its usually the same names going around the same merry go round.

That's true, but there have been loads of big name black players and hardly any of them have gone into management. Ince was the first English one, and he had to prove himself twice at two lower division clubs. Adams on the other hand did a shite job at Wycombe, was hated by the players and has somehow managed to get a Premiership job. It is double standards. There have been a lot of black coaches who haven't made the step up, like Viv Anderson.

I'm all for trying to get more black(and even Asian) faces into the English managerial game. But whats the point in doing so if the talent is just not thier?

The talent might be there, it's not looked for. Les Ferdinand, for example, has only just been offered a coaching job, but it's taken a long time. I do think the problem is exaggerated, and I don't think the game is still racist, but there is certainly a certain stigma about black coaches. Part of the problem is that there is no precedent, so black coaches are relucant to take manager jobs.

Ultimately, I think this will cease to be an issue when the current, predominantly black, England generation hang up their boots, but a big club needs to make a step in that direction, like Barcelona did with Rijkaard.

 

[CDR]

Sly hit it dead-on. Why the hell does it matter if he's black or white or green or orange? If you have black skin and you want to be a coach, and you don't get hired, the first thing to be reported is that he didn't get the job because he's black. Actually, that's the case with a whole lot of other stuff in the world. Something goes wrong and it's automaticaly because the man's black. Pure shit. Maybe he would've gotten the job if he was good. Did you think about that first? And the rule in the NFL that states a black man must be interviewed is shit. If they're gonna have that rule, make a rule that states you must interview a white guy, asian, hispanic, and any other race you can think of. It buggs me how some black people can't get over what happened over 200 years ago but then go and be totally racist to a white man. But when a white guy says the slightest almost racist thing, everybody freaks out. Complete shit.