The IronDog Chronicles

Leave it up to the bold ones to launch a hot one during the Bowl season…

A good friend of mine in Oakland posted a solid article on my Facebook page from Richard Ford’s Slate.com article entitled ‘Blackballed.’ 

The article addresses the topic launched by Charles Barkley’s molten lava-hot question of ‘why there are few black college football coaches’ after his alma mater, Auburn University, hired Iowa State’s Head Coach, Gene Chizik, who manned a 2-8 season record while developing Iowa State’s rebuilding project when a more viable, strong, emerging and successful coaching candidate, University of Buffalo coach, Turner Gill was up for the taking on the college football coaching carousel.

Before everyone starts throwing darts at administrators of national universities (And perhaps Chuck will have more time to ponder the question over wondering what the hell he was doing sharing BearClaws with ‘Urkel’,) I thought Ford made a great point around the topic of considering coaches regardless of their color black or white are considered for elite university positions.

“Maybe the black coordinators and assistant coaches can make the right moves on the field but aren’t learning to make the right moves with the boosters. If that’s the case, and if blacks aren’t being mentored, nurtured, and prepared to take the helm when they’re working in entry-level assistant positions, then the problem isn’t really the hiring decisions for head coaching positions—it’s much more diffuse, and much harder to zero in on.”

Coaching positions in college football involve more than just satisfying administration qualifications.  With the short turnaround demands of today’s programs, a coach not only has to recruit and win quickly, but also has to develop deep ties with boosters and the local media in order to insulate himself from the pressures of big-time college football.

With that said, the answer of driving assistant coaches into head coaching positions would be longevity within a program and nurturing the ties to push-up within.  However, the coaching turnover and the short-term tenures of college coaches are destroying the cultivation process of the assistants.  New coaches and are not going to take players from past tenures, and they will be bringing in their own staffs that they’re able to trust and work with.

The shame of today’s quick turnover rate of not just college football programs but in all major college sports is that the longevity isn’t there to support young black coaches who can build a resume and nurture the ties with boosters and the local media.

The need is for coaches to further their ties within the programs in which they played.  Randy Shannon is a great example at Miami.  Turner Gill could have been a great example at Nebraska if he hadn’t left for Buffalo in order to gain head coaching experience.

With that said, don’t worry about having to push Turner Gill into an elite position, he will be at a major school within the next 18 months, if not sooner, (Iowa?).  Auburn is also probably not the best place for him to shine at this point.  He would not only have had incredible pressure as the first black coach at Auburn, but also jumping into arguably the most pressurized position that holds the most ridiculous expectations in college football…Keep in mind that Tommy Tuberville went 13-0 just four years ago and was National Coach of the Year.

The shots to run the top programs are coming in due time.  All things take time…The same argument came on board with the NFL a decade ago, and two years ago, we saw Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy coaching against each other in the Super Bowl.

Successful staffs breed great assistants…The question should be how can we retain black or white talent and push them from post-player stage through apprentice stages within a great program.  The push-up seems to be coming too much from the outside.

1-2,

BD