UCLA fired Karl Dorrell Monday in a move that many saw coming.The Bruins compiled a 35-27 record and reached a bowl in every season under Dorrell's leadership, but above average simply isn't good enough in the Pac-10.
What's troubling about this news is the fact that there are now only five black coaches remaining in NCAA Division I football: Turner Gill (Buffalo), Tyrone Willingham (Washington), Randy Shannon (Miami), Ron Prince (Kansas State), and Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State).
Out of 119 jobs, five represents barely four percent. When stacked up against the demographic of players participating in NCAA football -- about 50%, according to a recent SI article -- that's a paltry number.
Let me be clear what I'm not suggesting: I would never say that a black coach should be given more leniency simply because he's a black coach. Dorrell didn't meet the expectations established for the program, and he lost his job. It's harsh, but that's part of the business. If Willingham's Huskies don't put together a better season in 2008, he may be looking for a job as well.
What I am suggesting is that more black coaches deserve a fighting shot at the jobs that are available. While the NFL has mandated a policy requiring teams to interview at least one minority candidate when a vacancy arises -- the so-called "Rooney Rule" -- NCAA football has no such stipulation.
As if there was ever a legitimate question, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith proved in last year's Super Bowl that skin color is irrelevant when it comes to success in coaching football. The NFL has finally come to understand this, and it's time for the NCAA to take the cue.
For more on minority coaches in football...
Dorrell fired after mostly mediocre run (AP, via Yahoo! sports)
Just looking for a chance (Sports Illustrated)
The big game in sports management and higher education (Black Coaches and Administrators)
The Rooney Rule (Wikipedia)
7 comments:
Interesting... I didn't realize that the number was that small. It'll be interesting to see if this changes any in the offseason.
Why on earth aren't you talking about Johan Santana, the sun, moon and stars are all rotating around him right now.
A shamefully low number. And I don't think that changes much until there is a specific policy to address it.
Too many programs perfer to recycle mediocre safe coaches than pick new ones, and when the coaching pool of African-Americans is so small, your safe, mediocre coach has about 100% of being white.
There are many more than that in D-I football. You might mean D-I Bowl Subdivision or D-IA or whatever.
Willingham will be fired this week, unless the obvious decision of firing a failed coach (3 years in a row at the bottom of the conference –the worst ever-- and successive years of the most inept defense in school history) is trumped either by the value of being a school with a black coach regardless of wins and losses, or the fear of facing the PC storm from not retaining him.
If he were not African-American, and so buttoned-down good guy, he would be gone. The tragedy is that the latter is the only thing keeping him, not his proficiency as a head coach. Every single coach that resigned or was fired in D1 football last week had a better record than Ty.
Enough about race, its about wins.
it's definitely about wins...after the opportunity to coach the games.
I think that is the big point here. There are not enough opportunities being provided for minority candidates.
Hey, dontcha think ND would love to have Tyrone Willingham now?
After the local Seattle NCAAP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)visited the president of UW, Mark Emmert, before anouncing the decision to keep Tyrone Willingham, there are going to be even fewer black coaches hired.
If you can't fire a black coach withouth being charges as racist etc.., you aren't going to hire one.
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