Colleges Hiring New Coaches

The end of the college season means the beginning of the coaching hunt season.

Teams are already unloading some of the fund eating dead baggage that has masqueraded as coaches along the sidelines.

Texas A&M decided that Dennis Franchione's future was brighter as a news letter publisher than as a head coach. Arkansas and Houston Nutt mercifully ended their dysfunctional existence. Tom Osborne gave Bill Callahan a ticket back to the West Coast. Lloyd Carr endured one final, masochistic encounter with the OSU and graciously shut the door to the Big House behind him.

And many less visible positions opened up: Georgia Tech, Duke, Baylor, Colorado St, Mississippi, Northern Illinois, SMU, Southern Miss and Wash State.

As the teams begin to look to fill position, and some are already filled....one thing is apparent:

There is NO interest in minority candidates.

Texas A&M and Mississippi didn't even bother to go through the charade of interviewing any. And, quite frankly, we respect that.

If you don't want Negro coaches in your program, wear it like a badge, don't play the interview game and try to fool anyone. Just flat out say, 'we won't entertain the idea of a Negro being the face of our university'.

Our only hope is that Negro recruits begin to use minority interview/hiring statistics in the formulaic metrics
they use to evaluate Universities during the recruitment process.

Certainly, such statistics would be something that will benefit Sylvester Croom at Miss. St. With Ole Miss not even pretending to want a descendant of chains on campus, and Southern Miss probably going the same route, Croom should be set up to completely dominate recruiting in Mississippi.

It's become clear that these institutions of higher learning can't be trusted as leaders in change. Certainly, it would seem that we would now need to look to the Negro youth to be the leaders of change in this arena.

We'd suggest that any recruit that finds himself on a Top 100 list, contact Grambling State University.

The time has come to unite. It's time for the 100 man march. It's time to create an uber-Team. It's time to send a message to the old white men in the big houses living on campus:

Ignore Negro coaches, and Negro players will ignore you!


And, we would especially like to admonish Duke University in this situation.

Duke announced that they would give special attention to minority candidate consideration.

We find it offensive and egregious of Duke to believe that a minority candidate would be the best fit for their program. The worst program in D-1 football is the one best suited for a Negro coach?

How dare you, Duke!

A Negro coach taking that job will set the movement back 100 years.


(edit.- We were reminded that, as we anticipated weeks ago, Turner Gill will be a real candidate at Nebraska. And while we applaud Nebraska, we wonder if this is really simply extended nepotism. Turner Gill should be given the opportunity to coach Nebraska because he is Negro, not because he is virtually a member of Osborne's family.)

Quick Hit

Very quickly, as we are on a short break from a NOIS leadership forum we are holding at the convention facilities of a Best Western.....

We took heat not long ago for suggesting that Tom Osborne will look to the source of most of his past success to right the Nebraska football program: the Negro QB.

Corn-addled Nebraskans mocked us on their message boards. Belittled us in their emails. And, generally embodied the stereotype of the slovenly, ill mannered, uneducated graduates of a great plains agricultural university that we at NOIS have tried so hard to fight.

From John Henderson of the Denver Post.

Disregard my Friday comment that Buffalo coach Turner Gill isn't ready to return to his alma mater at Nebraska. His once laughable Bulls beat Akron 26-10 and now lead the Mid-American East Division at 4-1. Keep in mind that Nebraska's new athletic director, Tom Osborne, was a groomsman in Gill's wedding and in his book, "More Than Winning," Osborne wrote, "I was probably closer to Turner than to any other player I have coached." Gill also has only a $100,000 buyout. Hmm. -- Denver Post

Nebraska Football: What Next?

Everyone who follows college football is aware of the firing of Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson. And aware that Nebraska has brought in the venerable Tom Osborne to act as interim AD and help right the program.

Osborne has said he won't be making any decisions on the future of coach Bill Callahan until he has evaluated his work for the entire season.

But, certainly, there is a good chance that Callahan won't be back.

So, who will Tom Osborne recommend as the person to bring Nebraska back to the top of the heap?

It will be tough to lure the coach of a big time program away for their current job to fill a Nebraska opening that has lost much of its luster. So, other options might be:

Bo Pellini: The LSU defensive coordinator will be a popular name for most openings after this season. He has put together very good defenses at LSU, effectively using all that talent that they have recruited. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that Nebraska would bring him in to return the Black Shirts to their old form.

Brian Kelly: The U of Cincinnati first year coach is having a big first year with the Bearcats.

Houston Nutt: A fairly big name coach who has had success at Arkansas. His programs implosion isn't of all his own doing, and a fresh start might be just what the Doctor ordered.

However, we believe that Osborne will look to his past.

Osborne has a history of relying on Negro QB's for the success of his program. Perhaps no coach of an elite D-1 school put more Negro QB's under center than Osborne over his tenure.

We believe that Osborne will continue to do so and look to one of the two that brought him the most success. Turner Gill or Tommie Frazier.

Both have head coaching experience. Gill at University of Buffalo and Frazier at Doane College. And, considering how far the 'Huskers have fallen under Callahan, their experience might over qualify them for the job.

It seems a safe bet that if Osborne has a major say in who will be the next coach of Nebraska, he will look to the source of most of his past glory.

The Negro QB.