Alabama A&M University Coach Anthony Jones has played in the NFL, coached successfully at the NCAA Division III, II and I-AA levels, but has not received any head coaching offers to move to the Division I-A level. Why?Anthony Jones and Henry Frazier III can match resumes with any football coach in America. Both have taken over programs that were among the worst in the country: Frazier's Prairie View A&M team once went 0-80 in the 1990s and Alabama A&M's Jones got his first head coaching job at Morehouse College, which he says had won "eight games in 70 years" before he got there. Today in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game at Legion Field, Frazier has Prairie View playing for its first SWAC championship since 1964, which could lead to the school's first Black College National Championship since that year. Hoping to stop him is Jones, who left Morehouse for Alabama A&M and has the Bulldogs playing for their second SWAC title in his eight years.
"Anybody else with that resume, taking over programs like that and turning it around, would be considered a hot (coaching) prospect," Jones said. Yes, this another column about the shocking lack of opportunity for minority head coaches at the college level. Only this time, the situation seems to be getting better. Four minority head coaches have been hired at the Division I-A level this offseason: Charlie Strong at Louisville; Mike London at Virginia; Larry Porter at Memphis; and Willie Taggart at Western Kentucky. The hiring of Strong and London at BCS schools is a particularly good sign, considering that Miami's Randy Shannon was the only black coach among 66 BCS programs this past football season.
READ MORE, CLICK BLOG TITLE.
2 comments:
Methinks Coach Jones is mistaken in his 8-70 recap of Morehouse football.
He only need to go back to the early 90's when Coach Cason had us on a pretty good roll.
While admit we've had some challenging years...Coach Jones has been drinking too much of that Bulldog Kool-Aid!
He was not Moses for our program...for purposes of this conversation though, I'll humor his assertion.
Two more thoughts...I'm not a big fan of the SWAC, Bayou Classic and any other games that prevent these institutions from competing in the Div. I playoff.
Either you are in the NCAA and you're competing for their championship or you're not. So either find a way to make these games play in games for the Div 1 playoff or legitimize the HBCU National Championship by competing outside the realm of the NCAA. I think it does a disservice to the athletes to deprive them of a chance for an NCAA Championship and continue this insanity of a mythical HBCU National Champion. I'd love to see an HBCU National Champ if they were crowned via playoff. Trying to have it both ways robs all involved.
If an African American can run the country isn't about time for one of our HBCU's to step up and make the successful march to an NCAA Championships. This takes institutional, alumni, and student athlete commitment. These games that prevent top squads from going leaves Conference Champions always wondering...were we good enough to win a NCAA Championship?
How is that worthy of the sacrifices these athletes make to pursue greatness...two words...It's NOT!
Post a Comment