At the Cross-roads: Great Coaches find a way to win

by beepbeep, MEAC/SWAC Sports Main Street

The cliche' -- great teams find a way to win is more appropriate for coaches like Rod Broadway (photo on right) and Billy Rolle, who are on the local radar at Florida A&M University.

Broadway, currently preparing to coach possibly his final game for Grambling State University at the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship on December 15, has been the model of consistency in his coaching career. No one can question his expertise as a head football coach nor that he wins with both class and high character.

Broadway's highly publicized interview last week with Duke University validates what most African-Americans in the coaching profession have known for the past decade--that Broadway and many other African-American coaches are more than prepared to step up to the highest level of the college football world. He has had successful stops as an assistant coach at North Carolina, Florida, Duke, East Carolina and head coaching success at Grambling and North Carolina Central University.

Broadway is one of the better qualified candidates on the planet for a Division I Bowl Championship Subdivision head coaching position.

Let us not forget that Broadway had a stellar playing career for the UNC Tarheels program in 1974-77 and earned All-Southeastern Conference accolades as a senior for his defensive line play.

Broadway served six seasons as the defensive line coach at the University of Florida, under Steve Spurrier. He gained experience coaching both a national championship team at Florida in 1996, ACC and SEC conference championship squads at Duke in 1989 and Florida in 1995, 1996 and 2000, respectively.

Simply put, he is a product of the football bowl championship system who happen to coach presently at a non-major school and outcast conference—the SWAC. Broadway, also happen to be black--if you did not notice.

In the minds of some this makes Broadway not highly desirable to lead a FBC school football program. That is complete foolishness and just another unspoken method to keeping talented black coaches out of key leadership positions. This issue has been well documented by the Black Coaches Association (BCA) and today, there are only five African Americans coaching at 119 FBC colleges and universities.

What more can any FBC university expect of Broadway or any highly qualified African-American coach for that matter who can only coach at institutions where employment is offered?

The only thing left for Broadway to accomplish at his current level in HBCU football is to win a national championship on the field, which may open doors to that covenant FBC position. Funny, that I would state that, as more than 100 current coaches on the FBC level have never won any type of championship on any level. But, that has not stopped them from being selected with lesser credentials than some African American coaches, like Broadway.

Grambling State University offers Broadway zero opportunity to accomplish this feat (win a national championship) due to the non-participation of the SWAC champion in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Broadway understands this fact and one season at Grambling with the Bayou Classic fallout may be enough to motivate him to take the offer from traditional NCAA playoff winner, Florida A&M.

Career over achievers like Broadway need more than a SWAC championship game or Bayou Classic to keep them sharp in their coaching skills. This is not the end of the road for Broadway who has aspirations to be a head coach at a FBC school. Broadway has too much coaching left in him to stay at Grambling as he has already beaten everyone in the conference except Southern University's Pete Richardson in his first season.

Football Championship Subdivision coaches Jerry Kill, Southern Illinois and K.C. Keeler, Delaware played Saturday against each other in the national semifinal game. Both are being recruited to apply for head coaching FBC positions. Neither are African-American and they will not have the barriers to overcome that Coach Broadway is encountering. Nevertheless, one could successfully debate Broadway is better qualified than either of these two fine coaches and certainly equally qualified to the other position coaches that Duke University is now considering.

William "Billy" Rolle, Jr., is a former defensive back for the FAMU Rattlers. Rolle is currently the head football coach of the #1 ranked high school football team in the United States, the Miami Northwestern Senior High School Bulls. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in education at FAMU in 1984. While at the university, he volunteered to teach FAMU High students the strategies of football.

Upon graduation, Rolle was drafted by the USFL Tampa Bay Bandits. He later played professional football with the Canadian Football League. After a successful football career, as an educator and football coach, he has touched the lives of many student athletes. Rolle has coached several high-school football teams to state championships in Florida's largest division.

Under his leadership, Miami Northwestern (1998) and Miami Killian (2004) high schools earned Division 6-A state championship titles. His Northwestern Bulls will be facing Orlando Boone High School for the 2007, 6-A state championship title this Saturday in Orlando. Rolle just returned to Northwestern after a very brief stop at Miami Central this season.

His 22 years of coaching and teaching experience include service at Miami Edison, Coral Gables, Miami Northwestern, Miami Killian and Miami Central senior high schools, as well as Orchard Villa Elementary School.

Miami Northwestern Senior High School coach Billy Rolle is expected to win his 3rd Class 6A state football championship on December 16 against Orlando Boone H.S. His Bulls are the nation's No. 1-ranked team and are the defending Florida Class 6A state champions.

In what may turn out to be the top high school football game of 2007, Rolle also defeated USA Today's top ranked Carroll High School of Southlake, Texas 29-21 before 31,896 fans in Dallas on Sept. 15. The game was played at Southern Methodist’s Gerald Ford Stadium and was carried nationally on ESPNU. The loss ended Carroll’s 49-game winning streak that extended back to 2001, the longest in the nation.

A victory over Boone should give the undefeated Bulls and Coach Rolle the mythical national high school championship and the Florida 6-A state championship for 2007. The Bulls are on a 28 game winning streak and are currently 14-0. But more importantly, each of Rolle's football players have a grade point average of 2.5 or above on a 4.0 scale, and many have multiple FBC scholarship offers on the table.

Rolle was inducted into the FAMU Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Florida A&M University is the perfect fit for Broadway and Billy Rolle. We see Broadway becoming the head football Rattler on December 17 and Billy Rolle being hired as his new recruiting coordinator/assistant head coach. No doubt Rolle is a positive conduit to the talent rich Dade County/Miami region and access to Division I level talent that is required to bring the Rattlers back to its rightful place as both an academic and athletics national leader.

Having recruited the Miami area for the Florida Gators, Broadway knows first hand what a gold mine of talent exists in Dade County. Former Rattlers coach Rubin Carter never figured that out and had only ten Miami players on the 2007 roster. Broadway and Rolle are both proven head coaches with unique skills for identifying superior talent and teaching/molding that talent into an exceptional winning team.

With $35 million in construction bonds on the table for Bragg Memorial Stadium modernization/upgrades, new field house, sky-boxes and seating expansions, etc., Florida A&M University is getting ready to implement an era of tremendous academic and athletic growth, unparalleled in its rich history.

The new 9,000 seat basketball arena (teaching gym)is planned for completion in February 2009. The four-floored facility will be the new home to FAMU’s physical education department; will feature sports training and physical education training areas, a hydrotherapy pool, concession stands and ticket booths, interactive learning classrooms, athletic and physical education offices, an indoor track and an arena that will seat more than 9,000 for events. The construction costs for the Teaching Gym totals $34,200,000 and is currently under way.

There is a buzz on the highest of Tallahassee's seven hills in anticipation of FAMU's President, Dr. James Ammons announcement on December 17. Whom ever he has chosen to lead the football Rattlers forward with his vision will have the complete financial support of the entire Rattlernation.

The Rattlers faithful will make sure that Mr. Broadway does not miss coaching in Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium (capacity: 33,941) or Grambling's Robinson Stadium (capacity: 19,600), if he does in fact decide to come to one of the premier HBCUs in the nation, Florida A&M University. The Rattlers are the historic leaders in classic attendance and can pack an upgraded/modernized 30,000 seat Bragg Stadium to watch his exciting brand of football.

There is absolutely no reason that Ammons, Bill Hayes (athletic director), Broadway and Rolle cannot grow the FAMU football program into a national championship powerhouse program. It is not like the Rattlers have never been to the top of the world in football supremacy, they have been there. And the Rattlersnation is expecting to go back to championship form for a long, long duration in the next few seasons.

Great coaches like Broadway and Rolle find ways to win within the scope of the rules. Their talents could be best utilized and enhanced at Florida A&M University. But, Broadway is not planning to be here for the long term, as the BCS schools will take quick note of his accomplishments with the Rattlers program and provide that long overdue opportunity he is seeking and the multi-million contract that comes with the opportunity.

The best wants to compete against the best and that is the common bond that Broadway, Rolle and FAMU share in their histories.

Most FBC fans should also be tired of the losing retread coaches that have been circulating lately in this very small pool of coaching talent, and demand serious consideration of talented African-American coaches, like Broadway. Black blue-chip student-athletes should also take note of FBC programs and FCS schools that have no representation of black coaches on their staff, and stay the hell away from playing for those schools, where they have no opportunity of being hired as football coaches after graduation.

Most are surprised to learn that our two-time defending FCS champions, Appalachian State has not one African American assistant coach on its staff--not even a black graduate assistant. That in itself sends the wrong message to black players who are over 50 percent of the team players.

Billy Rolle is ready to step up to the college level and will be a perfect future replacement for Broadway. He could be mentored properly by an experienced major college head coach and become a major player in the FAMU program's success. Regardless of how all of this shakes out, you can take it to the bank that Ammons will address both the present and future needs of the football program.

The firing of Rubin Carter by Ammons brought clearly into focus the undeniable fact that the bottom line in Florida A&M football is the bottom line - it's about winning, graduating your players on time and protecting the revenue stream that a successful football program generates.

"We all know that the football program is the economic engine that drives the athletic program," Ammons said. "It is the money generator. For the overall athletic program to be successful the football program has to be successful. That's just the way it is here at FAMU."