Eliminate the lack of black top football coaches from top to bottom Sports

PHILADELPHIA – Last year, Temple hired a new president, athletic director and football coach, all black men.

These steps made Temple only the second school to play major university football, in which the African-American held all three senior positions along with Maryland.

Temple is also the only school among 131 to compete at the highest level of Division I, in which black people lead the university, the sports faculty, the football program, and the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

The choice of Temple was not planned, but it was also more than a coincidence, said University President Jason Wingard.

“It was no more intentional than the other way around,” Wingard said, referring to a much more common phenomenon in big college sports competitions when a white man hires another white man.

Just like the NFL, the main football college struggled with the problem of the lack of top black football coaches in a sport where most players are black. According to the latest data collected by the NCAA, 45% of players at Power Five conferences in the 2020-21 season were black and 37% were white. In five other FBS conferences, 51% of players were black and 33% white.

Only 10% of head coaches were black and 82% were white. Ten years ago, 14% of FBS head coaches were black. New Temple coach Stan Drayton is one of Black Black’s 15 head coaches who are currently set to start next season at 131 FBS schools.

When it comes to increasing these numbers, attention is often drawn to the pipeline leading to the head coach’s office, and to attempts to improve the skills of black assistant coaches. Maryland’s National Coalition of Football Coaches coach Mike Locksley is trying to become a leader in these areas.

Equally important, Wingard said, is the effect of runoff, which comes from greater diversity among those who ultimately hire – sports directors and university presidents.

“I don’t call you or anyone else a racist, but we have experience, and we have biases based on that experience. And that’s why we tend to be more attracted to better work with people like us and who have shared that experience, ”said Wingard, who wrote an article on the subject after former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores sued the NFL and several teams for discrimination.

“So representation matters,” Wingard added, “because if you have different people as college presidents, if you have women, if you have African Americans, if you have Latinos and Asian Americans, then their experience will bring – around them – differences.

Last June, Wingard became Temple’s first black president. In October, he filled Temple’s long-vacant position, hiring Arthur Johnson, whose career as a sports administrator spans 20 years and includes long-term jobs in Texas and Georgia.

“This business is a relationship,” Johnson said. “So who are people most comfortable with?”

The 51-year-old Drayton is the first head coach after a long career as an assistant in the NFL and some of the most popular programs in college football, such as Ohio and Texas.

Drayton’s previous experience in Philadelphia as a college coach early in his career helped him in many ways get a job, as well as some strong recommendations from those he had worked with before, Johnson said. He noted that they did not work closely together in Texas.

Johnson is one of 19 black athletic principals among FBS schools. His longtime friend, Maryland AD Damon Evans, is one of the others.

Evans said propaganda plays a big role in who is hired. Locksley’s coalition sought to strengthen the professional relationship between future black coaches and college sports administrators to create more supporters. Evans said more black leaders should lead to more propaganda for black candidates.

“You tend to be more in touch, let’s be honest, with people who may be like you or come from your own race, ethnicity or what you have. And also to be more slender and more aware, ”Evans said.

“We have to pay for it in advance,” he added.

Drayton said he is proud to be part of a rare group of leaders in the College of Sports. That he will be assembled at Temple, a city university in North Philadelphia, which considers the late Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach John Cheney one of the most influential figures seems appropriate.

“This is a very significant time here in Temple, and it is a very significant action by the authorities who are here in Temple to establish this type of leadership,” Drayton said. “And it makes sense.”