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Note: This article appears in the Fall 2010 issue of NCAA Champion magazine.

Coaching coaches

By Greg Johnson
NCAA.org

In a few weeks, several college football teams will go through the annual ritual of considering candidates to fill head coaching vacancies. Whether it’s the institution’s choice to go in another direction or the coach’s decision to take another job, the transitions are just another spoke in the college football cycle.

In 2009, that cycle produced an unprecedented 15 minority hires, including nine at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level (at non-Historically Black Colleges and Universities).

Many of them graduated from NCAA football coaches academies and forums designed to accomplish that very outcome. These professional development programs, conducted by the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and the NCAA staff, have been making inroads into a longstanding problem for the Association – the lack of color at the top of the football coaching pyramid.

These programs are stair-stepped for prospective coaches (the NCAA Future Football Coaches Academy), current assistant and head coaches (the NCAA Football Coaches Academy) and coaches who are more experienced and ready for higher-profile positions (the Expert Coaches Forum).

“The mission of the academies and forums is to assist coaches with career advancement through networking and exposure,” said Ira Childress, NCAA assistant director of leadership development. “We want to collaborate with college athletics directors and university presidents to ensure that coaches have a holistic understanding of the hiring process.”

The last step is the NCAA Champions Forum, held most recently June 22-24 in Anaheim, California. Champions Forum participants are selected by a committee of former directors of athletics (Marino Casem, Paul Dee, Andy Geiger and C.M. Newton) and former collegiate head football coaches (Lloyd Carr and Tyrone Willingham). Most of the 15 participants chosen for the 2010 Forum were offensive or defensive coordinators or assistant/associate head coaches at their current institutions.

Over the three days, they were paired with athletics directors who offered insight into the hiring process and provided career guidance. The AD “mentors” also serve as resources for whenever head coaching positions become available.

“It doesn’t get any better than being able to meet a sitting athletics director,” said Auburn recruiting coordinator and running backs coach Curtis Luper, who was paired with Lew Perkins before Perkins announced his retirement as Kansas athletics director in September. “You can’t get that kind of exposure anywhere else.”

The prospective head coaches took advantage of the opportunity liberally during the Champions Forum, asking the athletics directors about search firms, common deficiencies they see in candidates, best practices in preparing for interviews and networking. The highlight for many was the mock one-on-one interview each had with his AD mentor, after which the athletics directors gave the coaches immediate feedback.

Stanford offensive coordinator David Shaw said his session with UCLA’s Dan Guerrero was invaluable.

“It had a great pace, and he kept me on my toes,” Shaw said. “Going through the mock interview is definitely something that could help me in the future. To be at the top of this business is to be a head coach in this business.”

Champions Forum participants also heard from Stephen Ponder, the senior associate athletics director at Arizona State, on the fundraising duties expected of head coaches. Kathleen Hessert, president of Sports Media Challenge, spoke on the importance of coaches managing their image and understanding their brand as a head coach. ESPN football analysts Rod Gilmore and Ed Cunningham addressed communication with broadcast media.

NCAA President Mark Emmert also paid the coaches a visit and conducted an impromptu question-and-answer session. His message to coaches was academic. 

“Everything we do in intercollegiate athletics must be driven by an over-riding commitment to the academic success of our student-athletes,” said Emmert, the University of Washington president who began his tenure as NCAA president October 5. “This has to be the un-error metric we use as much as we use scoreboards.”

Emmert also said while minority hiring trends were up in 2009-10, he wants not only the numbers to increase but also the environments to become more inclusive.

“We simply must make sure that our athletics programs represent all of the United States and all of our complexity,” Emmert said. “We have to be committed in higher education and intercollegiate athletics to the philosophy of promoting diversity in our work. We have much work to do, and I’m going to help you take that on.”

You’ve got the job; now what?

Houston head football coach Kevin Sumlin, who was once a participant in the NCAA coaching academies and forums, spoke to his peers about building a program once they sign on the dotted line. The note-taking came at a furious pace as Sumlin spoke, perhaps because he’s an example of a longtime minority assistant who is making the most of his first head coaching opportunity.

Entering the 2010 season, Sumlin had guided the Cougars to an 18-9 mark, which includes a 10-4 record in 2009. Houston led the nation in passing offense (433.7), total offense (563.5) and scoring offense (42.1) last year.

“The guys in the Champions Forum are people that I know,” said Sumlin, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Washington State in 1989. “When I took part in the academies, Tony Dungy spent about two hours just talking about his experience. There is no substitute for hands-on training like that. For me, this is a chance to give back and help some guys.”

The theme to Sumlin’s presentation was to be truly prepared when that first job comes. That means thinking things through, such as when players should come in for offseason workouts, when spring practices will be held, how to set up two-a-days during the preseason, and what recruiting philosophy to follow.

“Sometimes guys get the schedule from the head coach and just follow it,” said Sumlin, who counts Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum among his mentors. “When I was an assistant, I kept all the schedules. When the head coach hands out the schedule, you should ask him why he chose to set it up that way.” There is no cookie-cutter approach to running a football program, Sumlin said. Last season, he changed his team’s practice schedule on Mondays. Instead of a full-blown workout, the Cougars watched game tape and conducted a walk-through practice.

“It was more important for us to get to the game as healthy as possible with what we had,” Sumlin said. Those are the types of decisions the head coach has to make.”

Sumlin also stressed the importance of sending the right message at the initial news conference. That can go a long way toward influencing how the fans and players feel about a new hire. He also shared advice he received from Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

“When you get out of the car, you set the tone for the whole day,” Sumlin said. “If you are in a bad mood, people sense that. If you are smiling, you set the tone.”

Sumlin also urged the first-time coach to resist changing everything in a program just because of being the new guy. Instead, he said a new head coach should prioritize areas of change and then gradually make other adjustments to smooth the transition.

Part of building a coaching brand is treating people in the athletics department with respect, he said. Sumlin estimated that about 10 current Division I athletics directors were on staffs at his previous stops. He has a good relationship with all of them.

“Never underestimate what people in the building see you doing or what they think of you,” Sumlin said. “You don’t know who’s going to be pulling the trigger on a hire two years from now.”

Ready for the opportunity

Since his high school days in Attalla, Alabama, Tyrone Nix has wanted to be a head coach. Of course in those days, he dreamed of leading Etowah High School out onto the field. But when he finished his college career at Southern Mississippi, he was offered a graduate assistant job at his alma mater. Since then, Nix’s goals have altered to being the head coach of a college football program.

The foundation of reaching that goal has been set. In 2001, Nix was the youngest Division I Football Bowl Subdivision defensive coordinator in the country at the age of 29. His defenses at Southern Mississippi, South Carolina and now Mississippi have rated prominently through the years, and the next step is to convince an institution that he’s the right man for the head job.

Nix chose to apply for the Champions Forum after hearing good things from Sumlin and Larry Porter, who is in his first season as head coach at Memphis.

“I can see the people who went through this programming have been helped tremendously,” said Nix, who was paired with Duke Athletics Director Kevin White during the Forum. “I was fortunate to be chosen, and I want to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Nix, whose Ole Miss defense led the Southeastern Conference in tackles for losses in 2008 and 2009, has interviewed for two head coaching positions in his career, the last time being three years ago. He believes the knowledge he gained at the Champions Forum will better prepare him the next time a school wants to speak with him about running a program.

He found the mock one-on-one interview with White especially helpful.

“It was great to get immediate feedback after I gave an answer,” Nix said. “I wanted to hear his critiques. We had an open dialogue.

Every interview is a little different in structure because you are dealing with different people. I will be better prepared when the next opportunity presents itself.”

For years, one of the perceived obstacles for minority football coaches has been the lack of networking opportunities. The saying goes that people hire people they know or they are comfortable with.

Besides getting to know the athletics directors they were paired with in the one-on-ones, Nix and the rest of the coaches were able to develop contacts with all the other ADs, as well.

“The biggest thing is I know more people in the profession who are doing the hiring, and they know more about me,” Nix said. “Those two things can only help me as I go forward in hopes of advancing my career.”

Nix, 37, has paid particularly close attention to the recent trend of minority football assistants being hired to the head position.

“It shows if you are the right guy for the job, people can get an opportunity,” Nix said. “The Champions Forum is another way of recognizing that there are talented coaches out there. This program helps make decisionmakers aware of our abilities.”

ADs learn something, too

Anyone who follows intercollegiate athletics knows the lack of minority coaches is a hot-button issue. The 15 athletics directors who took part in the 2010 NCAA Champions Forum are acutely aware of the fact. The number won’t increase overnight, but taking part in the Forum shows a commitment to changing the culture.

“It provided a great opportunity to interact with the next generation of highly talented and gifted coaches who will lead college football,” said White, who was athletics director at Notre Dame for seven years before going to Duke in May 2008. “There’s a real opportunity to be candid, honest and apolitical. There’s also an opportunity to put yourself in the position of the ethnic minority coach and, vice versa, for that coach to sit across from the table and understand my perspective, as well.”

Mike Alden, the director of athletics at Missouri, believes the Forum’s format is its primary benefit. He particularly liked the size and scope of the proceedings.

“The Champions Forum is more focused on a one-on-one or mentoring type of relationship,” Alden said. “It is a different strategy and communication effort that I think can pay dividends down the road. This is more personal.”

Alden conducted his one-on-ones with Cincinnati defensive coordinator Tim Banks. The two men had never met before, so Alden reached out to his mentee even before the Forum. “I wanted to introduce myself before we met in Anaheim,” Alden said. “I wanted to get to know him beyond his resume.”

Alden and Banks got to know each other well. The coach learned more about what is expected from what is in effect the CEO of a football program, while Alden gained some insights, too.

“I got to know Tim in a broader perspective as more than just a guy who coaches a good defensive scheme,” Alden said. “It helped me to continue practicing my interviewing skills.”

Even if an athletics director isn’t looking for a head coach, he can still be influential for those who are in a coaching search.

“Without question, that is the idea,” White said.

Also without question, the NCAA coaches academies and forums have increased awareness of an increasingly talented candidate pool.

“Our challenge is to keep moving forward,” Alden said. “You can talk until you are blue in the face about guys who are talented, but it helps to have a network out there. It is a critical component to keeping the awareness and enthusiasm going.”

NCAA head football coach race/ethnicity demographics (as of August 2010)

DIVISION I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (15 out of 119)

Institution	Head Coach	Race
University of Kansas	Turner Gill	African American
University of Houston	Kevin Sumlin	African American
University of New Mexico	Mike Locksley	African American
U.S. Naval Academy	Ken Niumatalolo	Pacific Islander
University of Miami	Randy Shannon	African American
Florida International	Mario Cristobal	Latino
Miami of Ohio	Mike Haywood	African American
Eastern Michigan University	Ron English	African American
New Mexico State University	Dwayne Walker	African American
University of Memphis	Larry Porter	African American
University of Virginia	Mike London	African American
Western Kentucky University	Willie Taggart	African American
University of Louisville	Charlie Strong	African American
University of Kentucky	Joker Phillips	African American
East Carolina	Ruffin McNeill	African American

DIVISION I Football Bowl Subdivision (Head Coach in Waiting)

Institution	Coach	Race
University of Maryland	James Franklin	African American

DIVISION I Football Championship Subdivision  (FCS) (7 out of 101)

Institution	Head Coach	Race
Columbia	Norries Wilson	African American
Indiana State	Trent Miles	African American
Northern Arizona	Jerome Souers	American Indian
Southeast Missouri State	Tony Samuel	African American
Yale University	Tom Williams	African American
Portland State	Nigel Burton	African American
University of Richmond	Latrell Scott	African American

DIVISION II (3 out of 133)

Institution	Head Coach	Race
Wayne State (Michigan)	Paul Winters	African American
Stonehill College	Robert Talley	African American
Missouri S&T	David Brown	African American

DIVISION III (8 out 229)

Institution	Head Coach	Race
Salisbury State	Sherman Wood	African American
Randolph- Macon	Pedro Arruza	Latino
Chapman University	Bob Owens	African American
DePauw University	Robby Long	African American
Widener University	Isaac Collins	African American
Greenville College	Ordell Walker	African American
Capital University	Henry Stanford	African American
Williams College	Aaron Kelton	African American