FAMU kicking off a new era
New coach is working to lead the struggling Rattlers back to glory
Coach Willie Simmons is working to lead the struggling Rattlers, who haven’t had a winning season since 2011, back to glory.
The shine of being home again hasn’t worn off for new Florida A&M coach Willie Simmons.
It’s doubtful that shine will ever lose its luster. Not for Simmons, who grew up 20 minutes away from FAMU’s campus in Quincy. Not for the man who left one of the newest and most high-profile facilities in HBCU football at Prairie View A&M in order to fix a program that as recently as last season almost couldn’t play games in its own stadium.
Simmons knows he’s taking on a work in progress. Is there pressure? Of course. But no one is putting more pressure on Simmons to win — and the Rattlers haven’t had a winning season since 2011 — than Simmons himself.
“It’s truly a blessing to be able to be 20 minutes from where I grew up,” Simmons said in a phone interview. “To still be able to see my family and to have family members and former players and former coaches come by practice every other day. All of those things are still special to me.”
“When I took this job, it wasn’t to come back home. It was to take over a program that had underperformed and do something special here. That’s a focus we’re going to keep and as a head coach, that’s what I wake up to every single day. When we do that, we’re able to stay focused on the goal at hand.”
The Rattlers’ season starts Sept. 1 against Fort Valley State. The Rattlers went 3-8 overall and 2-6 in MEAC play last season, though the Rattlers were either tied or held leads in the second halves of five of their six conference losses in 2017.
They were close, but former coach Alex Wood (who went 8-25 in three seasons at FAMU) couldn’t get them over the hump and was fired after losing a third straight game against archrival Bethune-Cookman as FAMU’s head coach. It was the Rattlers’ seventh consecutive loss to the Wildcats.
Simmons accepted an offer to be FAMU’s next head coach three weeks later.
“I don’t think anyone’s expectations are higher than mine,” Simmons said with a laugh. “I expect the very best from this football team. If we continue to take that approach, I think success will find us. We have to understand everything takes time. It’s going to be a process to build this program into what we want it to be.
“Even if we’re winning games on the field, it’s a total transformation of this program as far as what we do in the classroom, as far as what we do socially, what we do spiritually. We want to be a group of guys that not only win on the field, but win off the field. Obviously, that’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Simmons has already had an impact at FAMU. He pushed for upgraded facilities — Bragg Memorial Stadium hasn’t been renovated since 1980 and last year needed hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs — and, alongside new athletic director John Eason, was able to announce the installation of a new turf field at Bragg.
“The approach is just to focus on building things one day at a time,” Simmons said. “Let’s remember where we come from. This is a program that’s got as much history and tradition as any program in the country. We don’t have to look far to see the examples of what championship teams look like. All we have to do is look at the banners when we walk into the field house every day.
“If we remember the things that made those teams great, which are accountability among players and coaches, teamwork, and outworking our competition, we’ll find success. Those are the things we’re focusing on every day as a football team and day by day we’re getting a lot better.”
The Rattlers finished last season averaging 22 points per game, third-best in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Redshirt junior quarterback Ryan Stanley will be tasked with leading Simmons’ offense. That’s no small thing, considering Simmons has built his reputation on strong offense. Last season Prairie View A&M, Simmons’ former team, had the Southeastern Athletic Conference’s third-best offense.
There are other leaders returning to FAMU. Offensive lineman Obinna Nwankwo, defensive back Terry Jefferson and wideout Chad Hunter — there are a host of players who shined last season that are stepping up as leaders for Simmons.
Players are the only familiar faces from last season’s team. None of the coaches from last year were retained by Simmons, who brought four coaches from Prairie View A&M, including fellow Quincy native Alex Jackson.
“You can cross college football, it comes down to how close teams are,” Simmons said. “How disciplined they are. How hard they work. We have enough talent here, it’s a just a matter of if we can all pull together as one and do it the right way.”