THE LOOK OF CHANGE
Lovie Smith’s Illinois staff has 8 Black coaches — more than any FBS program. Can it be an example that helps close the racial disparity in college football?
“I wanted to be a coach, but the guy I saw on the sideline didn’t look like me. Tom Landry was on the sideline. Everything about Tom Landry was good. But he didn’t look like me.”
— Lovie Smith, Illinois football coach
Like most young boys for generations in Texas, Lovie Smith rooted his heart out for the Dallas Cowboys on Sundays. “I wanted to be a coach, but the guy I saw on the sideline didn’t look like me,” Smith told the Tribune. “Tom Landry was on the sideline. Everything about Tom Landry was good. But he didn’t look like me.” Smith was in his late 30s, having played and coached for more than a quarter century, when he joined Tony Dungy’s Buccaneers staff in 1996 as the linebackers coach. It was the first time Smith worked or played for a Black head coach. Smith, 62, raised his index finger. “The only time,” he clarified. As the first Black coach in the 130-year history of Illinois football, Smith is intentional and thoughtful about creating and cultivating his staff to provide young Black coaches an opportunity, just as Dungy did for him. “Our staff has a little bit different look,” Smith said. Illinois has eight Black coaches, the most in FBS. Arizona State has seven under Herm Edwards, who worked on Dungy’s staff with Smith. Smith and Edwards are two of 14 African American head coaches out of 130 FBS programs. All but four of 65 Power Five programs in 2019 had four Black assistants or fewer. The lack of representation seems to start at the top. Nearly 85% of athletic directors in 2018-19 were white, while only 8.8% were African American. Almost 90% of football head coaches were white men, and Black coaches made up 7.3% of the position. Because most coaches were former players, the lack of African American head coaches is especially striking. Black college football players made up 48.5% of FBS rosters, while white players accounted for 34.8%, according to the 2019 annual report by The Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sports. For Smith, common sense should be enough to solve the issue. If only. “I guess what the University of Illinois is saying is that a man of color can lead men of color, or anyone for that matter,” Smith said. “A lot of times when other (universities) don’t have people that look like the world, (they say,) ‘Well, I don’t know anybody
(of color to hire).’ No, there are qualified people out there. I guess we just seem to find them.”
Racial representation can be profound for athletes of color, particularly in the nation’s current climate.
As protests fill American streets following the highly publicized killings of unarmed Black people — including George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky — by white police officers, sports organizations and players have become more outspoken about racism.
In a recent NBC Sports interview, Smith said he welcomes activism and fosters personal growth among players.
“I’ve been asked a lot of times: ‘Can you give me a statement about what’s going on right now?’ ” he said. “It’s so much more than that. A few things we need to acknowledge and we can’t go much further until we do that: Systemic racism exists in our world. It’s one thing to identify the problem, and then it’s how we change that problem. It can’t be words.”
Having coaches who understand Black players’ desires to protest or to empathize when they share a personal experience of dealing with racism is important.
“It gives me some confidence having him there beside me (on the sideline),” said Illinois running back Ra’Von Bonner, who recently spoke at a rally against police brutality. “It’s also nice to have a coach that I don’t have to explain this to. He knows why I’m doing it. It definitely gives me confidence and some sense of comfort.”
Smith’s staff is “meaningful,” said N. Jeremi Duru, a professor of sports law at American University who advises the Fritz Pollard Alliance.
“All of the social science indicates quite clearly that casting a wide net in any sort of employment context and seeking diversity and implementing diversity leads to better outcomes,” Duru said. “It’s not just that you’re giving an individual opportunity, although that’s part of it. There’s selfinterest in it. Diversity is good for business. It’s good for production. Those who don’t see that put themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
“Lovie Smith is pursuing (staff diversity) not just because he wants to ensure people who perhaps haven’t had opportunities before are getting them now but because he wants to succeed and he sees this as an appropriate means of reaching that goal.”
Building a staff
Smith was headed to his car from a recruiting trip at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. A young co-defensive coordinator who had helped organize Smith’s trip showed him around the facilities, introduced him to players and passionately discussed defensive coaching schemes and drills.
He also had recruited a significant share of the team’s most talented players. Smith came away impressed.
“I got ready to leave, and I said, ‘Give me your card,’ ” he recalled. “‘Someday if I have a job, I’m going to call you.’ ”
Less than a month later, Smith called the number off that card, asking to interview 29-year-old Al Davis.
“I was completely surprised by the phone call,” Davis said. “The coaching profession, a big part of it is who you know. I had never been interviewed by a (former) NFL coach. I presented myself as teacher to him. That’s what coaching is.”
Jimmy Lindsey, who was hired as a defensive ends coach, spent the previous three seasons as Western Kentucky’s defensive ends coach and recruiting coordinator. He and Davis were introduced in early February as the newest members of Smith’s staff.
They take over duties following defensive line coach Austin Clark, a young white coach Smith had hired from USC. The Miami Dolphins recently hired Clark as linebackers coach.
“A guy from afar that you admire as a young, African American coach, you’ve got to take advantage of that opportunity if it presents itself,” Lindsey told reporters at a Champaign news conference.
Lindsey and Davis joined a staff including African American coaches: running backs coach Mike Bellamy, wide receivers coach Andrew Hayes-Stoker, cornerbacks coach Keynodo Hudson, linebackers coach Miles Smith — Lovie’s son — and tight ends coach Cory Patterson. Lovie Smith assumed the defensive coordinator role last season.
Smith recently hired Ashton Washington as director of high school relations, making the 23-year-old the first African American female staff member in program history.
Recycling familiar names can keep coaches from finding less obvious up-andcomers in the profession, exacerbating racial disparity in hiring practices. Quickly trying to assemble a staff for a new coach is a pressure-packed task.
“Your first reaction can be, ‘I’ve got to call this guy. I know him,’ ” said Edwards, Arizona State’s coach. “You get in a retread of coaches who have already been there and it’s an easy hire. It’s hard to step outside that envelope.”
A longtime friend of Smith’s, Edwards spoke to Illini players in Champaign when Smith was hired. He sensed “the culture he was about to develop was going to be one of opportunity.”
“When you’re playing, the goal is truly competition,” Edwards said. “It doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from. It’s ‘Let’s compete.’ It should be like that with coaching. Why not take a little more time to get qualified (diverse) candidates? We feel it’s the right thing to do. Coaches are really in position to make the game better.”
Smith has found young Black assistants who wowed him at high school, junior colleges and small FBS programs.
“I’ve never been in a box in my life,” Smith said. “The road most traveled? Nope, not me.”
Smith understands the path to headcoaching jobs starts with promotion. In other words, it starts with him to find, develop and promote minority assistants.
He referenced the Dead Prez song “It’s Bigger than Hip Hop.”
“This is bigger than football,” Smith said. “I’ve been blessed. People helped me, and now I’m getting older, and helping other people is more important than ever.”
‘A hand up’
A pay cut was worth it to work on Tony Dungy’s staff.
Smith left his job as an Ohio State defensive backs coach for less money but a unique opportunity.
“A little of that was, this is something new for me,” Smith said of working for a Black head coach he admired.
It’s no coincidence Dungy, Smith and Edwards, who all worked together on Dungy’s Buccaneers staff, espouse similar coaching and hiring philosophies.
In 2007, Smith’s Bears and Dungy’s Colts met in the Super Bowl, the first time two African American head coaches faced off in the NFL’s signature game. Edwards and Dungy played in the NFL and joined the league as coaches around the same time.
“We talked about (how) it was vital to start a pipeline,” Edwards said, referencing Dungy. “What we witnessed in 1977 as players, seven men of color were in the league (as assistants). That looked strange to us. We got in the position to give opportunities. They have to be capable. It’s not like we were giving a handout. It was a hand up.”
When Smith got into coaching, he said he was told there was a blueprint for climbing up the ladder: Successful position coaches become coordinators, and coordinators become head coaches.
That linear path isn’t always true for Black coaches, who historically have been pigeon-holed into roles that don’t ascend to head coaching jobs. Or they’re overlooked even when they do hold those resumebuilding positions.
Of 155 coordinator positions on Power Five teams, only 23 (14.8%) are filled by Black coaches. Of those, 15 are tagged with co-coordinator labels.
Only six Power Five schools have an African American offensive or co-offensive coordinator. In today’s game, in which high octane offenses are valued, those calling the plays often are the first ones called for head coaching interviews.
Hiring patterns in the NFL mirror the college game.
Since 2009, nearly 40% of NFL head coaches were promoted from offensive coordinator jobs, offensive coordinators, according to The Atlantic. During the same span, 91% of offensive coordinator hires were white.
Black coaches, including Smith — a former linebacker and defensive back — historically have worked with defenses.
The NFL currently has only three Black head coaches — the same number as when Smith coached in the league.
In the last three years, 19 head coaching jobs opened, but only two Black coaches filled them. The numbers are especially stark considering almost 70% of NFL players in 2018 were Black, according to TIDES.
In 2016, Smith brought on Hardy Nickerson as defensive coordinator and Garrick McGee as offensive coordinator, making Illinois the only FBS program at the time with a Black head coach and two Black coordinators. Rod Smith, who is white, now serves as offensive coordinator, while Smith handles the defensive duties.
“On my staff, there has been a man of color in one of the coordinator positions since I got the Tampa (head coaching) job (from 2014-15),” Smith said. “I’m not saying a guy who isn’t Black can’t be. In an ideal world, this is what I wanted it to be. I wanted diversity in the coordinator position as well.”
Smith concentrates on developing coaches as much as players.
“I’ve heard about guys getting pigeonholed and not getting opportunities,” said assistant Patterson, whom Smith hired two seasons ago as a 37-year-old high school coach from St. Louis. “It’s my first college football job. My head coach has actually sat me down and talked to me about what I want to be, what are my long-term goals and how he can help me get to those things. That means a lot.”
Opening doors, taking action
Smith doesn’t think the Rooney Rule, an NFL policy requiring teams interview at least one minority candidate for a headcoaching vacancy, would be any more effective in college football.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance urged the NCAA to adopt the rule in 2007. The organization resisted yet included a recommendation Division 1 athletic directors “commit to interviewing one minority candidate,” according to The Oxford Handbook of American Sports Law.
For a decade, the state of Oregon has required public schools to interview at least one qualified minority candidate for all head coach and athletic director openings.
“There are tremendous problems (in football hiring),” said Duru, who noted the Rooney Rule has shown some positive effects. “We’ve got to find systemic ways to level the playing field so candidates of color have the same opportunities.”
Smith and Edwards hope other coaches — not solely Black coaches — see the benefits of their diverse staffs and begin opening more doors.
“To get any job, you have to say that person is qualified,” Smith said. “You’re saying the pool is too small? Are you saying there aren’t that many men of color that go into the coaching profession? I’m saying, on my staff, that isn’t the case.”
Smith takes coaching seriously. He takes inclusion seriously too.
Typically reserved, he declines most invitations to speak on panels or soliloquy about diversity. He has another way to spread a message.
“I’m going to be about action,” Smith said.
“This is bigger than football. People helped me, and now I’m getting older, and helping other people is more important than ever.”
— Lovie Smith