Nearly two months after FAMU ended the SWAC season with a win in the title game in Tallahassee, it ended a long, strange SWAC coaching carousel.
Southern University was the first SWAC school to officially have an opening as it parted ways with Eric Dooley in November after less than two full seasons. It was also the first to make a hire as it made interim head coach and long-time assistant Terrence Graves its new head on Dec. 12.
By the end of the season, it was apparent that Texas Southern would be parting ways with Clarence McKinney after more than half a decade at the helm with zero winning seasons. The separation was announced at the end of the season, but the process of getting a new head coach would be anything but linear. Several coaches were rumored as possible candidates, including then-Benedict College head coach Chennis Berry and former North Carolina Central head coach Jerry Mack.
Grambling State University pulled the plug on Hue Jackson a few days later after just two seasons at the helm. The former NFL head coach was eventually replaced by Mickey Joseph, who once served as interim head coach at Nebraska and had previously served as an assistant at Grambling State as well as LSU.
By the time Celebration Bowl week rolled around, it appeared that Texas Southern had zeroed in on Fred McNair as its next head coach. The long-time Alcorn State mentor had been rumored to have shown interest in outside jobs previously, but it had never gotten this close. All signs pointed to Dec. 15 as the red letter date, as the Texas Southern Board of Regents was set to meet to approve a contract for a head football coach — presumably Fred McNair. But it didn’t happen that day. Or that month.
Alcorn State decided it would not sit idly by with McNair all but saddled up in his cowboy hat and spurs head for Texas. It ended up moving on, naming defensive coordinator Cedric Thomas as its next head coach, meaning there would be AT least four programs with new head coaches in 2024.
Meanwhile, Texas Southern had ANOTHER meeting and came out of it on the other side without a head coach. It looked to have a slam dunk case for the craziest HBCU coaching process of the season — if not all-time.
Then Florida A&M, fresh off its first outright conference title since the George W. Bush Era, told the entire SWAC to hold its proverbial beer
FAMU gave us a January to remember, and Texas Southern is glad we forgot
Just two weeks after beating Howard in the Celebration Bowl, rumors began to circulate that Willie Simmons was mulling an offer from a Power Five program. Simmons had been known to flirt with P5 jobs before, but this time the was a connection. He was offered the running back coach position by Duke’s Manny Diaz, whom he had previously worked with and whose son had worked under Simmons.
FAMU alumni put up a valiant effort after being called on by AD Tiffani-Dawn Sykes to sweeten the pot for the coaches salary pool, hoping to keep the gang together. But not long after the clock struck 12 on Jan. 1, Simmons proceeded to leave the SWAC and HBCU football on top and pursue his ultimate goal of becoming a Power Five head coach. The FAMU faithful echoed Simmons’ parting sentiments that the next head coach was already on campus and took every chance it could get to voice that opinion.
At that point, the question was which SWAC program would have a head coach first — Texas Southern or Florida A&M?
The answer would be Texas Southern, but only due to an insurgency in the FAMU coaching search.
Sykes and President Larry Robinson had signed off on Fort Valley State head coach Shawn Gibbs by mid-month. News of the impending selection was leaked and all hell broke loose. Weeks after raising money at Sykes’ request after talking with Simmons, the FAMU National Alumni Association conducted overwhelming ‘no confidence votes’ on both Gibbs and Sykes. The following week it was announced that Gibbs would be staying at Fort Valley State.
Finally, while the entire HBCU world was watching the Trouble in Tallahassee, Texas Southern announced a coach. It wasn’t Fred McNair. It wasn’t former NFL All-Pro Andre Johnson. It was — Chris Dishman. The former All-Pro defensive back was hired as a head coach for the first time in his career. It was somewhat of a head-scratcher, but by this point, not many people outside the program had much to offer.
Meanwhile, a near-two hour long meeting between Sykes and the Board of Trustees resulted in the recommendation of a search committee on top of Sykes’ plans for a search firm. The committee was quickly formed and selected five potential candidates for Sykes and Robinson to choose from. The list of candidates was asked to remain confidential — and then leaked to the entire internet by Friday.
Less than a week later — on a Saturday afternoon while most HBCU basketball games were going on — FAMU announced interim head coach James Colzie as its 19th head football coach.
If this SWAC coaching cycle has taught us anything, it is that nothing is official until it’s official. And this has officially been a coaching cycle for the ages.
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