Reports began circulating last week that Florida International University (FIU) was interested in possibly hiring former HBCU head coach Willie Simmons to take over the struggling program. Simmons was the head football coach at FAMU from 2017 to 2023 where he went 34-5 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, (SWAC) including a 12-1 record in 2023 and a Celebration Bowl Championship. Simmons spent this year in Durham, as part of the staff that revamped the Duke Blue Devils to a 9-3 record on the season.
At Duke, Simmons is the running backs coach for head coach Manny Diaz. Simmons and Diaz had worked together at Middle Tennessee State, so it was a natural fit for Simmons who left FAMU after an HBCU national championship season.
Simmons is known as a program builder. He took over a struggling Prairie View A&M team and made them relevant again in the SWAC. He took over a FAMU team that hadn’t won a championship in over a decade and rebuilt them into a national champion, winning the 2023 Celebration Bowl 30-26 over Howard University.
When Willie Simmons took over the Rattlers, they previously had several consecutive losing seasons. In 2018 when he took over, the Rattlers went 6-5. After that season FAMU would win nine games each of the next three seasons played (with 2020 being canceled due to covid-19). He would end his career with a 12-1 campaign in 2023, with the sole loss to the University of South Florida, an FBS school which they only lost by 14 points. With the exception of one bad quarter, the Rattlers had a legitimate chance to defeat the Bulls.
Simmons has appeared in many venues as a potential head coach on the FBS level. His youth and offensive prowess make him an attractive candidate for several openings at the FBS level. His year of experience at turning around Duke only promotes that further.
Social media is abuzz at Simmons. The FIU Twitter (X) society has Simmons as the first or second choice, with Tim Harris Jr as the other selection. However, as pointed out by Twitter (X) posters, Harris does not have the experience of leading the turnaround of a program.
UCF fans are chiming in on Simmons as well. With the sudden departure of Gus Malzon, the UCF Knights are also looking for a head coach and the former HBCU champion has the attention of some of their fanbase as well. X (formerly Twitter) users have begun their campaigning for Simmons to take the helm of the Knights. Some have mentioned the parallels between the young Simmons and their last successful coach Scott Frost.