Back on October 28 of last year, then-Athletic Director
Kellen Winslow confirmed that Rattler Head Football Coach Earl Holmes had been
fired.
Over his nearly two seasons as head coach, Holmes amassed a
record of six wins and 16 losses. Holmes’ firing came at a time when the team
was showing steady improvement, having won two out of its last three contests
and with the Homecoming game just four days away.
Winslow’s disrespectful treatment of Holmes and his decision
to continue to make insulting comments about the university and its supporters
finally led many FAMUans to lose patience with him. Hundreds of FAMU students and
alumni booed Winslow at the Homecoming Convocation.
Former President Frederick S. Humphries expressed the feelings of a large number of FAMUans with comments he made about issue in a November 2 statement on his official Facebook page.
“How former Head Football Coach Earl Holmes was handled was
in very bad form and the impact of the firing is costing us more in damage to
our brand than if he continued as coach and lost every game the rest of the
season,” Humphries wrote. “This was simply poor judgment. If FAMU is to be
considered a serious university, be a destination for the best students,
faculty and garner the public trust to attract research money and elite
athletes - these kind of actions must be managed better ‘Full Stop.’”
The FAMU Board of Trustees (BOT) Athletics Oversight
Committee approved a motion declaring that it had “no confidence” in Winslow on
November 7 and recommended that the full board also support the action.
But some supporters of President Elmira Mangum and Winslow
still used Holmes’ 0-5 start in 2014 as a defense of the firing.
“While I understand the point-of-view that the firing of
Earl Holmes during homecoming was done outside of the normal ‘tradition’ of the
university, I believe that the ultimate decision to sever ties with coach
Holmes- the first coach in the 127-year history of FAMU to start the football
season 0-5 and lead the team to an all-time low football attendance for the
university- was the right decision despite the timing,” John Michael Lee wrote
in a November 8 email to the BOT. “‘Tradition’ cannot and should not trump
progress at FAMU.”
The full BOT went on to approve a “no confidence” vote in
Winslow on November 17. Winslow resigned in December and Mangum later hired Lee
to a $130,000 job at the university.
Last weekend’s football loss to Savannah State University
has now led supporters of Mangum to request patience for new Head Coach Alex
Wood despite the fact that he has also started the season with a 0-5 record.
Back in 2014, Holmes’ team beat SSU 24-14. Wood’s team lost
to SSU 27-37. That was the Tigers’ first-ever win against FAMU. The victory
ended the Tigers’ 24-game, overall, losing streak and its 32-game losing streak
in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
The individuals who supported the decision to fire Holmes in
October of 2014 didn’t care about the fact that his team had faced practice
time restrictions after falling below NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR)
standards. But many of them are now using that problem as a defense of Wood.
The Savannah State football program currently has limited
facilities and NCAA-imposed practice time restrictions. But it still managed to
defeat the Rattlers on Saturday.
Former FAMU Head Coach Billy Joe is urging Rattlers to give
Wood more time to turn the program around.
“I have known Coach Wood for several decades. He is a
quality coach and an outstanding human being,” Joe wrote on his official
Facebook page on October 5. “When Coach Wood is juxtaposed with other HBCU
coaches, he has more experience than all of them, combined. No other coach has
a resume or a track record that can compare with Coach Wood’s. Given the time,
support and resources, I am confident that he and his staff will turn the
football program around...‘big time.’”
Billy Joe is right about the need to give Wood more time.
But President Elmira Mangum still owes Earl Holmes an apology for the way her
administration handled his termination.