Coaching Search: It didn't have to come to this

If you grew up in a household with a Black mom, which I’m certain nearly 99.8 percent of this blogs readers did, at some point or another you have probably been told a time or two that  “a hard head makes a soft behind.”
 
Since we broke the news, last Tuesday, that FAMU Athletics Director Tiffani Dawn Sykes’ has narrowed her search for the next head football coach of the Rattler football team down to one candidate Shawn Gibbs , the current head coach at Ft. Valley State University, Ms. Sykes, and her boss FAMU President Larry Robinson, have dug in and refused to listen to their key stakeholders --- alumni, boosters, trustees, student athletes and others.

The search for a new football coach could have and should have been handled much differently.  And, it should have involved the input/consultation of many of the university’s key stakeholders.

Logic dictates that the search for a new coach should conclude soon, as we are in the critical recruitment phases just before National Signing Day on February 7^th.  But nothing about this search has been logical from the start. 

Things reached a boiling point last week when the Rattler faithful made it abundantly clear that it was unhappy with Sykes’ choice .  The FAMU National Alumni Association took unprecedented measures by passing “no confidence” votes on the potential hire, and on the athletic director herself.  To add insult to injury a growing few have begun asking for their donations back.

As popular YouTuber Quentin Lathan often says, "you don't get to piss people off and tell them how mad to get!"  Life just doesn't work that way.

Most certainly, the events last week were nothing to celebrate, Ms. Sykes, and Mr.Robinson, would do well to reflect on how they themselves contributed to this debacle and how they can do better going forward to win over the FAMU faithful.

The FAMU job is not for everyone, especially a guy who has only been a head coach at the Division 2 level for two years and compiled a 16-5 record.  Rattlers expected more, and quite frankly are demanding more for a program that went 12-1 last year, and won the HBCU National Championship and won at least 9 games in each of the last four seasons. 

We understand that replacing a championship coach is never easy.  Former FAMU football head coach Rudy Hubbard, the only HBCU coach to win a NCAA National Championship offered Ms. Sykes and Mr. Robinson a clear path,” If the program were in shambles, you go outside to get someone to fix it. But when you’re rolling like we are, the guys there have the formula to dominate”.

By all indications, the FAMU football program isn’t in shambles. 

Former FAMU Head Coach Willie Simmons did a remarkable job assembling a coaching staff that most talent evaluators rate as one of the best in all of FCS football.

"Success is a lot easier if you can maintain continuity,” said former University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban.  

FAMU’s stakeholders have spoken clearly and passionately against this potential hire.  This isn’t the time for university leaders to dig in and circle the wagons around their choice.  The lesson for Ms. Sykes and Mr. Robinson now is to learn from the turbulence of the past few days and quickly create the expectation that they and the university will do better by its constituents. 

It is not too late.