Do you know who the most successful black college football coach is/was? UCLA's Karl Dorrell, the...

Do you know who the most successful black college football coach is/was?

UCLA's Karl Dorrell, the man with a sparkling 35-27 record in five years, the man pink-slipped after consecutive disappointing seasons.

Tyrone Willingham has the most victories — 76 to go along with 88 losses and one tie.

Dennis Green went 26-63 at Northwestern and Stanford. Sylvester Croom finished up at 21-38 at Mississippi State.

...

We're not being strategic. Dorrell, a UCLA alumnus, is the only black coach who landed somewhere he truly fit. The problem is he got there before he was truly ready for the responsibility.

Jason Whitlock on black coaches in College Football (emphasis mine)

10 months ago tasser10 8 comments 1 recs |

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Wow

Great find, Tasser.

So, Dorrell is the most successful black HC ever. I think it goes without saying that there simply must be other black individuals out there who, if given the opportunity, will be more successful than him.

Dorrell: Nice guy, good citizen, probably pays all of his taxes. He’s just not HC material, at least not at this time. In fact, he might be too nice a guy to ever be a HC.

by Barnes2JJ on Dec 18, 2008 1:51 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Whitlock did put that disclaimer in there.

Dorrell was not ready for the job. That much was not his fault. I don’t like to dump on Dorrell because unlike Toledo, Karl is family. But I have to think Ty was/is a better coach if only based on his Stanford record. Dennis Green coached one of the great NFL teams of all time (1998 Vikings?). I wouldn’t certainly put Sylvester Croom ahead of KD. I don’t have any stats to back this one up, just based on what I saw on the field.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Dec 18, 2008 5:19 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Whitlock

He is a controversial writer but he did nail the Dorrell/UCLA dynamics the week he was hired at UCLA (search our achives here on BN). He nails it again.

Great shot Tasser. Keep it coming brother.

by Nestor on Dec 18, 2008 5:34 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

That stat shocked me a bit

But I guess we have to differentiate between “successful coach” and “good coach”. And I think the main difference is the state of the program that each of those guys inherited. Ty Willingham for example certainly was a good coach at Stanford and Notre Dame, but he inherited a program that was really hurting at UW…

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Dec 19, 2008 9:28 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

History Lesson

Whitlock is way, way off (as usual).

The most successful black head coach in college football history is Eddie Robinson who put up a record of 408-165-15 (w/ 45 winning seasons) at Grambling, where he coached four NFL HOFers in Buck Buchanan, Willie Brown, Willie Davis, and Charlie Joiner and one former Superbowl MVP QB in Doug Williams.

Gotta say, it’s pretty funny to see Whitlock of all people ignoring the achievements of black colleges in football.

by Sean P. on Dec 19, 2008 11:02 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

You beat me to it!

I was just about to make clear that Robinson was probably the most successful Black coach in history when I got to the bottom of the thread and found your post.

It takes one minute on Google to find that fact. But, knowing that would ruin an article.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Dec 19, 2008 8:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs