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)
about 3 years ago
tasser10
8 comments
1 recs |
Email
PrintComments
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
I think Whitlock meant to write D-1 coaches
The underlying argument of his piece otherwise is on point IMO.
Nope - Whitlock makes a fundamental error
He used the word “coach” and the name of CTS in the same sentence. That displays a classic misunderstanding of the meaning of the word.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
