Bobby Williams was fired by Michigan State following the destruction that his Spartans had taken at the hands of both Michigan and Wisconsin during each of the last two weeks.
His tenure at MSU ended after he was asked if he had lost his team following Saturday’s debacle. Williams responded, “I don’t know.”
That was all she wrote for the MSU head coach. Athletic director Ron Mason informed Williams, one of four black coaches among the 117 schools in Division I-A football, of his firing after Monday’s practice.
No sooner had he been fired, than the speculation began. No, not the speculation over who will be the coach at talent-laden Michigan State in the future; instead, the question now being asked more than ever is who the next black head football coach will be.
This is the wrong question to ask now. The only relevant question, which has always been the only relevant question, is why more black coaches don’t hold head coaching jobs. The fact that there are now only three black head coaches does not make, suddenly, a worse statistical anomaly. It was bad before, bad now and will likely be bad for a long time to come.
Bobby Williams’ firing has nothing to do with black head coaches, other than being part of a situation that is quite disturbing when viewed in its totality.
Anyone that judges an entire ethnicity’s ability to coach based on one individual’s performance is just plain wrong. I feel strongly about that. However, when I say this I will remind you Tyrone Willingham deserves equal treatment on this front as well.
Anyone who thinks they are supporting black coaches by saying what a great job Tyrone Willingham is doing at Notre Dame is actually doing just the opposite.
Indeed, he is doing a terrific job. He appears to be the strongest candidate to be named National Coach of the Year. However, I fail to see the correlation between the next two ideas. He is black, and he is a damn good football coach.
People talk about how much better things will be now that Tyrone Willingham is opening up doors for black coaches. That’s disgusting. No, not that things might get better; hopefully they will. But this is the year 2002, and to imply that it is somehow fine that someone is still opening doors to an industry for a minority is ridiculous.
The problem is not that doors are closed to black head coaches. The real problem is that an extra door still exists at all.
He should not be said to be opening doors for black coaches. His performance as an individual should not be reflected on an entire race. His performance can only truly reflect on Tyrone Willingham, his family, his players and the coaches he surrounds himself with.
This is true in the exact same way for Bobby Williams. Yes, he was a head coach. Yes, he is a black man. There were only four black head coaches, and now there are only three. No one could expect any program to continue on with him as a coach after the myriad of problems Michigan State has undergone under his leadership.
He did a disastrous job of late. He deserved to be fired, and one hopes that the issue of race never becomes entangled with his firing in an attempt to tarnish the reputation of Michigan State or athletic director Ron Mason. He did what he thought best for the program. He was probably right.
Will the situation for black head coaches get any better anytime soon? Sadly, I doubt anything is changing very quickly. A look at the NFL doesn’t leave a much better impression on the subject.
Only two black coaches currently hold head positions. The issue is still at large in the NFL. The only league where race has disappeared as an issue is the NBA. How do we know it isn’t an issue? When a coach is hired or fire, no one writes whether or not he is black or white. They only talk about his record and his qualifications.
If college football could follow this idea a little more closely, everybody would benefit. There is no way that the sheer numbers of the situation can be justified. There are more than three qualified black coaches in this country. How many of them we will ever see or hear of is up to athletic directors and rich alumni around the country.
We clearly aren’t there yet. Notice that there has been no discussion of the firing of Kevin Steele from Baylor early this week, and it wasn’t just because Baylor is a historically bad program and Michigan State has some winning tradition.
When Larry Coker wins, it does not reflect on white coaches; nor should Tyrone Willingham’s winning reflect on black coaches. Likewise, Kevin Steele being fired won’t mean that white coaches shouldn’t be hired, and Bobby Williams’ firing should not weigh in anyone’s decision to hire someone in the future unless his name is Bobby Williams.
