Penn State’s James Franklin and Maryland’s Mike Locksley — whose teams square off Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium — are the faces of their football teams.
And, as veteran Black head coaches, they are also representing two of the most diverse programs in the Big Ten — if not the country.
The University of Maryland has both a Black president, Darryll J. Pines, and Black athletic director, Damon Evans. And Locksley has six assistants who are Black, including his offensive coordinator, Scottie Montgomery, and co-offensive coordinator, Joker Phillips.
Only Illinois, under veteran head coach Lovie Smith, who is Black and is in his fifth season with the Illini after 11 years as an NFL head coach, has a more diverse assistant coaching staff. Seven of Smith’s 10 assistants are Black, the most in all of Big Ten football.
At Penn State, VP of intercollegiate athletics Sandy Barbour is the only female among the conference’s 14 athletic directors. Franklin, in his 10th season as a Power 5-level head coach — three at Vanderbilt and seven at Penn State — currently has five Black assistant coaches (third-best in the Big Ten). Two are in leadership positions: Tim Banks, a former defensive coordinator at Illinois, is co-defensive coordinator, and Terry Smith is assistant head coach.
In 2020, among the 130 FBS college programs, only 14 football teams have Black head coaches.
Overall, the Big Ten has two Black presidents (Pines and Jonathan Holloway of Rutgers) and two female presidents (Joan Gabel, Minnesota, and Kristina Johnson, Ohio State). The conference has three Black athletic directors out of a total of 14 — Pines, Michigan’s Warde Manuel and Ohio State’s Gene Smith.
And among big-time college football conferences, the Big Ten ranks second for Black head coaches, behind the Pac-12, which has five. Joining Franklin, Locksley and Smith is Mel Tucker, the first-year head coach at Michigan State who also spent one year as a head coach at Colorado, in 2019.
No other FBS conference has more than one Black head coach; these each have one: ACC, MAC, Mountain West, SEC and USA.
Two Black head coaches are making their debuts in 2020 — Thomas Hammock, whose Northern Illinois team lost 49-30 to Buffalo in its season-opener on Wednesday night, and Jimmy Lake, whose University of Washington squad (with former PSU assistant John Donovan as its O-coordinator) kicks off Saturday at Cal. Both Hammock and Lake have extensive NFL assistant coaching experience, while Lake was D-coordinator for two seasons at Washington before succeeding Chris Petersen in the offseason.
BIG TEN BREAKDOWN
In the Big Ten, 55 of the 140 fulltime assistant coaching position for football are filled by Black or diversity hires. That is 39%. In 2019, 48.5% of football players on FBS rosters were Black and 34.8% were white, according to a report by The Institute of Diversity and Ethics of Sport.
In the conference, eight Black football assistants hold a coordinator or co-coordinator title (offense, defense or special teams), while four assistants who are Black have the title of assistant head coach or associate head coach.
This week, Franklin praised the Big Ten for its diversity hiring practices related to football.
‘I do think it’s great to see more diversity in our conference — I think that’s in the head coaching positions, I think that’s in coordinator positions, I think that is in staffs,’ said Franklin. ‘I think that’s important. And I think the Big Ten, in some ways, is leading the way nationally.’
Of Penn State’s four fulltime graduate assistants for football, three are Black — former Nittany Lion football players Deoin Barnes and Wendy Laurent, as well as V’Angelo Bentley, who played cornerback for Banks at Illinois.
‘I do take a lot of pride in our conference and what our conference is doing and some of the decisions that our presidents in our conference as well as athletic directors in our conference, are making — which is hiring the most qualified person available,’ Franklin added. ‘It’s great to see that, obviously, with Coach Tucker and Lovie (Smith). It’s something that we take a lot of pride in.’
TO BE FRANK(LIN) WITH YOU
Last autumn, during the airing of the HBO program, ’24/7 College Football,’ the 48-year-old Franklin shared nationally what he had been saying to local media and recruits — that among his career goals is to be the first Black head coach to win a national championship in college football.
“My goal is to be the first African-American football coach to win a national championship,’ Franklin said a year ago. ‘I spend very little time talking about it because, really, my job is to help the players reach their goal. But that’s something that maybe we can do together.”
The idea of helping Franklin make that dream came true was a major factor in his decision to enroll at Penn State, running back Devyn Ford told Brian Dohn of 247Sports in 2018.
“What took the lead with Penn State was James Franklin and what he dreams of,” said Ford, who is Black. “I hooked onto his dream and I felt it and I believed in it. That’s what really got me…He’s going to be the first black coach in NCAA history to win a national championship.”
For his part, Franklin noted a few years ago that he does feel extra responsibility to pave the wave for future Black coaches.
“I also feel like I carry a little bit of that weight that I’m also working for thousands of young African-American football coaches all over the country that, when someone gets into my position,’ Franklin said during a press conference in 2018. “The success that we have here hopefully opens some opportunities for other guys in the future.”
