Despite Black players making up about half of major college football rosters, Black head coaches are rare at the top level. With only 13 of 136 FBS teams led by Black head coaches—and no non-interim Black head coach in the SEC since 2020—some former NFL stars
On Oct. 30, at the Linc in Philadelphia, Michael Vick will coach against DeSean Jackson. The matchup is billed like a novelty—Eagles legends trading sideline time—but it also sits inside a larger, harsher reality about who gets trusted with the biggest leadership jobs in college football.
Vick. now the head coach at Norfolk State in Virginia. and Jackson. now the head coach at Delaware State. are part of a growing group of Black former NFL stars taking a road that doesn’t look like the standard coaching ladder. They are being hired at Historically Black Colleges and Universities first, then trying to prove they belong higher. Their common thread is not just talent. It’s the belief that the traditional pathway has repeatedly failed to lift Black coaches into the places where power concentrates.
The numbers frame the tension. Only 13 of 136 major college football teams have Black head coaches, down from 17 of 120 teams in 2011. In the powerful Big Ten and Southeastern conferences. there are 34 head coaches combined—33 are White. with Maryland’s Mike Locksley the only Black head coach in those leagues. The SEC also hasn’t had a non-interim Black head coach since 2020.
At the same time, Black players are everywhere on the field. In 2024-25, Black players made up about half of Football Bowl Subdivision rosters, with 9,617 participants in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision statistics.
The disconnect is where the emotion lives—because racial integration in the sport worked long before the coaching ladder moved. Now, several coaches and former players say the remaining barrier is not the ability to coach. It is the comfort of the people making hiring decisions.
“Football’s the only sport that players struggle to come off the field and become a coach. ” said Marshall Faulk. a Pro Football Hall of Famer and the head coach at Southern University in Louisiana. “They look at us like if you’re successful at the game playing then you won’t be successful at the game in any other capacity.”.
Faulk’s point lands on a word that kept appearing across interviews: “comfort.” Are school presidents and athletic directors willing to hire people who don’t look like them?. Are they willing to consider candidates with backgrounds that are outside the norm in the FBS?. The data assembled alongside these interviews suggests those questions don’t often lead to “comfort” for the decision-makers.
Eddie George. another former NFL star now coaching in the FBS. described how the climb can feel closed off even when someone believes their resume should speak for itself. “It’s hard for guys to go up the ladder because there’s a lot of red tape at times. ” said George. the former Tennessee Titans running back who is now the head coach at Bowling Green State. “There’s politics being played at times and you see coaches stay at a certain position for 20 or 30 years without elevating. and that can be frustrating. So there’s one way, and another way is, ‘Hey, you know what?. Our résumé speaks for itself.’”.
Those transitions are also shaped by where the first opportunity comes from. Faulk, George, and Vick were hired by Black athletic directors at HBCUs, the article notes. The same is true of Deion Sanders at Jackson State in 2020 before he moved on to Colorado. and of DeSean Jackson at Delaware State. Sanders, Jackson, Faulk, George, and Vick each entered head coaching roles at HBCUs with little or no prior coaching experience.
Sanders’ influence is one of the clearest signals of the new path. The coaching strategy that began with him now has followers trying to translate head-coaching results at HBCUs into access at the FBS level.
Vick said the mechanism is often personal, not technical. “It’s connection-based,” he said. “Sometimes it’s more about who you know than what you know. It’s just about getting the opportunity.”
Faulk said Southern made what he called a “reach” when the school hired him in December after he spent only one year as a running backs coach under Sanders at Colorado. But his argument is that “reach” is sometimes just another word for risk—and risk can be worth it.
To challenge the idea that lack of coaching experience is disqualifying. Faulk pointed to hires across professional sports that are built on leadership and recognition. He cited that former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was hired this year as the team’s “president of football” without any front-office or coaching experience. He also pointed to former NBA player JJ Redick being hired as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2024 despite having no coaching experience.
Faulk added examples from the NFL too: he noted that the Houston Texans considered hiring quarterback Josh McCown as head coach in 2022 despite his lack of any coaching experience.
And he challenged the logic of what gets rewarded. Faulk referenced the Falcons hiring a head coach—Kevin Stefanski—whose 5-12 season with Cleveland ended with him fired, while the Falcons’ prior coach, Raheem Morris, went 8-9 in Atlanta. Morris is Black.
Faulk’s frustration comes through in the sharpness of his comparisons. “I’m just gonna say what it is,” Faulk said. “Matt Ryan can be a GM (president of football in Atlanta, where he oversees the general manager). Why do other players kind of go through and jump through the hoops to be a GM?”
He then took aim at the idea that a former NFL player’s credibility is transferable in some directions but not others. “What’s the quarterback (coach) that’s now in Minnesota?” Faulk said, referencing McCown. “He was in Houston. They were about to give him the (head coaching) job (in Houston)… He barely played. Played a few games in the league. But it happens. You can be JJ Reddick and never have coaching experience and get the Lakers job. But can Marshall Faulk get the Rams job?. Hell no. It is what it is.”.
The numbers show how much first chances are harder to earn. Of 136 schools at the FBS level, only 22 have athletic directors who are Black, while the rest are predominantly White—matching, in the article’s account, a similar lack of Black leadership among head coaches.
In this environment, the record becomes both proof and pressure.
So far, the coaching records of these former NFL stars have been mixed—hits and misses, like any group learning new responsibilities at the top level of the sport.
George finished 4-8 in his first season last year at the FBS level after going 24-22 at Tennessee State. including 9-4 in 2024. Jackson went 8-4 at Delaware State (HBCU) in his first season in 2025. Vick debuted at 1-11 last year at Norfolk State (HBCU). Sanders went 27-6 at Jackson State (HBCU) before going 4-8, 9-4 and 3-9 the past three seasons at Colorado. Faulk’s debut at Southern is set for Sept. 5 against Kentucky State.
What’s striking is the way performance is treated differently from opportunity. Vick, in describing why the new route matters, put the burden on access. Sanders has framed the path as one that demands connections—often in a way that makes it feel like the traditional system was never clearly communicated.
Sanders said last year that he receives calls from former NFL players who want to coach. “Unfortunately. it’s like a system that has been implemented that they didn’t tell nobody. that we had to start here. and start here. and start here until we make it there (while) withholding our accomplishments in our tenure with the NFL.”.
That “traditional career path” often asks former players to climb through low-level college coaching roles and then move through position coach and coordinator steps before being considered for head coaching jobs.
But the article points to a football reality that makes the new approach feel not only plausible, but increasingly workable. With recruiting. branding. fundraising. and team-building now central—especially as college football becomes more professionalized through NIL—head coaches can lean on assistant coaches for details. The argument from the group is that their own experience with leadership. media. and high-pressure performance is valuable even without long coaching resumes.
“We’re gonna lean on all of our experiences,” Vick said. “And we’re going to lean on people with experience to help us.”
In the middle of that debate sits a hard lesson from a different era. Former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Doug Williams. the article recounts. answered a question after interviewing for the head coaching job at Kentucky in December 2002. At the time. Williams was the head coach at HBCU Grambling State and led the team to an 11-2 season in 2002.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart hired a White coach instead: Rich Brooks from Oregon.
Williams later described the reason in a foreword to a book about the challenges faced by Black coaches published in 2012. titled “Crackback!” and authored by former San Jose State head coach Fitz Hill. Williams wrote that Barnhart was “very honest” and used a word that Williams remembered clearly: “comfort.” Williams said the comfort factor was an issue in terms of how he would fit at Kentucky. He later learned Barnhart had worked in Oregon’s athletic department when Brooks was head coach there.
“I can’t blame coach Brooks for using any of those connections to get the Kentucky job,” Williams wrote in the book. “But that’s how it all works.”
George said similar dynamics show up in the decisions he has faced, while rejecting the idea that race alone is the explanation.
“It’s not necessarily a race thing,” George said. “It’s more of a comfort thing: ‘This is who I trust in this position.’ My first (athletic director) was Black (at Tennessee State). The next AD I worked for is South African (Derek van der Merwe at BGSU), but he’s White. And it came down to him really looking beyond the resume and looking at the coach. the person and getting to know me to hire me at Bowling Green State.”.
That “comfort” also shows up in how coaches get second chances after failure. The article notes that there are 17 current White head coaches in the FBS who secured second or third chances after previously being fired as FBS head coaches. including LSU’s Lane Kiffin. who had previously been fired at Southern California and with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.
By contrast, USA TODAY Sports research found only eight Black head coaches in history received second chances at the FBS level after being fired as FBS head coaches.
George framed the consequence as pressure. “African-American coaches aren’t afforded (second chances), so the pressure really is ‘I’ve got to be damn near perfect to get another opportunity, if this one doesn’t go well,’” he said. “It’s a longer runway for some coaches than for others.”
Hill, the former San Jose State coach, pointed to a comparison outside football. He said college basketball has shown that access to head coaching jobs, combined with the success of just a few coaches, can lead to a longer runway and more opportunities for Black head coaches.
“In college basketball. he noted how Black coaches John Thompson (Georgetown). Nolan Richardson (Arkansas) and Tubby Smith (Kentucky) won national titles. ” the article says. Hill said. “It changed the brand of what a national championship person looked like. ” adding. “In football. when you think of national championship coaches. who comes to your mind?. I mean, that’s a normal cognitive process.”.
In Division I men’s basketball, Hill noted, about half the players were Black in 2024-25, and there were 97 Black head coaches accounting for about 27% of all teams, according to NCAA data—numbers far larger than FBS football.
Still, for the coaches trying to push open doors, the work is immediate and personal.
Faulk described his first season as a mix of exhaustion and joy after taking the Southern job. “It’s been entertaining, fun, exciting and a headache all in one,” Faulk said of being the new head coach at Southern. “But I wouldn’t change it.”
Vick said he had a lot to learn last year but is headed into his second season with more understanding. “It’s a passion, man,” Vick said. “I felt it during the season last year … even though we didn’t win games. I really felt it coming back into Year 2, which is why I’m doing it, why I love football.”.
George called coaching “God’s work” because it’s leading young men. “Man, I’m gonna go as far as I can go, however long that is,” George said. “And if it’s the rest of my life, that’s it … Everything I’ve gone through, it’s not for me – It’s for someone else. That’s what coaching is.”
The list of Black head coaches in FBS for 2026 underscores how rare top-level leadership remains—while also showing what’s coming. Bowling Green: Eddie George. Colorado: Deion Sanders. Florida International: Willie Simmons. Georgia State: Dell McGee. Kennesaw State: Jerry Mack. Maryland: Mike Locksley. Memphis: Charles Huff. Middle Tennessee: Derek Mason. Notre Dame: Marcus Freeman. Oregon State: JaMarcus Shephard. Syracuse: Fran Brown. Virginia: Tony Elliott. Virginia Tech: James Franklin.
The article also notes that the FBS will expand by two teams in July 2026 with the addition of North Dakota State and Sacramento State. It says that will add another Black head coach and athletic director to the FBS ranks: Sacramento State’s Alonzo Carter and Mark Orr. Several current Black head coaches in the FBS work at lesser-resourced schools that moved up to the FBS since 2005: Kennesaw State (2024). Georgia State (2013). and FIU (2005).
Some of what follows from this moment will be measured in standings and recruiting classes. But at the center of it all is a simpler question: after decades of Black players proving they belong on Saturdays in the American South, why does the path to coaching power still feel blocked for so many?
college football Black head coaches HBCUs NFL stars coaching Deion Sanders Michael Vick DeSean Jackson Marshall Faulk Eddie George Norfolk State Delaware State Southern University Bowling Green State NCAA statistics SEC FBS