Rodell Rahmaan has seen sufficient man-on-the-street interviews on social media to know he desires to do one. He’d love for a stranger with a digital camera to ask him probably the most well-known individual on his telephone.
“I can’t wait,” Rahmaan mentioned, “to inform them it’s Eddie George.”
The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner is in Rahmaan’s contacts listing due to George’s second soccer life as the top coach at Tennessee State. Gamers at Norfolk State and Delaware State can relate after their applications employed Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson, respectively, this winter.
The trio entered these jobs with a mixed 11 Professional Bowl appearances … and one season of teaching: Jackson’s eight-month stint as a highschool assistant.
George, Vick and Jackson aren’t the one high-profile NFL alumni strolling faculty sidelines. Corridor of Fame participant Deion Sanders electrified Jackson State, then Colorado. Tremendous Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer is attempting to show round his tenure at UAB. One other Tremendous Bowl champion, Terrell Buckley, is a couple of weeks into his new job main Mississippi Valley State.
However the depth of their expertise differs. Sanders coached in Texas excessive colleges and labored with prime recruits on the Underneath Armour All-America Sport earlier than taking up his first faculty program. Dilfer spent 4 years as head coach at a Tennessee highschool and tutored prime quarterback prospects within the Elite 11 camp sequence. Buckley’s resume features a decade as a place coach at applications like Ole Miss and Louisville plus a 12 months as the top coach of the XFL’s Orlando Guardians.
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In a career the place coaches grind for years to climb the ladder, George skipped a couple of rungs when Tennessee State employed him in April 2021. Jackson and Vick did the identical. Is the pattern a mirrored image of the rising significance of cash and movie star in faculty soccer’s new period? Colleges treating a marquee place as an entry-level job? Or merely Soccer Championship Subdivision applications with fewer assets and little to lose considering outdoors the field?
“Everyone’s gotta begin someplace,” mentioned Mid-Jap Athletic Convention commissioner Sonja O. Stills, whose convention contains Vick’s Spartans and Jackson’s Hornets. “So why not begin at an HBCU?”
The id of HBCUs — traditionally Black faculties and universities — is central to understanding the strikes. HBCUs like Tennessee State, Norfolk State and Delaware State had been based to supply larger schooling to Black college students when no different choices existed. It’s a mission Norfolk State rector Kim W. Brown highlighted whereas introducing Vick in December.
“We offer alternative,” Brown mentioned.
The hires supplied a distinct alternative when different head teaching doorways had been closed. Sanders tried and did not land jobs at Florida State, Arkansas and TCU earlier than an HBCU, Jackson State, gave him an opportunity in 2020. His Tigers went 27-6 — this system’s greatest run in additional than 4 many years.
Although Sanders’ earlier expertise and one-of-one persona make him an unfair comparability to anybody else, he was a place to begin within the pattern. “The blueprint,” Buckley known as him on social media.
Thanks brother! Pleased with you too. Thanks for the assist. You’re the blueprint 🦾🔥 https://t.co/i37mcZu2J6
— Terrell Buckley (@27TBuck) January 31, 2025
Seven months after Sanders’ hiring, George inherited a Tennessee State program that went 5-14 in its two earlier seasons. This fall, his Tigers completed nineteenth within the FCS coaches ballot and received their first convention championship in 25 years. The business seen.
“With the success Prime and Eddie George and guys like which have had, I believe ADs now are beginning to actually confide in the concept of how outstanding NFL gamers are critical about teaching,” mentioned Willie Simmons, who spent eight seasons as an HBCU head coach earlier than incomes the Florida Worldwide job on the FBS stage this cycle.
Simmons mentioned the dearth of teaching expertise for Vick and Jackson received’t essentially present up on the sector as a result of each have been round elite gamers and coaches and stayed across the recreation in retirement. The larger potential bumps envisioned by Simmons — who has been in contact with each rookie coaches — are administrative: constructing staffs with restricted assets, mastering the NCAA rulebook and bylaws, determining fundraising and recruiting.
The trade-off is a local weather the place big-name coaches can thrive because the switch portal and title, picture and likeness funds disperse expertise throughout a wider array of faculties. At Jackson State, Sanders signed higher recruiting courses than a couple of power-conference FBS applications and poached the nation’s prime recruit, eventual Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, from Florida State.
George’s title resonated instantly as Rahmaan sat within the switch portal after deciding to depart Bowling Inexperienced. The Columbus, Ohio, native figures he stuttered and stammered by means of the primary 5 minutes of his preliminary telephone dialog with the Ohio State legend. Rahmaan agreed to modify from defensive finish to tight finish and led George’s first Tennessee State workforce in receiving.
“It’s such as you’re reconnecting along with your childhood self,” Rahmaan mentioned. “I felt like a baby sitting within the first row within the assembly. When he’s speaking, I’m sitting there smiling.
“It’s Eddie George speaking. Eddie George, he’s calling me by my nickname.”
Eddie George is 24-22 in 4 years at Tennessee State. (Michael Reaves / Getty Pictures)
The native impression is important. George is within the Tennessee Titans’ ring of honor after starring on the facility (now known as Nissan Stadium) the place his Tigers play. Vick grew up 30 miles north of Norfolk and took Virginia Tech to the nationwide title recreation. Jackson performed for 3 NFL groups (Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore) inside 100 miles of Delaware State; an “E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES” chant even broke out throughout his introductory information convention.
Although it’s too quickly to guage the complete roster overhauls at Norfolk State and Delaware State, each have seen early bumps. Jackson has added his program’s prime two highschool signees of the trendy recruiting period in three-star receiver Jadyn Robinson and three-star operating again Deuce Weston, each of whom had Energy 4 curiosity. He additionally landed Michigan State switch Antonio Gates Jr., a former four-star prospect and the son of Jackson’s NFL modern.
Vick’s preliminary portal pickups included a former top-300 nationwide recruit and Clemson signee (David Ojiegbe), one of many SWAC’s prime linebackers (Jaden Kelly) and a promising three-star quarterback (South Florida’s Israel Carter).
It’s exhausting to disregard Vick’s standing in Carter’s announcement. His social media graphic featured Vick within the background, because the Norfolk State coach on one facet and the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback on the opposite. Carter was within the middle in a Spartans jersey. He, like Vick, wore No. 7.
Couldn’t Thank God sufficient for opening this door for me. All Glory To The King Most Excessive!🔰🦅 #Committed #7Era #AllGod @MichaelVick @NorfolkStateFB pic.twitter.com/2DtmnYMIYF
— Israel Carter (@Isr8ael) January 17, 2025
If star energy can result in publicity in recruiting, the applications are additionally relying on it boosting publicity for your complete college, as Delaware State president Tony Allen acknowledged straight throughout Jackson’s introductory information convention. Allen mentioned his three objectives had been to rent a pacesetter of younger males, a coach with tactical prowess and somebody who may “proceed to boost the profile” of a fast-growing HBCU.
The results are actual:
• Sanders’ Jackson State groups appeared on ESPN, ESPN2 and the quilt of Sports activities Illustrated. Google searches for the workforce throughout his first fall had been greater than seven occasions what they had been earlier than his rent. Even after his departure, they’re nonetheless larger than they had been earlier than his arrival.
• Tennessee State’s soccer income and bills have doubled since George’s hiring. Each figures totaled nearly $7.1 million within the 2022-23 fiscal 12 months, in line with knowledge submitted to the U.S. Division of Schooling. The Tigers’ soccer price range soared from common within the Ohio Valley Convention in 2018 to first, by far, in 2022.
• Over the previous 20 years, the one occasions “Norfolk State” was googled greater than December (the month of Vick’s hiring) had been its NCAA Match runs in 2012 (an upset of second-seeded Missouri) and 2021 (a one-point First 4 win over Appalachian State).
On the MEAC, Stills mentioned she acquired an instantaneous, preliminary inflow from potential sponsors who needed to “experience the wave proper now.”
“As a result of HBCUs have at all times been underfunded, ignored, they provide us a possibility to get extra nationwide publicity,” Stills mentioned. “It provides us a possibility to indicate a glance into the establishment — how we graduate extra Black medical doctors, attorneys, engineers.”
And, if Vick and Jackson are profitable, maybe a brand new strategy to graduate Black coaches to the very best stage.
Minorities stay underrepresented as FBS head coaches, and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman simply turned the primary Black head coach to guide his workforce to the nationwide title recreation. Stills mentioned she will be able to envision HBCUs turning into feeders to the FBS as former professionals be taught the ropes within the FCS.
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The cynical learn within the career is that the publicity and monetary impression of hiring inexperienced NFL stars trumped on-field chance — the concept, as one teaching agent put it, “Mike Vick’s gonna put butts in seats” issues greater than profitable video games.
“It’s extremely irritating,” mentioned the agent, who spoke on situation of anonymity to guard his relationships within the business.
The standard path has been to grind your method up from grad assistant to place coach to coordinator to go coach. The MEAC’s different 4 head coaches had been all employed with no less than 15 years on faculty staffs. Two had faculty head teaching expertise, and a 3rd (Howard’s Larry Scott) had an interim stint main Miami. Vick and Jackson fast-forwarded forward as if probably the most seen positions on campus had been entry-level gigs.
“It’s like they’re studying on the job at a serious D-I establishment the place so many of those guys are preventing for years to change into the top coach, and now they’re simply thrown into it as a result of they’ve the NFL label subsequent to them,” the agent mentioned.
Then once more, the career has by no means been a real meritocracy. Coaches fill out their workers by hiring buddies or brokers’ connections. A well-known title may help a coach’s son or nephew land a primary job. Is a well-known title from NFL stardom any completely different?
The worst-case state of affairs for Vick and Jackson is what occurred within the 2022-23 cycle at one other HBCU, Bethune-Cookman. The varsity was set to rent Baltimore Ravens legend Ed Reed — who spent three seasons as a Miami assist staffer — earlier than he went on a profane social media rant about this system’s assets. The deal collapsed, and the Wildcats employed alumnus Raymond Woodie Jr. His quarter-century of teaching expertise included greater than a decade as an FBS assistant.
A extra optimistic chance is George’s Tennessee State tenure. Ohio Valley commissioner Beth DeBauche mentioned she was initially inquisitive about how George would fare in her league. Since then, she has seen a professionally run workforce — “a program that has had its home so as,” she mentioned — with no disciplinary points or different issues.
And after beginning with two shedding seasons, George improved to 6-5 in Yr 3 and went 9-4 with an FCS playoff look final fall. That was ok to earn him an interview with the Chicago Bears final month.
“There’s proof within the pudding,” DeBauche mentioned. “We’ve seen the success, and others have seen this success in having the ability to construct a program.”
There’s a threat, in fact, similar to any teaching transfer. However the threat is relative, as former Norfolk State administrator Glen Mason is aware of.
Mason is a longtime resident of Virginia’s Tidewater space and graduated from Norfolk State in 1983. He watched his alma mater’s previous two coaches go a mixed 36-65. The Spartans’ lone convention championship up to now 4 many years (2011) was vacated for NCAA violations. Mason was this system’s sports activities data director when the college stuffed its 30,000-seat on-campus stadium in its 1997 debut; the venue has had just one crowd bigger than 28,000 since then (although Norfolk State did rank eleventh within the FCS in common attendance in 2024 at 14,544 regardless of its 4-8 file).
The challenges could also be even larger for Jackson at Delaware State. The Hornets have misplaced 23 of their previous 25 video games. They haven’t had a profitable convention file since 2013 and have received the MEAC championship solely as soon as since 1990. Their common attendance final season (3,333) ranked final within the convention and No. 102 out of 130 FCS groups.
With that as the ground, what does anybody need to lose?
“There isn’t any threat/reward for me,” Mason mentioned.
If the potential threat is extra shedding, then the potential reward is what Rahmaan skilled firsthand at Tennessee State. He credit the additional consideration George introduced for getting him a spot at a Seattle Seahawks camp and stints within the UFL/USFL. He nonetheless beams when George texts him on his birthday.
Rahmaan doesn’t know Vick or Jackson personally, however he is aware of sufficient to suppose their new gamers are set to profit, too.
“I like to see all that taking place,” Rahmaan mentioned. “I like to even take into consideration the alternatives these children are going to have.”
— The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report.
(Prime photographs of DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick: Eric Hartline / Imagn Pictures and Sean Gardner / Getty Pictures)
