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 tell them it’s Eddie George.”
The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner is in Rahmaan’s contacts record 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 faculties and labored with prime recruits on the Beneath Armour All-America Sport earlier than taking on 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 yr as the top coach of the XFL’s Orlando Guardians.
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In a occupation 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 celeb in faculty soccer’s new period? Colleges treating a marquee place as an entry-level job? Or merely Soccer Championship Subdivision applications with fewer sources and little to lose considering exterior the field?
“Everybody’s gotta start somewhere,” mentioned Mid-Jap Athletic Convention commissioner Sonja O. Stills, whose convention consists of Vick’s Spartans and Jackson’s Hornets. “So why not start at an HBCU?”
The identification of HBCUs — traditionally Black schools and universities — is central to understanding the strikes. HBCUs like Tennessee State, Norfolk State and Delaware State have been based to offer greater training 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 provide opportunity,” Brown mentioned.
The hires supplied a special alternative when different head teaching doorways have been closed. Sanders tried and didn’t 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 finest run in additional than 4 a long time.
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 referred to 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 gained their first convention championship in 25 years. The business observed.
“With the success Prime and Eddie George and guys like that have had, I think ADs now are starting to really open up to the idea of how prominent NFL players are serious about coaching,” 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 gained’t essentially present up on the sphere as a result of each have been round elite gamers and coaches and stayed across the sport in retirement. The larger potential bumps envisioned by Simmons — who has been in contact with each rookie coaches — are administrative: constructing staffs with restricted sources, 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 lessons 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 go away Bowling Inexperienced. The Columbus, Ohio, native figures he stuttered and stammered by way of the primary 5 minutes of his preliminary telephone dialog with the Ohio State legend. Rahmaan agreed to change from defensive finish to tight finish and led George’s first Tennessee State group in receiving.
“It’s like you’re reconnecting 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 talking. Eddie George, he’s calling me by my nickname.”
Eddie George is 24-22 in 4 years at Tennessee State. (Michael Reaves / Getty Photos)
The native influence is important. George is within the Tennessee Titans’ ring of honor after starring on the facility (now referred to as Nissan Stadium) the place his Tigers play. Vick grew up 30 miles north of Norfolk and took Virginia Tech to the nationwide title sport. 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 evaluate the total 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 working 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 up to date.
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 aspect 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!🔰🦅 #Dedicated #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 the complete college, as Delaware State president Tony Allen acknowledged instantly throughout Jackson’s introductory information convention. Allen mentioned his three objectives have been to rent a pacesetter of younger males, a coach with tactical prowess and somebody who may “continue to raise the profile” of a fast-growing HBCU.
The results are actual:
• Sanders’ Jackson State groups appeared on ESPN, ESPN2 and the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated. Google searches for the group throughout his first fall have been greater than seven occasions what they have been earlier than his rent. Even after his departure, they’re nonetheless greater than they have been earlier than his arrival.
• Tennessee State’s soccer income and bills have doubled since George’s hiring. Each figures totaled virtually $7.1 million within the 2022-23 fiscal yr, in line with information submitted to the U.S. Division of Schooling. The Tigers’ soccer funds 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) have been its NCAA Event 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 obtained a direct, preliminary inflow from potential sponsors who wished to “ride the wave right now.”
“Because HBCUs have always been underfunded, overlooked, they give us an opportunity to get more national exposure,” Stills mentioned. “It gives us an opportunity to show a look into the institution — how we graduate more Black doctors, lawyers, engineers.”
And, if Vick and Jackson are profitable, maybe a brand new option to graduate Black coaches to the best stage.
Minorities stay underrepresented as FBS head coaches, and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman simply grew to become the primary Black head coach to steer his group to the nationwide title sport. Stills mentioned she will be able to envision HBCUs changing into feeders to the FBS as former execs be taught the ropes within the FCS.
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The cynical learn within the occupation is that the publicity and monetary influence of hiring inexperienced NFL stars trumped on-field chance — the concept that, as one teaching agent put it, “Mike Vick’s gonna put butts in seats” issues greater than profitable video games.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” mentioned the agent, who spoke on situation of anonymity to guard his relationships within the business.
The normal path has been to grind your manner up from grad assistant to place coach to coordinator to go coach. The MEAC’s different 4 head coaches have been all employed with at the least 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 have been entry-level gigs.
“It’s like they’re learning on the job at a major D-I institution where so many of these guys are fighting for years to become the head coach, and now they’re just thrown into it because they have the NFL label next to them,” the agent mentioned.
Then once more, the occupation has by no means been a real meritocracy. Coaches fill out their employees by hiring buddies or brokers’ connections. A well-known title can assist a coach’s son or nephew land a primary job. Is a well-known title from NFL stardom any totally different?
The worst-case situation for Vick and Jackson is what occurred within the 2022-23 cycle at one other HBCU, Bethune-Cookman. The college 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 sources. 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 interested by how George would fare in her league. Since then, she has seen a professionally run group — “a program that has had its house in order,” she mentioned — with no disciplinary points or different issues.
And after beginning with two dropping seasons, George improved to 6-5 in 12 months 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 in the pudding,” DeBauche mentioned. “We’ve seen the success, and others have seen this success in being able to build a program.”
There’s a threat, after all, 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 prior to now 4 a long time (2011) was vacated for NCAA violations. Mason was this system’s sports activities info director when the varsity 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 document).
The challenges could also be even better for Jackson at Delaware State. The Hornets have misplaced 23 of their previous 25 video games. They haven’t had a profitable convention document since 2013 and have gained 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 is no risk/reward for me,” Mason mentioned.
If the potential threat is extra dropping, 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 assume their new gamers are set to profit, too.
“I love to see all that happening,” Rahmaan mentioned. “I love to even think about the opportunities those kids are going to have.”
— The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report.
(Prime images of DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick: Eric Hartline / Imagn Photos and Sean Gardner / Getty Photos)
