As an African American, this statement is embarassing:
“It’s interesting to me that Alcorn felt they couldn’t find an African-American to lead their program.”
Why should they look specifically for black coaches? Are they not supposed to hire the most qualified candidate regardless of race? I'm pretty sure there would be a backlash if a predominantly white school hired a black coach and someone said something like that.
It sounds like Alcorn State limited their pool of candidates to those who applied for the job rather than conduct a broader search of qualified candidates.
He pointed out that of the thousands who coach football at the college and professional level, he received 51 applications for the position. “There was a pool of candidates,” he said. “I had to look at who was in my pool. Do I start calling every head coach in America to say, ‘Why didn’t you apply for this job?’ I don’t think so.”
That, in itself, was part of the problem.
Well, that's how you end up with Jay Hopson as your head coach, for one.
Yeah, if you've received 51 resumes, and Jay Hopson's is the best one, it's safe to say that you ought to start calling every head coach in America.
But if you throw out all the coaches who wouldn't want to live in rural Mississippi, and all the ones who wouldn't work for $150,000 per year, that list would get mighty short.
It reminds me of when I interviewed for a position (not coaching) at Georgia Southern. After the hello and shaking of hands, the first thing out of the interviewer's mouth were these words, "There are only thing things wrong with this job: Georgia... Southern... and College." He went on the rest of the interview talking about how I wouldn't like it there.
I've got some fairly strong family connections to GSU. An interviewer like that needs to be addressed. Care to reveal the name?
No. I don't remember the name at all. And given how long ago it was, I seriously doubt the guy is still working there. There did seem to be a chip on his shoulder. The interviews were at a conference in NYC, and he talked about how he and colleagues had to car pool and share a hotel room while I probably flew in from Chicago (I was a Ph.D. candidate from Purdue), which was true...I did fly in. I got the sense they had previously hired someone from north of the Mason-Dixon line who wasn't a good fit and didn't stay around very long.
I didn't get an offer, go figure. But, you're right, he wasn't the best ambassador for the school, and I've repeated the story dozens of times to a lot of different people. That interview (or at least that part of it) still sticks in my mind decades later.
As someone who works in collegiate athletics, the SWAC operates on an entirely different level than most. And that's not a good thing. I do have to say that the Alabama State athletic dept. seems like a really nice operation.
It is so hard to describe. Mostly, it is all these occurances that add up over time. I'm just not surprised anymore. I can definitely see why people wouldn't want to take this job.
He's been race baiting for decades. If anything, I see it as a slap in the face of all other colleges, because it shows that they're more willing to hire the best candidate regardless of race than most programs are. If a Black College can hire a white coach, what excuse does another school have to not hire the best guy available regardless of race?
Now whether Hopson is the best anything, that's another story. But even so, he may have been the best interested. These are not good jobs anymore. Haven't been since southern schools started taking in black athletes. They hung on with some notoriety for awhile when they had some long standing legendary coaches, but no young up and comer wants to work there. When was the last time a coach from one of those schools moved up to a bigger, and better job? You need a guy who's not going anywhere. Hopson seems like he grew up in the shadow, and may show some passion. He'd better hire great assistants, but often there's a lot more going into being a good college fit than X's and O's, and guys who are bad at that sometimes make good head coaches.
In any case, I doubt they list of great candidates. And spending money on a headhunter sounds like a waste of money. Because if I'm a young, black, successful coordinator, I'm not waiting for an offer from Alcorn State. Maybe a MAC school, or a great program's coordinator position. The only guys they're going to get are underqualified ones, who have some ties to the school. Once in a generation a former player may end up becoming a great coach, and his love for the program overrides his ambition. But I wouldn't be waiting for that.
without getting too political, I always find things like this frustrating. I want to start by saying I am by no means a racist. I have many friends from other ethnic backgrounds and don't think that a persons race, whatever it is, makes them better or worse than anyone else.
I also understand that in the worlds history many different people have been discriminated against in horrible ways and probably should be (or should have been) compensated in one form or another.
What I find today however, is that things have seemed to swing too far the other way in many instances. I can't speak about how things are in the USA, but in Canada it is almost to the point english speaking white men are becoming the group being discriminated against. I know that sounds absurd, and I am not talking about every situation, but in many instances this is the case.
A quick for instance is when a friend of mine was trying to get into med school. He had a 3.9 GPA and didn't get in until his fourth attempt. I was amazed by this and having the good fortune of knowing the Dean of the medical school (who is my uncle and awesomely enough a UM alum) I asked how that could happen.
He explained to me that they have a qouta system and they have to fill so many seast with african canadians, native canadians, french canadians, international students, women etc. Only 10% of the seats were held for white canadian males.
What that means in plain terms was my friend (who was the 17th best candidate during his first year) wasn't excepted because the the 10% was already filled (they could only take the top 13 white males). So even though they accepted 127 more applicants that year (123 of which were considered to be inferior to him in virtually every aspect of the selection process) he was not one of them.
In my opinion it is policies like this that leads to racisim. If certain races (genders etc) are given preference over others it leads to contempt amonst those who are being overlooked. So in my governments attempt to make up for past misdeeds, they are essentially breeding racism amongst the people.
Now my uncle is no longer the dean of medicine and it has been a while since I attened med school so I am not entirely certain this practice still exists, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it did. I just wish we could get to a point where the best person for the job could have it regardles of what age, gender, race etc they are.
Anyway, that is just something that bothers me a bit while at the same time giving me a very small idea of what it must have been like for those other groups who have been discriminated against in a far greater (worse) way.
I'm afraid that was too political. I was going to comment, but that would lead to more politics. I think it would be better if it were just removed.
edit - meant in response to BlueinYarmouth
I apologize if it was too political. When I started the post I didn't intend for it to go so far. I just didn't feel right about saying things like that bothered me without adding some context as to why they did. Sorry if it offended anyone.
Does anyone know the back-story for this?
In week one they gave up 49 points and 569 yards to Mississippi St.; in week two they gave up 4 tds in the 1st quarter to East Carolina on their way to a 49-27 loss.
There may be a back story on top of that, but it wasn't a good start.