Race Was a Factor | It Was About Results
BV Sports Town Hall: Your Responses
Ray Holloman
AOL BlackVoices
When Ty Willingham was fired by Notre Dame following three seasons and a 21-15 record, the role race played in his dismissal was an issue even Barry Sanders couldn’t have shaken loose.In a sport whose athletes are more than 50% black, suddenly there were only two black head coaches, a number that looked so starkly amiss that it hit home with all the force of a Derrick Brooks de-cleater. In the days following Willingham’s firing, there was plenty said about wins and losses, graduation rates -- and Urban Meyer.
And in every discussion race hung over Ty Willingham and the football community like a deep Chicago fog.
We heard what Ivan Maisel thought. We heard what Lee Corso thought. But we wanted to hear what you thought. So we asked you, the voices of BlackVoices, what part did race play in Willingham’s firing? What part does race play in the hiring process of college football coaches? Where do we go from here?
In our poll, some 60% of you said race absolutely played a factor in Willingham’s dismissal. Our e-mail submissions split pretty much the same.
Some thought race had nothing to do with Willingham’s firing. “Schools are starting to hire coaches based on their ability to coach winning teams instead of their color,” Bobbi fem writes. But if that’s the case, then why are there only three black head coaches for 117 jobs in college football, while in the room full of NFL hot seats, a group that changes occupants as frequently as an elevator, there are twice that many occupied by black coaches, out of just 32 spots. And why was Willingham’s predecessor, Bob Davie, who compiled a very similar 21-16 record in his first three seasons, retained for duration of his contract to finish 35-25.
Some said race mattered. “Why are you surprised about this?” Clebenezer asks. “We are in a hard-liner mood in the nation. Buckle up, because there is more to come
But maybe Notre Dame learned its lesson from its stagnation under Davie and maybe the color that mattered -- the all-powerful green -- meant more than the Green and Gold or black and white. Maybe the Irish saw the opportunity to hire Urban Meyer, whose Q rating rocketed during Utah’s BCS busting season and acted without regard to race, if with little reverence for its importance.
If you’ve got something to say, take it to the Sports Hype board and keep the conversation going. If you want to reach the editors here, drop us an e-mail at BVSportsTownHall@aol.com. Let us know what you want to talk about in your next town hall or you’d like us to cover. More HBCUs? More NBA? You let us know, we’ll make it happen.
Click a viewpoint below to see what some of you said.