In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.

Racist Aggies!

WranglerWrangler Member Posts: 5,788
edited November 2007 in General Discussion
Shame on them for hiring the coach of their choice. I'm sure ole Al and Jesse will show up to protest.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/5334286.html

COLLEGE STATION - Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne might have received a passing grade in Aggieland for tabbing Mike Sherman as the head football coach in just 72 hours.

But Byrne is flirting with an "F" from the Black Coaches Association.

BCA executive director Floyd Keith criticized Byrne's hiring process. Byrne admitted he interviewed only Sherman, who is white, for the A&M vacancy once Dennis Franchione stepped down Friday.

Sherman was offered the job Sunday night and was presented as the coach Monday.

"We just don't feel that three days or a weekend provides for an inclusive opportunity for a diverse slate of candidates," said Keith, whose organization issues an annual report card that evaluates the hiring process of university athletic departments. "It's not about who's hired, it's about the process.

"I thought we had kind of gone past that, at least where people would be willing to take a little time to interview a diverse slate. This was obviously somebody pinpointed, they made the decision and the deal was made and it moves on."

Byrne did not respond to interview requests Tuesday. Associate athletic director for media relations Alan Cannon issued a statement to the media.

"It is my understanding that several African-American coaching candidates were on Bill's list of prospective coaches," Cannon wrote. "When Bill evaluated the qualifications for the next football coach at Texas A&M, the best fit was Mike Sherman. When Coach Sherman accepted Bill's offer, the search ended.

"It has been Bill's policy throughout his career as a Director of Athletics, to not publicize prospective coaching candidates out of respect for the men in their current positions."


Targeting Sherman
Byrne left College Station last Friday night with the promise he would conduct a nationwide search to find a head coach. He drove less than 100 miles to land Sherman, who is in his second year as Texans offensive coordinator and was head coach of the Green Bay Packers for six years.

Byrne said Monday he maintains a working knowledge of qualified coaching candidates in the NFL and in the college ranks he thinks would work at A&M.

"I'm familiar with people across the country both in the NFL and in collegiate athletics whose opinions I respect in talking about great coaches and how they would fit at Texas A&M," said Byrne, who hired men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon in four days after Billy Gillispie left for Kentucky last spring. "When there is an occasion where there may be the possibility of making a change, I already have a very good idea of who our choices would be. I make a national search every single day of what we're doing, and we did it that way again."

That approach without taking the time to get to know coaches is what bothers Keith. He says an interview process is necessary in order to get to know candidates.

In 2003 the NFL implemented the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate before making a hire.

There are six black head football coaches out of 32 teams in the NFL, and two of those coaches (Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and Lovie Smith of Chicago) met in last season's Super Bowl.

By contrast, there are just six black coaches at 119 Division I-A football programs. The Athletic Directors' Association has discussed the possibility of implementing guidelines similar to the Rooney Rule to possibly improve minority hiring, but there has been little movement in that direction.

This year, only University of Buffalo coach Turner Gill has been interviewed for an opening at a big-name school. Gill has been interviewed for the vacancy at Nebraska, his alma mater.

"We're just asking people to be inclusive and take a process that provides for an opportunity," Keith said. "(First-year Pittsburgh Steelers coach) Mike Tomlin would never had been hired if he had not had an interview, because he certainly wasn't a leading candidate for the Steelers when that job came about.

"But he got the job because of the interview.

"Everybody may have somebody in mind, but it may go through a process in order to arrive at that."


Quick hires happen
Byrne is not alone in his quick hiring practices. Ole Miss hired Houston Nutt just a couple of days after firing Ed Orgeron and only one day after Nutt resigned from Arkansas.

"Just do a search, a normal search," Keith said. "Two weeks is adequate, and I don't think that would change anything.

"It's just a way of not having to deal with the interview."

Comments

Sign In or Register to comment.