Read the opposing arguments from Bleacher Fan and Loyal Homer.
There are 119 division I-A college football programs. In the aftermath of the 2008 season, just four African-American coaches stalked the sidelines on Saturdays. Imagine what the college football head coaching landscape would look like if Art Rooney, one the NFL’s great owners and champions of equality, were to have influence over how the coaches are hired.
“The Rooney Rule.” We all know what it is. It has its own Wikipedia page. Some laud it, some believe it’s past its prime. Virtually no one pretends it was unnecessary. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that African-Americans are predominant amongst the athletes in college football, yet for some reason rare amongst the coaches. It just doesn’t add up. Great leadership and great teaching are racially agnostic traits.
Sure, the Rooney Rule is a good thing. Only the best next head college football coach, Tyron Nix, has no need of it. For Nix the Rule would serve only as a perceived excuse for why he would get a head coaching job. You see, he is – bar none – the BEST assistant coach in college football right now.
Tyrone Nix’s playing career ended with a captaincy of the Southern Miss defense as a senior. He graduated, but did not pursue a future in the NFL. He did not, ultimately, believe it was his calling. Instead, just two short years after graduating, he was named an assistant defensive coach at his alma mater. He served in that role for five years before assuming the role of defensive coordinator for three. He then left the college he knew best and became the defensive coordinator for Steve Spurrier at South Carolina from 2005 to 2007… where he was promptly hired away to Ole Miss for the same role. Sure, Nix is only 37 years old… a young age for a top assistant and potential head coach. But, like race, character and ability are not reserved solely for the aged.
There are certain metrics our sports society uses to gauge a coach’s success. Usually those metrics are specific to money and ambition. Therefore I am obligated to share that Nix’s current contract is for three years, $500,000 per year. That is a hefty sum for a coach who is earning the money. And it should be a hefty sum, considering Florida was hot in pursuit of Nix as a candidate for the head coaching position when Urban Meyer’s health was a major concern. There are few higher compliments for a young coach than a phone call for a marquee program for a possible opening at head coach.
Last season Ole Miss was fourth in team defense in the SEC, the conference universally acclaimed as home to the country’s most concentrated collection of talented collegiate defenders. One good season does not a coach make, however. In 2008 Nix’s defense also ranked fourth… ahead of Auburn, Georgia, LSU and the school he left to coach at Ole Miss – South Carolina.
Nix has proven over the course of his impressive, though still young career that he has the ability to get the most out of his players. He also has the ability to rank a defense with supposedly inferior recruits among the best in the toughest league. If Nix can coach up players at Southern Miss, South Carolina, and Ole Miss to this level of effectiveness, imagine what he could do with a few top five recruiting classes under his belt?
It likely won’t be long before we find out. It seems there is always an opening for a head coach at a major college program each off-season. When the next opening hits the Bottom Line on ESPN, you can bet Nix’s name is in the running. And he won’t need the Rooney Rule to make the phone ring.
