as notre dame cathedral Football players threw oranges and waved to the crowd after a thrilling 27-24 victory over Penn State. Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman was asked by ESPN's Molly McGrath. The game between Notre Dame and Penn State was the first of the College Football Playoff semifinals and pitted two black head coaches against each other. Freeman's victory made him the first black and first Asian to reach the national championship game. He became the head coach who participated. FBS level. Freeman said this after the game:
“It's an honor and I hope all the coaches, minorities, black, Asian, white, it doesn't matter, that great people continue to have the opportunity to lead young people like this.”
Marcus Freeman talks about becoming the first Black and Asian American head coach to win an FBS National Championship pic.twitter.com/KHMksJUNdK
— ESPN (@espn) January 10, 2025
Some might say this shouldn't mean much, that Freeman's race doesn't matter in a so-called “meritocracy.” I'm here to tell you that those people are lying to your face. There's more to Marcus Freeman making history than that. than a hack like Brett Favre can tell you..
Many people refer to coaching as a “meritocracy,” where those who do the best job are selected. But the fact that 155 years into college football, black head coaches and Asian head coaches are now getting that opportunity undermines the very idea of meritocracy. The pool of players is far more diverse than the people colleges hire as coaches, which is a problem in itself. According to SI's Pat FordThere are only 16 Black head coaches out of 134 FBS football teams, but only seven in power conferences. If we want to expand to include all people of color, there are only 20 people of color in head coaching positions at the highest level in sports. Compare this to the fact that nearly 50% of the player pool is Black, and you get a group of people who hardly resemble the players they coach. It is a reflection of the people making the decisions.
Think about it. There are 36 programs in college football history that have never had a Black coach. Programs like Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee ohio And Nebraska has never had a black full-time head coach in the program's history. We can argue over pipelines and access to minority football coaches, but the fact of the matter is that while these pipelines exist, those in power and the people making decisions are not actually It's just that you're too lazy to try to find these pipelines. The National Minority Football Coaches Coalition was founded during the pandemic and has several hundred members at all levels of the sport. It's no longer about building pipelines, it's about getting those in power to actually go and do the work of finding these pipelines.
Marcus Freeman making this history means a lot to all those who have been shut out of head coaching jobs due to racist stereotypes of not being smart enough to hold positions of power. . Offensive coordinators and QB coaches have an advantage in the coaching pipeline, and there is a stereotype that blacks are not smart enough to play QB (based on a concept called “Racial accumulation” ). This will impact his ability to fill positions like QB coach and offensive coordinator, which are popular pipelines for head coaches.
This is for coaches like Eugene Chan, coaches like Norm Chow and Sylvester Croom. Tyrone Willingham was the first black head coach at the school Freeman currently coaches, and Freeman's making this history not only reflects the hard work put in by his predecessors, but it also reflects the efforts of our It also shows how much progress we have to make.
