The injustice continues with the lack of minority head coaches hired in college football

By L.A. Batchelor
sports.yourblackworld.com

On Saturday, December 30Th, The UCLA Bruins hired former alumnus and Rick Neuheisel to replace another alumnus, Karl Dorrell who was fired Dec. 3 after five seasons on the job.The irony of the hiring is Dorrell caught two of Neuheisel's scoring passes in UCLA's 45-9 victory over Illinois in the 1984 Rose Bowl. Neuheisel was the starting quarterback and Rose Bowl MVP. The connection ends there but the hypocrisy continues..............in the world of college football.

How can The Bruins really justify this hire? How could the MAFIA a.k.a. NCAA continue to turn their head to Universities who continually ignore talented and able minority coaches for head coaching positions and hire white coaches with either no experience, no real success or a disgraceful, dishonest, dishonorable or dubious coaching past. In my view, Mr. Neuheisel fits into the latter.

Neuheisel was fired in the summer of 2003 from the University of Washington for participating in a neighborhood pool for the NCAA Basketball Tournament . He first denied the accusation to investigators before admitting to it after consultation with school officials.

How could a University trust a man who clearly violates NCAA rules and then misleads investigators to further hide the truth? Can you actually tell me there are no minority coaches available right now who would have been better candidates for the UCLA Head coaching position. Dennis Green coach at Stanford, Ron Rivera played in the AC-10, Doug Williams did a solid job at Grambling and what about Norm Chow, one of the great minds behind the success of The Bruins biggest rivalry............The Trojans of USC.

The justification of hiring Neuheisel couldn't possibly be based on the fact he's been an assistant coach in The NFL because all the qualified candidates I mentioned have similar experience including Dorrell who spent time in Denver with The Broncos. Dennis Green's resume is even more attractive because he's been a head coach in The NFL.

The real truth and reality is alumni and boosters who finance most Universities along with Athletic Directors and other school officials still believe minorities in particular African Americans lack the knowledge, intelligence and leadership ability to be a HEAD COACH especially at the Division I level. It's ok to hire them(minorities) as a head coach at a Division II or HBCU school but not on what is deemed as a "big time" program.

The other actuality is like in everyday America, some whites feel more comfortable working and interacting with those who look like them. It's almost like today's political scene. Some whites will vote for Hillary, McCain or Huckabee because they are "one of us"......white(woman, southern,conservative, etc), some blacks will vote for Barack Obama because he's "one of us(black) and some Hispanics or Latinos will even vote for Governor Bill Richardson because he's "one of us"(Latino/Hispanic).
We choose comfortability rather than morality in some cases in life daily and the lack of minority head football coaches in Division I college football is no exception.

What I find equally as unfair and disturbing is when given the opportunity to hire a white male for a head coaching job in the lower division levels in college athletics or at HBCU'S, the percentage is much more fair and balanced.
In the end, UCLA will want you to believe the hiring of Rick Neuheisel was based on some measure of success as a college coach and because he is an alumnus of the school. All legitimate reasons under normal circumstances in fair situations. This is obviously not one of those.