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SIAC PROFILE:
At Miles, turnaround's the thing for Joe
ROSCOE NANCE
BCSP Contributing Writer
If you want an odd marriage, try Billy Joe coaching football at Miles College. Or upon further examination, perhaps it's not as odd as it appears.
Joe has won more games than any Black College coach
except Eddie Robinson and is a member of the National Football
Foundation College Hall of Fame with a 237-108-4 (.685) career record..
Miles, on the other hand, is synonymous with losing and is a study in futility. The Bears had just two winning seasons 7-4 in 2003 and 2004 in seven years under Joe's predecessor, Wade Streeter. Their last and only SIAC championship was in 1977 when the conference had Division II and Division III titles, and they competed in the lower division.
The obvious question is why Joe, who has won seven Black College National Championships and two NAIA titles during stints at Cheyney, Central State and Florida A&M, would return to coaching at age 67 to guide the moribund Bears, who were 2-9 last season and winless in the SIAC?
"I got the itch and the excruciating passion to return to coaching,'' says Joe, who was out of coaching for three seasons after an interim president at Florida A&M fired him in a controversial move after the NCAA charged the Rattlers with 67 rules violations. Joe was cleared of any involvement and settled a wrongful dismissal lawsuit with the school.
"It didn't take much twisting of arms to get me back into it. It wasn't very difficult for me to say yes. I noticed I still have the passion; my health is still good. It was a no brainer to come back. Being around student athletes energizes me and fuels my engine.''
It would seem that a school with a higher profile than Miles could energize Joe and fuel his engine even more. He says several schools with bigger football names did contact him during his three-year absence from coaching, but he wasn't ready to return to the sidelines.
He says he prefers the challenge that comes with rejuvenating a program. Cheyney had won one game in five years and owned the nation's longest losing streak when he arrived. The Wolves won six games his first season. Central State had one winning record in five seasons before he took over. The Marauders played for the Division II championship in his third season. Florida A&M won five games the season before hiring him; the Rattlers won the MEAC crown his second year.
"I would have been a little bit reticent about accepting a job from an affluent program that has experienced a lot of success,'' Joe says. "I'm more excited about turning a program around. This would seem like an awesome task, based on Miles' previous and distant football history, a very daunting task. But I welcome that. That's what makes me want to coach.
"In our society you get your notoriety and people recognize your success by the obstacles you overcome. Without segregation, Dr. (Martin Luther) King would have been just another preacher. Colin Powell would have been just another soldier without the Gulf War. Abraham Lincoln would have been just another politician from Illinois without the Civil War. You've got to have a problem, an issue, and when you solve it and overcome it, that's when you get kudos. I'm happy to be at Miles.''
Miles has its share of problems for Joe to overcome. He says the No.1 priority is improving the facilities and 8,500-seat Albert J. Sloan Alumni Stadium. Another hurdle is increasing scholarships. The Bears currently offer about half of the 36 scholarships allowed for Division II schools.
"The administration, boosters and alums know the shortcoming we have,'' Joe says. "We know that in time we will get it done. Rome wasn't built in day. But it didn't take forever.''
Joe, who turns 68 in October and has a five-year contract, knows he doesn't have forever.
"It's hard to say how much longer I will coach,'' he says. "I'll let Good Lord and Father Time and Mother Nature take care of that. I would have to know I still have the passion to coach and that my health is still good. Those are things. If that's there, I want to continue indefinitely like Joe Paterno (81) and Bobby Bowden (78). They're still going strong and good programs. But I'll be the first to take this old body home if they aren't there.''
Joe has installed the Gulf Coast Offense, the wide open attack that he used to win 86 games in 11 seasons at Florida A&M as the Rattlers reached the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs seven times.
"We know you need a certain type personnel to execute it,'' Joe says. "Whether or not it will be a true Gulf Coast this year, we have to wait and see how players develop. You have to recruit players whose talent is congruent with it.
"I'm excited about the talent we have on campus. We have outstanding student athletes. The only issue is we don't have a plethora of quality athletes. We have some who can play for anybody, even Division I. We just don't have an abundance of them.''
Joe has had a penchant for luring players transferring from bigger programs throughout his career to facilitate rebuilding. It's no different at Miles. He has brought in offensive linemen Dan Henderson and Richard Koonce from Florida A&M and quarterback Carlton Hill from the University of South Florida.
But in a conference dominated by Tuskegee and Albany State, he isn't promising a quick fix,
"Wins and losses are difficult to assess,'' he says. "But we do expect to be successful.''
BROWN
© 2008 Azeez Communications, Inc.