Return to Front Page
Stillman Cole's biggest challenge yet
Roscoe Nance
BCSP Correspondent
L.C. Cole isn't riding high as head coach at Stillman College, which revived football 10 years ago and is trying to break into the upper echelon of black college programs.
But Cole is elated to be back on the sidelines again after
spending most of the past six seasons coaching high school football and
working as a college assistant.
"It's good to be back in the saddle again,'' says Cole, who has a 48-31 career record in seven seasons as a head coach at Tennessee State and Alabama State, both of whom ran afoul of the NCAA on his watch. "It's good to get the opportunity.''
It is debatable, however, if the opportunity at Stillman is a good one. The school has lofty expectations, limited resources and an impatient administration. The Tigers have had just two losing records since bringing football back, their inaugural season and last year when they were 3-8, which was their first losing mark in four seasons in the SIAC. Stillman's overall record since 1999 is 55-46. Yet Cole is the Tigers' third coach.
He understands what he's up against.
"This is one of the most difficult jobs around,'' he says. "It's different at the Division II level. You don't have all the things you need in place. You have to work extra hard. You have to compensate. But just being back in business makes those things minor.''
Cole plans to use Stillman's lack of football tradition as a recruiting tool.
"It's tough trying to turnaround a program that doesn't have tradition,'' he says. "But it's one of the good challenges. You have something to strive for. I'm stressing making history. I tell (recruits) they can set the cornerstone for the program. I hope to convince kids that Stillman is the place to be.''
Cole says Stillman's facilities are a selling point. But his budget puts him at a disadvantage. Division II programs are permitted 36 scholarship; he is able to offer 20. The result is he has just 68 athletes in the program where he prefers having 90.
He has two goals for this season: to win more games than last season and to win at least one of Stillman's games against perennial SIAC powers Tuskegee, Albany State and Fort Valley State. The Tigers are winless against that trio since joining the conference in 2005.
They begin the season this week at Kentucky State (7 p.m.) in both teams' opener. KSU also went thru a coaching change recently, replacing Fred Farrier with Wayne Dickens.
Cole's teams at Tennessee State and Alabama State were in the upper portion of their conferences by his third season. He thinks Stillman will be on a similar timetable.
"We sort through everything the first year,'' he says. "The second year we seek our needs. Usually the third year we take off.''
Cole has already identified Stillman's needs for next season. They are offensive linemen, quarterbacks and defensive backs. Cole sought to strengthen Stillman's special teams for the 2008. He signed a punter, a place-kicker and long snapper.
"I'm a big special teams guy,'' he says. "In football you have three facets of the game, offense, defense and special teams. In order to win a game, you have to hit on two of those cylinders. Special teams can turn a game around real quick.''
Cole is also big on bringing in transfers, and solid defensive teams. That doesn't seem to have changed. He signed three transfers, and all of them play on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive tackle Junior Gillette comes from Temple; free safety Tim Clark transferred from Jackson State, cornerback Michael Ricks arrived from Northeast (Miss.) Junior College.
"We'll hold our own defensively as long as we don't get injured and banged up,'' Cole says. "I'm a big believer that defense wins games. If defense can get you the ball and keep the other team out of the end zone, you've got a good chance of winning.''
© 2009 Azeez Communications, Inc.