Something's wrong with the Jackson State hire
I don't know James
Bell. But I do know that he's not the right football coach for Jackson
State.
Bell is Jackson State athletic director Roy Culberson's handpicked successor to Bob Hughes, whose contract was not renewed despite his four-year 30-15 record, which included a SWAC Eastern Division championship.
Bell may prove to be an outstanding head coach, but it seems the biggest thing he had going for him in his quest for the Jackson State job was the fact that he and Culberson once worked together at North Texas.
Bell began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Central Arkansas, his alma mater. His resume includes stints as defensive coordinator at Northwest Missouri State, Indiana University and Wake Forest, none of which enjoy the reputation of being a cradle of coaches. He has also been a position coach at Lamar and Louisville. He most recently was head coach at Cesar Chavez High in Houston, which was 1-9 this season.
Those don't seem to be the sort of credentials that would have schools beating a path to your door to hand over their program to you.
Bell's hiring is troublesome on several levels. The notion that Jackson State alums John McKenzie, offensive coordinator at Alcorn State, Mario "Dirt" Kirksey, Alcorn's former defensive coordinator and former NFL receiver Harold Jackson were never given serious consideration is high on the list. Culberson made it clear from the outset that he wanted to bring in "new blood."
McKenzie and Kirksey were added to the list of finalists and interviewed as afterthoughts following interviews of Bell and former Fort Valley State coach Kent Schoolfield, two of the original three finalists. The third finalist, John Hendrick, an assistant fired at Mississippi State at the end of the season, withdrew from consideration and accepted the head coach's job at Benedict before the interviews.
Part of Jackson State's recruiting spiel when it goes after students, athletes included, is a degree from there means just as much as a degree from any school in America Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, you name it. Yet that same Jackson State degree didn't mean enough to get McKenzie and Kirksey legitimate interviews with their alma mater. What an insult.
As for Jackson, he never interviewed. Culberson said he never received an application from Jackson, as if that really made a difference. Jackson, one of the greatest players in Jackson State history, is a member of the coaching staff that Guy Morriss took with him from the University of Kentucky when Baylor recently hired him.
Harold Jackson didn't need to apply for the Jackson State job. Everybody knows who he is, and you would think that would include Culberson. Besides, the way it works in most places is anyone who has to apply for a job isn't going to get it anyway. The standard operating procedure is for the athletic director to go after the person he wants. You didn't see UCLA, Michigan State or Alabama sitting around waiting for people to send in applications, did you?
It seems that Culberson simply doesn't have a high regard for Jackson State graduates.
To be honest, everything about how Bell became the 10th head coach in Jackson State's storied history is troubling.
Can someone explain why Bell was at two Jackson State games? Is he that much of a football fan that he would travel from Houston to see the Tigers play? I don't think so.
A more plausible explanation is that Culberson had already decided to replace Hughes, and had tabbed Bell as the man to replace him. Bell's presence at Jackson State games was the equivalent of vultures circling over a wounded animal waiting for it to die.
Some things just aren't done. Bell's actions were highly unethical and aren't likely to make him popular in coaching circles.
Was he that desperate for a college head coaching job? If he would lower himself to those depths to get the job, what will he do to keep it?
Culberson didn't distinguish himself either. If he planned to make a coaching change for whatever reason, he was well within his rights. But the classy way to handle it would have been to inform Hughes first. No matter what Culberson, or anyone else for that matter, thought of the job Hughes did, he deserved that much respect based on his loyalty to Jackson State for more than 30 years as a player and coach. Hughes' four-year 30-15 record wasn't exactly an embarrassment either.
Culberson said throughout the process that no one had the inside track for Hughes' job, even though it was common knowledge that Bell was a lock. As recently as a week before interviews, he said "there is no shoo-in candidate right now."
Culberson was talking out of both sides of his mouth until the very end, telling McKenzie that he had nothing to do with Bell being hired, that it was the search committee's call.
Spare me, please.
Jackson State supporters are outraged by the turn of events, and rightfully so. Insiders say Bell was the search committee's third choice, behind McKenzie and Schoolfield. This affair has left Blue Bengal backers, many of whom wanted to see McKenzie hired, feeling that their voices weren't heard. Guess what? They're right, and they have only themselves to blame.
Everybody knows money talks. It's a safe assumption that Jackson State alumni, like most alumni of black colleges, don't support athletics financially. Their idea of support is wearing their school's paraphernalia, attending games if they can get a complimentary ticket and criticizing the coach if he doesn't win.
That won't get it. In this day and age, it costs to have your voice heard. Without money backing them up, Jackson State alumni are talking loud and saying nothing when they complain about Culberson handpicking Bell to be their coach.
If they want to pick the coach, they have to pay for that privilege. Perhaps this will be a lesson to them -- and to alumni of all black schools as well.
© 2002 Azeez Communications, Inc.