Aggies coach hefts an extra load

Walker builds program as a rare black in top slot.

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

DeWayne Walker is attempting to lead New Mexico State into college football relevance, and eventually, greatness.

And though he's doing it in Las Cruces, N.M. - a land that hasn't known a bowl team since 1960 - there's a keen interest in his performance.

Walker is one of seven black head coaches at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, which has 120 schools. He's also one of nine minorities leading FBS teams. Thus, Walker, a former UCLA defensive coordinator and NFL assistant, is carrying a torch in 2009 for a job that's been extremely tough to come by for people who look like him.

This despite the growing number of minorities playing the game.

According to the latest NCAA participation numbers from 2007-08, 48% of current FBS players are black and 55% are minorities. Yet white men dominate the head coaching ranks, with 92.5% of the head coaching jobs.

The lack of diversity in college football's head coaching ranks has been an ongoing problem, and while NCAA programs have been created, there is a steady ebb and flow of only a handful of minority coaches.

"When there's not a culture of inclusion and diversity that is part of the fabric of the [hiring] process, it becomes difficult," said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches and Administrators, an organization that pushes for the growth and development of ethnic minorities at all levels of sports.

"Although the president and AD on the FBS level are involved in the process, you have the board of trustees and now you have search groups ... [and] the significant others who are political and financial influences," Keith added. "If you don't think that plays a role, your head's in the sand."

The overwhelming majority of those making the hires are white. For instance, among the 331 Division I schools, 52 schools have minority athletic directors, according to NCAA statistics. Numbers released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport said whites hold 92.5% of university president jobs in the FBS. Coincidentally or not, four of the nine minority coaches who currently have jobs also have athletic directors who are minorities, including New Mexico State athletic director McKinley Boston.

Walker, whose team hosts Fresno State at 7:15 tonight, called it "more of a decision issue than a race issue."

"The presidents and the athletic directors and the board of regents, they make the decisions and obviously they're going to hire who they feel comfortable with," he said.

"It's [about] feeling comfortable hiring someone who is a different color than you. We all are comfortable with people we know. I think it's normal. We do it, too: Minority coaches hang out with minority coaches, too."

Uneasiness, silence

Every coach interviewed on the subject of minorities in head coaching ranks strayed from naming racism as the problem's main source.

The sensitive subject of race in any matter has often caused discomfort and caution. That was the case here.

Hawaii coach Greg McMackin seemed nervous addressing the topic on the Western Athletic Conference coaches teleconference this week.

He stammered and stuttered through his responses, and some say understandably so.

An attempt to broach the subject can also be met with silence.

"Florida associate head coach/defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, a coach for more than two decades who has been lauded for his success as an assistant, declined to comment for this story."

Strong, who is black, has been the Florida defensive coordinator since 2003, an interim head coach, assistant head coach and associate head coach, but never the head coach. The Gators have won two national championships during his time there.