Tonight, in Philly, the Norfolk St. Spartans will play the Delaware St. Hornets in a football game. I guess you could call this a “home game” for Delaware St. which is located in Wilmington, DE, but the attraction of this game has much more to do with the coaches on the two sidelines than anything else.
- Norfolk St. is coached by Michael Vick
- Delaware St. is coached by DeSean Jackson.
Not only did both men have long and successful careers in the NFL, but they were also teammates for a while. So that provides a natural storyline for the contest – – but it is really an element of a much larger story about former NFL players taking college coaching jobs – – many in smaller football programs.
Let me do a reset here. In 2021, Deion Sanders took the head coaching job at Jackson St. – – an HBCU in the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC). He was successful there for two seasons to the tune of 23-3 and parlayed that success into the head coaching job at Colorado where he had initial success in 2023. It almost seems as if Sanders’ foray into coaching triggered other former NFL stars to try their hand at coaching at the collegiate level. I am sure I have left out examples of this trend due to faulty research but let me present at least a partial list of former players in these sorts of coaching roles:
- Michael Vick is at Norfolk St. as head coach. The Spartans are 1-7 coming into tonight’s game. The Spartans program started in 2005 and has had only 2 winning seasons ever. Vick played in college at Va Tech.
- DeSean Jackson is at Delaware St. as head coach. The Hornets are 5-3 entering tonight’s game and lead the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). The Hornets’ program began in the 1920s and had some sustained success in the 1990s but recently they were 2-21 over the last two seasons. Jackson played in college at Cal.
- Eddie George is at Bowling Green as head coach. George is in his first year there coming off a 24-22 record as the head coach at Tennessee St. George played in college at Ohio St.
- Brian Hartline is at Ohio St. as the Offensive Coordinator. Hartline played in college at Ohio St.
- C.J. Spiller is at Clemson as Running Backs coach. Spiller played in college at Clemson.
- Marshall Faulk is at Colorado as Running Backs coach. Faulk joined Deion Sanders’ staff in Boulder; Faulk played in college at San Diego St.
- Warren Sapp is at Colorado as a Defensive Analyst. Sapp also joined Deion Sanders’ staff in Boulder. Sapp played in college at Miami.
- Demarco Murray is at Oklahoma as Running Backs coach. Murray played in college at Oklahoma.
- Hines Ward is at Arizona St. as the Wide Receivers coach. Ward played in college at Georgia.
- Jason Taylor is at Miami as the Defensive Ends coach. Taylor played in college at Miami.
The presence of these notable football names on the sidelines for the smaller schools adds to the attention those schools get. Norfolk St. gets whatever public presence it does largely due to Coach Vick’s recognizable name and not because of its rich football history. That is important because schools today are in “revenue-sharing mode” and revenue is attached closely to public attention.
It is also interesting to note that many of the former players on this list have returned to coaching positions at the schools where they played. That aspect of this listing is different from the Deion Sanders’ model; he played at Florida St and started his coaching activities at Jackson St. Florida St. and Jackson St. are not close to each other on the college football spectrum …
Finally, since today has been about players taking on new jobs/careers in coaching, let me close with this observation by Oscar Wilde:
“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………