Mickey Joseph and Cadillac Williams both made college football history this season, yet we all knew their appointments were temporary.
Joseph was named interim head football coach at Nebraska after Scott Frost was finally fired. With his appointment, Joseph became Nebraska’s first Black head coach in any sport in Cornhuskers’ history.
Carnell “Cadillac” Williams became Auburn’s interim head coach after Bryan Harsin was fired. When he was elevated to the position, the former star for Auburn’s undefeated 2004 team became the first Black head coach in program history.
Those were both trailblazing moments for each man, but we all knew the celebrations would be short-lived for as soon as their seasons were over, new head coaches would be hired.
And, more likely than not, recycled white coaches would replace them.
On Friday, night, Joseph led the Cornhuskers to a season-ending win on the road over Iowa.
On Saturday afternoon, Nebraska gave former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule an eight-year contract as their new head coach. Think about that. Rhule, who is still owed $40 million of the seven-year, $62 million fully guaranteed contract by the Carolina Panthers, gets eight years to rebuild a team.
Meanwhile, Joseph inherited a program that was dismantled annually by Scott Frost and his five-year, 14-31 record.
Yet Joseph wasn’t given any serious consideration as the team’s permanent head coach. He was simply keeping the seat warm while athletic director Trev Alberts conducted a search.
Now, this isn’t a knock on Rhule for he has a proven track record at building college programs.
In four years at Temple (2013 – 2016), Rhule led the Owls to 28 wins. He went 10-4 in 2015 and 10-3 in 2016, garnering bowl appearances in both of those seasons. Hired by Baylor in 2016, he went from 1-11 in his first season to 11-3 in his final season with the Bears, the latter including a Sugar Bowl appearance.
While he failed at the NFL level, Rhule can boast about his college coaching resume without contradiction.
But recognize that he was given the opportunity and time to develop programs that were in the doldrums of college football.
In his first two seasons at Temple, he went 2-10 and 6-6. In the two seasons prior to his arrival in Philly, the Owls went 9-4 and 4-7.
In his first two seasons at Baylor, he went 1-11 and 7-6. In the two seasons prior to his arrival in Waco, the Bears went 10-3 and 7-6.
In both cases, his teams were allowed to get worse before becoming better.
Will he do the same at Nebraska? We’ll have to see.
But he’ll have eight years to do it. Meanwhile, Mickey Joseph had nine games to wade through Frost’s mess as a place-holder for Rhule.
Cadillac Williams took over the head coaching reins after Harsin started the season 3-5 and just finished with an Iron Bowl loss to Alabama, putting his record at 2-2.
The Tigers played as hard as they could but were simply overpowered by Alabama Saturday evening. Yet before Williams could earn even a smidgen of praise, names like Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin and Liberty’s Hugh Freeze surfaced. While Kiffin vehemently denied it, Freeze’s name was mentioned multiple times during Saturday’s pre-game shows and the Iron Bowl.
Williams’ future hasn’t been determined as of yet, but it’s infuriating to hear recycled names being circulated as Cadillac was giving his all on the sidelines for the Tigers.
This is why it’s so agonizing to see Black coaches given interim head coaching titles, even when they’re history-making appointments. It’s because we recognize the biased process that will ultimately reject these men from permanent positions.
We frustratingly watch them lead fragmented locker rooms consisting of players they didn’t recruit or lead down a losing path.
Yet they ultimately suffer the consequences after navigating the ship through tumultuous waters.
It’s akin to professor Lou Moore’s “clean up man” concept for Black head coaches in the NFL.
In the NFL we saw it with Steve Wilks, David Culley, Brian Flores and now Lovie Smith.
They inherit messes from their predecessors or team ownership and despite cleaning the situation up, they’re summarily dismissed.
While Joseph’s time at Nebraska is over, we can only hope that Cadillac gets another chance at his Alma mater.
But if history is any indication, Cadillac will most likely be one and done.
