Now it’s Prairie A&M’s head coach, Tremaine Jackson, remembered As a possible candidate for a vacant employee job at UABsome may mark the news as progress. On the surface, it feels like validation, a sign that the work being done within HBCU football is finally being noticed beyond its borders.
But if you watch this game long enough, you know better. Jackson’s situation is indeed an example of what has been in motion for decades: Pwis hires black coaches, not just HBCus.
The unwritten rule is simple.
If you’ve proven yourself at an HBCU, that’s great. But a power four or five group of athletes will blow the whistle on you, as a head coach or assistant you need to spend some time showing that you can play by their rules.
In other words, it must be approved by them before you are ready to lead them.
Tremine Jackson and the double standard
None of this is to diminish memzain jackson or question what he has achieved. His coaching resume stands on its own.
Before starting at Prairie View, he was the head coach at Division II programs Colorado Mesa and Valdosta State, building a reputation as an authoritarian, detail-oriented leader. Prairie View has quietly developed into a legitimate SWAC contender by blending a disciplined defensive identity with the ability to recruit players who take the Panthers to something bigger than themselves.
So the fact that Jackson’s name is now circulating for FBS opportunities — perhaps understandably and obviously at UAB — is well-deserved. His success speaks to what can happen when he sets the opportunity.
However, as we have noted, this progress also exposes an upsetting reality.
This pattern is not about wins and losses. Here’s where these winners will take place and who the goalkeepers believe is leading at the next level.
Overlooked winners
Take coach Chennis Berry at South Carolina State. Before landing there in 2024, Berry attended Benedictine College, a longtime post-department program.
Under Berry’s guidance, Benedict became a National Playoff team in 2022 and 2023. His success earned him a job at South Carolina State, before Jackson lost his position in his first year.
This kind of turnaround should put a coach square on the radar. But as it stands, no major FBS program is eager to offer the berry an opportunity.
Then there’s North Carolina Central’s Trei Oliver. Since his capture at Durham, Oliver has established a pattern of consistency. He led NCCU to a cheerleading championship in 2022 and posted an 8-3 record in 2024, and his team once again positioned itself as a contender for the Meac crown this season. He wins, develops and finishes his players. But his phone doesn’t ring either.
Of course, Jackson State has TC Taylor. When Dion Sanders left for Colorado, many assumed the Tigers would fall off the national map. Instead, Taylor kept the program sustainable and respectable. He won the game, in regular fashion, and proved that JSU’s success was not just a popular phenomenon. Still, no FBS programs are knocking on the door.
It should be understood that Deion Sanders does not even fit into this conversation. His name recognition and NFL demigod made him a seller, not a precedent. The opportunities that come from celebrity exposure are often not the same as those gained inside a system that looks up to you.
The same applies to Eddie George, who He left Tennessee for the head coaching job at Bowling Green. Like Sanders, George’s hall-of-fame resume and national profile gave him access that most other coaches lacked. His time at Tennessee showed growth and results, but his moves weren’t about changing the system; It was about system production for another name he already knew.
Both Sanders and George deserve credit for their work. However, the stories also remind us that the path from HBCU to PWI remains open only to the non-famous or the non-black. Former Alcorn State head coach Jay Hopson, Jr., left the school in 2016 to become the head football coach at Southern Miss, where he coached for four seasons.
For the everyday coach – the Chennis Berrys, Trei Olilers, or TC Taylorers of the world – Doors still don’t open the same way. The issue here is not identity. Perception.
Receipts: The pattern no one wants to accept
To understand what that’s like, consider what a few coaches who could hold on to FBS head coaching jobs have done.
Jerry Mack pitched a winner at North Carolina Central. Under his leadership, NCCU became a force in the Meac and earned a berth in the 2016 celebration bowl before losing the 2016 celebration.
By any standard, this is a success. But this was not enough. Mack didn’t jump straight from HBCU head coach to FBS head coach. Instead, he had to leave NCCU as a running backs coach at NCC, working for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, then as a head coach at Tennessee as a running backs coach.
After going through these PWI and NFL checkpoints, he finally got the opportunity to lead Kennesaw State, which proved the same thing he lived through now as he did years ago. Kennesaw State is currently 4-2 and Riding a 4 game winning streak.
The same thing happened with Willie Simmons. He turned Prairie View A&M into a SWAC contender, then turned that into a conference title and a record bowl victory at A&M in 2023, with one conference and one state victory. No major pwi has yet seen him ready to lead. Simmons accepted an assistant role at Duke for one season at Duke at FiU.
The invisible rule book
There is an invisible rulebook in the college football recruiting game.
It is not written anywhere, but you can see how the sports directors talk behind closed doors. They use words like “headness” and “appropriate” – terms that sound but act as a filter.
“We’re looking for someone who is a coach at this level,” PWI’s athletic director said, “what they’re really saying is, “we need someone we already know.” “He is comfortable with courage.
Meanwhile, HBCU coaches operate in a precise manner of challenges that claim to be admired despite limited money programs, limited budgets, outdated facilities and scarce resources.
The irony is that what HBCU coaches do on a daily basis—encouraging, innovating, and abrasive—is exactly what FSCS programs are looking for. But when it comes time to make a move, the idea of considering an HBCU coach suddenly needs a second opinion.
The problem is not talent. The problem is trust.
There is a low but deep belief that the HBCU level is only in funding or exposure, but not in legitimacy.
Pwis will recruit black players from HBCus through the transfer portal, HBCU assistants will recruit to diversify their staff and even compliment HBCU culture during the HBCOMing season. But when it comes time to hand over the keys to the program, it suddenly opts for “experience.”
What they’re really saying is that success in the black-LED space doesn’t count.
This is the heart of the matter.
A call to courage
College athletics likes to celebrate diversity when it’s convenient. But true diversity isn’t just about who’s in the field. It’s about who makes the decisions on the Sideline and the Athletic Director’s suite.
If a powerhouse wants a group of four or five sports departments to really get in, it has to start where real accountability lies: recruiting. Stop waiting for HBCU coaches to “prove themselves” by serving as assistants in your system. A year in a pwi locker room is as superior as years of building men, programs, and communities at HBCus.
If you can earn less, you can earn more.
If you can build a culture without a million dollar budget, you can run one.
And if you can command respect in an environment built on legacy and expectation, you can lead anywhere.
It is courage, not talent, that is incomplete.
There is an affinity for advancement until Pwis are willing to rely on already proven excellence in HBCus. And every time another coach has to take a step back to step forward, we’ll be reminded that as proud as this game is, there’s still a long way to go.
