by JOEY JOHNSTON, jjohnston@tampatrib.com , Tampa Tribune

jjohnston@tampatrib.com

The accomplishments are powerful, almost unprecedented.

Twice in the past three seasons, this defensive coordinator helped his team win college football's national championship. Twice in the past three seasons, his defense flustered a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.

Twice in the past three seasons, the opposing offenses entered the BCS Championship Game as high-flying units, largely painted as unstoppable. By game's end, their moods alternated between disbelief and panic. In such moments, the defensive architect generally is awarded a familiar football nickname.

Genius.

That tag doesn't fit the personality of University of Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong. He won't amplify his r?sum?. Certainly, he wants to become a head coach. His past and present bosses - Steve Spurrier, Lou Holtz and Urban Meyer - say he's ready. Strong's numbers don't speak - they shout.

But he has gotten nowhere.

Twenty-two schools in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) have hired new head coaches for the upcoming season. How many times did Strong get an interview?

"None," Strong said. "Not one interview. Nobody called me. Zero interviews."

In the NFL, with the "Rooney Rule" opening doors to the interview process, African-American head coaches have won two of the past three Super Bowl championships. But in big-time college football , according to NCAA officials and long-time coaches, such opportunities are embarrassingly behind the times.

Among 120 FBS schools, there are just seven African-American head coaches (a rate of 5.8 percent for a sport where 50 percent of the players are minorities).

Only one - Miami's Randy Shannon - is with a Bowl Championship Series team. And Strong's inability to secure a head-coaching job is held up as the most inequitable circumstance.

"It's amazing - and sad - that we're still talking about this," said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches and Administrators, based in Indianapolis. "The numbers are so bad in college football . We should have three times as many head coaches.

"Don't tell me there's no talent [among up-and-coming African-American assistants]. That's a bunch of crap. We still seem to be battling an attitude. Sometimes, that attitude is slow to change. It's like we're plowing cement."

Legal remedies?

How do you measure progress?

Three BCS coaches - Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State), Ron Prince (Kansas State) and Tyrone Willingham (Washington) - were either fired or forced out in 2008.

Of the 22 head-coaching openings last season, according to the NCAA, 27 minority candidates were interviewed.

Four African-Americans - Ron English (Eastern Michigan), Mike Haywood (Miami-Ohio), Mike Locksley (New Mexico) and DeWayne Walker (New Mexico State) - were hired as first-time head coaches.

Two African-Americans - Maryland's James Franklin and Kentucky's Joker Phillips - are the coaches-in-waiting at their schools (similar to Florida State University's succession plan of eventually replacing Bobby Bowden with Jimbo Fisher).

"The interviews are happening," said Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA's vice president for Diversity and Inclusion, who was hired in 2005 by the organization's president, Myles Brand, to improve the workplace diversity in college sports. "What's galling, what's disturbing, what's appalling, is that the hires haven't been happening [at a higher rate]. The focus needs to be on the hires."

Almost everyone agrees that the numbers will grow if enough qualified applicants are given opportunities. According to data compiled by the BCA, there are 261 coaches considered to be offensive or defensive coordinators. Thirty-nine (or 14.9 percent) are African-Americans.

Keith wants faster growth.

He has hinted at the potential need for legal action. Oregon's state legislature already has proposed a bill that would require its state colleges and universities to interview one minority candidate for head coaching and athletic director positions.

Clearly, there is a movement for colleges to adopt something similar to the NFL's Rooney Rule, which was enacted in 2003. It's named for Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, chairman of the NFL's diversity committee, and requires teams to interview minority candidates for head-coaching and senior football operations positions.

Currently, six of the NFL's 32 head-coaching positions are held by African-Americans (18.8 percent).

"You don't want to see a train wreck and the need [for litigation] and you want to see it take the same course as the NFL," Keith said. "On the NFL side, you've got the owner and the GM. If one of them has a diverse concept of thinking, then you're 50 percent home.

"The college process is much different. There can be six layers to go through for that stamp of approval - the president, the board of trustees, the athletic director, the search committee, getting recommended by an outside search group and then, of course, the significant others [boosters] who have the political and financial influence. It's a lot to navigate."

And it may be why someone such as Raheem Morris stood a better chance of becoming an NFL head coach than leading a college program.

Creating opportunities

Morris, entering his first season as the Bucs' head coach, said there was an ironic aspect of his meteoric hiring.

"It was more about me being a young guy than it was me being an African-American," said Morris, a defensive coordinator at Kansas State University in 2006 before returning to the Bucs as defensive backs coach. "The Glazer family didn't have to hire a 32-year-old African-American to run their billion-dollar business, but they did. Now I have the opportunity of a lifetime.

"Now does that [opportunity] exist in college ? Well, the numbers say no, but I think we have the ability to change that. The NFL has more of an open-door policy right now. But I know there are a lot of smart young coaches in college . All they need is that opportunity."

The NCAA has implemented programs to create some opportunity, including coaching academies that have emphasized "there are more qualified men of color who are capable of being head coaches than there actually are head coaches," according to Westerhaus.

An additional step was the first NCAA Champions Forum, held June 18-19, in conjunction with the National Association of College Directors of Athletics Convention at Orlando.

Eleven FBS minority assistant coaches (or lower-level head coaches) were selected to work in training sessions with athletic directors who have the hiring power or professional connections to further a career. The emphasis was on networking and learning CEO-like qualities, but also giving the athletic directors a chance to meet some of the future talent pool (some of whom may have been completely unknown).

David Kelly, the University of Central Florida's assistant head coach, was a participant.

"To spend [time] with the people who are integral in the decision-making process has to help you develop relationships, a comfort level," Kelly said.

"In any business, you hire people you are most comfortable with," said Brigham Young University defensive coordinator Jamie Hill, another participant. "You hire people with the same ideas and concepts. But how do you know my ideas and concepts if you don't know me?"

The wait continues

There are 12 African-American athletic directors at FBS schools, a number that has steadily risen.

"It's really about who likes you out there," said Shannon, who was defensive coordinator at UM, his alma mater, before being hired to replace Larry Coker in 2007. "It's about how you present yourself, almost more than how [you are perceived] at getting the job done. After that, it's wins and losses, but you have to get through the door."

It's something Strong is still trying to accomplish.

On the eve of UF's victory against Oklahoma at the BCS Championship Game, Strong suggested that race has been a factor in his career path. He said he heard several times that his interracial marriage caused him to be passed over for jobs.

"I'm not making those decisions, but Charlie has every characteristic you'd want in a head coach," Meyer said. "I don't want to lose him. Coaching, in my opinion, is about seventh in what makes a good head coach. There's leadership, strong family values, a guy's ability to recruit. Charlie has it all."

Entering his 26th year in coaching, Strong is still searching for his first big break to run his own program.

" Universities figure out who they want to hire, then they go get him," said Strong, who added he had interviewed six times for a head-coaching position. "When you don't get the job, somebody with the search committee will call you and say they went with a different guy. You look at it and say, 'Why is that guy any different than what I'm doing?'

"I'm at the University of Florida. Everybody knows who I am. I don't need somebody to market me. You know the issue. You know the answer. I don't need to spell it out."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353.

Photo: RAHEEM MORRIS

Photo: RON ENGLISH

Photo: TURNER GILL

Photo: MIKE HAYWOOD

Photo: Mike Locksley

Photo: RANDY SHANNON

Photo: KEVIN SUMLIN

Photo: DEWAYNE WALKER

Photo: Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong

Photo credit: Tribune photo by TODD L. CHAPPEL

Photo: Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, right, continues to wait for his first big break to run his own program.

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