SWAC MEDIA DAYS : Coleman has plenty to prove at UAPB
Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/232128/
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Football players have twoa-days. Football coaches have media days.
Both, at some point, probably wish they were doing something else.
But given the toothy, earto-ear grin Prairie View A&M Coach Henry Frazier showed when a reporter at Southwestern Athletic Conference media days mentioned Monte Coleman, it sure looked like at least one of the 10 coaches at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday was having a good time.
“I’m from Washington, D. C.,” Frazier said by way of explanation. “I love Monte Coleman. I was always watching him scooping up fumbles and scoring.”
Anyone who paid attention to football in the D. C. area in the 1980 s and early 1990 s can certainly get Frazier’s admiration. Coleman was a key part of three championship seasons with the Washington Redskins, ending his career as a linebacker with 1 56 / 2 sacks.
But the rings and the sacks and even having rival coaches as fans won’t help Coleman when he coaches his first game at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. For a man recently selected as one of the top 22 players in franchise history by the Redskins, Coleman has an awful lot to prove.
Formerly a full-time minister, Coleman start coaching until 2003, when he took a job coaching linebackers under then-UAPB Coach Lee Hardman.
Though he moved up to defensive coordinator in 2006, Coleman is anything but seasoned. Six of the SWAC’s 10 coaches have at least five years of head-coaching experience, and two have more than 15 years of experience. Even Alcorn State’s Ernest Jones, who like Coleman has yet to coach his first game, has the edge in experience, having started his career in 2000 as a defensive backs coach at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
“I’ve got to make sure I’ve got my head in the game for the overall plan,” Coleman said. “[The players ] understand my philosophy and respect my philosophy. I think they like me as a person.”
The SWAC’s other coaches seem to like Coleman as well, and point to UAPB fielding the conference’s fourth-best defense in 2007 as proof he can handle that side of the game.
But you can bet Coleman’s rookie season will be a learning experience just the same.
“Now you have to oversee the whole thing,” said Southern University of Baton Rouge Coach Pete Richardson, whose 16 years at the school make him the longest-tenured coach in the SWAC. “He’s always been looking at it defensively. It’s a big adjustment.”
Coleman’s road might be easier than most. Promoted less than 48 hours after Athletic Director Skip Perkins fired Coach Mo Forte in February, neither Coleman nor Perkins were up for any further in-house purging.
Almost the entire coaching staff, most notably offensive coordinator Jonathan Cannon, returns. Coleman will remain defensive coordinator for at least this season and keep the base 4-3 package the Golden Lions used a year ago, one that surrendered a little more than 21 points per game.
“[Cannon ] can run the offense,” Coleman said. “When I got the position, I interviewed each of the coaches. My desire was to keep all of them. We didn’t miss a beat.”
If UAPB doesn’t miss a beat under Coleman, it also could be a good thing for the SWAC.
“That adds credibility to our conference,” Texas Southern Coach Johnnie Cole said. “It’s always a positive when we get ex-NFL [players ] coming into our conference. [But ] they have to go out and recruit the right caliber of football players.”
The conference has at least provided Coleman with a blueprint of sorts to follow. Alabama State promoted former NFL receiver Reggie Barlow a year ago even though his first coaching gig started in 2005 as the school’s quarterbacks coach.
Barlow, whose Hornets went 5-6 in his first year, said the biggest challenge for an ex-NFL star might be keeping your sanity and optimism intact when you realize that the perks and facilities you had in the pros are virtually absent in the SWAC.
The playmaking ability is a bit different, too.
“There’s a huge difference,” Barlow said. “The talent level isn’t what you’re used to seeing in the NFL. There’s so much other stuff you need to take care of.
“ There are some things you just have to do without. There are some things you have to figure out a way around.”