Keepin' It 100!

"Big Momma said there would be days like this!"

Oscar Wilde, the famous London playwright of the early 1890’s once wrote, “I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.” Abraham Lincoln spoke like a real G when he said, “These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.”

The more things have changed in this country the more things remain the same. Sure, African Americans have made tremendous strides in this country. We even have an black president that is in his second term for crying out loud. For that reason most people think that racism simply jumped on a first class flight and left the country.

Well homeboy the table of opportunity doesn’t always get prepared to feed everybody and especially African-American college football coaches. The hiring numbers over the years have been staggering to say the least. By 1994 there were only 4 black head coaches out of 120 jobs at the FBS level. In 2002 the numbers exploded to an unbelievable… 4! I will say that by the start of the 2012 season there were 15 black coaches walking the sidelines on major college campuses. That number just took a hit on Sunday with Joker Phillips at Kentucky and Jon Embree at Colorado being shown the door.

Now Embree was fired in only his second season after going 1-11! Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! Not only did ole boy go 1-11 but he didn’t win a home game all season. That’s something that hasn’t been done at Colorado since 1920! He also lost by an average of 48-17 this season! It’s hard to defend that homeboy so I won't even try just like my man Stephen A. said on Sports Center yesterday!

However, the problem that I’ve got is that his predecessor, Dan Hawkins, had 5 losing seasons before he was fired. Now I wouldn’t trip if standard protocol said to fire a cat in year 2 if he can’t win. But you can’t run a dun out of town in his second year and the cat before him had a chance to parlay losing for 5 years! At least put Embee on the hot seat and run him out in year 3!

What people don’t realize is that being able to win at the college level is all about being able to recruit. So in just his second year he hasn’t had time to bring enough of his recruits in to run his system etc.  He’s only had a year and a half of recruiting to do and let’s keep it real, its Colorado bruh! Whoever coaches there is gonna lose, black or white!

Sure, guys like Bob Stoops won a national title in year two but he was at Oklahoma. They grow talent there bruh! You can’t expect a guy to win at a perennial loser and especially in two years. Let’s keep it 100! The best you’re going to do at Colorado is 6 or 7 wins on a great year especially if you aren’t cheating. That’s real talk! Joker Phillips didn’t have a chance at Kentucky! Vince "Freaking" Lombardi couldn’t win there playa! They just hired Florida's State's D coordinator and Bob's brother, Mike Stoops, and he's gonna lose at Kentucky too! Why? Because it's Kentucky! However, he'll get another job after the smoke clears!

What was so crazy to me was that during his press conference Embree made the comment that black coaches don’t get second chances. Which is 100% correct but in my opinion, that’s not for him to say. You can’t be the dun getting fired for losing and calling out the problem. That’s for somebody on the outside to start screaming because it comes across better from an outside party.

You can’t be 1-11 and hollering that boyz are being unfair or that they'll potentially be unfair to you! You just stay on the grind and let organizations like the Black Coaches Association or folks with a big microphone scream about it. We don't need you to get distracted seeing that you have the potential to be 1-11 bruh.

That’s like some cat getting walked out of Wal-mart in hand cuffs for shop lifting and hollering they racially profiled me. When all the time he had a play station in his coat!  He sounds like Smokey in the movie Friday when they asked him, “Man how you gone sell weed when you smoke weed?” "THAT’S MY ONLY PROBLEM!" How you gone trip on boyz letting you got when you got drug by Sacramento State at the crib!

Now what he said was spot on in his assessment but somebody else has to say it! In the history of college football there been only one African-American head coach to get fired and find another job at the FBS level and that was Ty Willingham. Outrageous!! He was fired at Notre Dame and was then hired at Washington. That’s mind blowing bruh considering that more than 70% of the players look like him!

The sad reality is that it is still very unfair and people try to act like brothers are just making things up. However, when Gene Chizik was hired at Auburn he was 5-7 at Iowa State the year before. His overall record with the Cyclones was 5-19 but he was hired over Turner Gill who had just won the conference title at Buffalo!

 Sure, ole dull Gene won a national title two years later but do you think it was because he learned how to coach or was it the stud at quarterback he landed for one year? He still can’t coach and that was proven when Cam left for the NFL. Unfortunately, guys like Joker Phillips, Turner Gill or Jon Embree don’t get the opportunity to redeem themselves like Gene Chizik or Mike Price did down at UTEP even after the stripper scandal at Alabama. I bet ole motorcycle crashing wife cheating playboy Bobby Petrino get’s a job before Christmas. In my Puffy voice, “It real in the field playboy!”

 That’s why I  love Big Momma because she gave it us raw when she said, “Life is hard but it’s fair even when it ain’t! Just do your best and let God will do the rest because it’ll make you a stronger person!” I hear you grandma but that doesn’t mean we gotta like it!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Get @ me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport