If we were talking about Eddie Robinson or Eddie Hurt, an athletic director coaching your football team might just be a good look. In 1957.
But Michael Bailey coaching the Virginia Union Panthers in 2009 is not a good look on any accord. As athletic director, Bailey has presided over the resignation of a legendary basketball coach, a winning football coach, and a first-year football coach.
And now he’s the football coach?
Confusion isn’t even the word to begin with. A more appropriate choice might be chaos.
Black college sports has its beauties and its warts, and bumps don’t get much bigger than this. For the university administration to sign off on an individual that clearly has been occupied with having his cake and coaching football too reeks of poor judgment and a lack of interest in athletics.
Any hope the school would have for checks and balances have officially bounced. Ask Coppin State what its like for other programs to suffer while one team reaps the benefit of the AD/Coach hybrid. It’s not impossible for it to work, but in black colleges where football is the backbone for the entire athletic budget, the degree of difficulty is harder than a Tuskegee touchdown in the back of the end zone.
You can’t even blame Bailey for this, because the load is ultimately going to fall at the doorsteps of university president Dr. Belinda Anderson and the Union Board of Trustees. Should Union football, which has been a championship contender in recent years succeed while Panther basketball flops in Year One of the post-White Shadow era, it will fall on Bailey’s shoulders as the AD who lost Dave Robbins.
And if football falls below expectations, well, it’s kind of what we all expected.
