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The coach who will eventually lift the national championship trophy in Atlanta on the evening of Jan. 20 will be doing so for the first time. We hope he’s ready for the heavy lifting – both literally and figuratively.
None of the four coaches left in the College Football Playoff have won a national title. But one of them will join the elite fraternity in less than three weeks, a significant development in a sport that has seen a number of Hall of Fame coaches leave in recent years. Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney are the only active head coaches with a national championship at the Football Bowl Subdivision level; each has two.
Texas’ Steve Sarkisian is two wins away from joining. But so is Ohio State Ryan Day. And Penn State James Franklin. Or Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman.
“We didn’t come this far just to get this far,” Sarkisian said of his Longhorns. “The journey is not over; mission not completed. … None of this is guaranteed. It’s not like, ‘Well, we’ll be back here again next year.’ ”
The stage is set, the opportunity is ripe for each of the four. Ohio State looks like the hottest team in college football, but Texas has the best playcaller. Notre Dame has the most stifling defense in the playoffs, but Penn State has the biggest X-factor at tight end – do it all Tyler Warren. There are so many different prisms through which to view the games in each national semifinal, and it’s easy to talk yourself into picking any of the four teams to win it all.
There’s always a ton on the line for head coaches when they get to this part of the season. Legacies can be cemented or narratives reversed. And the opportunity to become a national champion for the first time is a particularly fascinating dynamic exactly one year later Nick Sabanthe greatest college football coach of all time, has retired. Then Jim Harbaughfresh off his first national title, he left for the NFL. And just a few weeks ago, Mack Brown was banished to UNC. And that’s where all the other national championship winning coaches went.
Penn State and Notre Dame meet in Miami to decide who gets the chance to play for the national title.
So here’s an empty space, as Taylor Swift would say. It’s time for one of these coaches to put his name on the line… and maybe change his career path.
There’s an added layer of significance for the two coaches who will line up on the sidelines Thursday night in the Orange Bowl. With Freeman and Franklin facing off in the semifinals, it guarantees the first time a black head coach will be in the national championship game.
“It kind of makes me think of when Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith played in Super Bowl XXXXI in 2007 — that was the first Super Bowl with a black head coach, let alone two,” Franklin said. “I remember thinking that as a coach, how important it is in the profession and how important it is for young coaches coming into the profession to see those guys in that role.”
Franklin remembers working as the offensive coordinator under the Kansas State head coach Ron Prince in the mid-2000s, wondering if there might be more opportunities for black coaches to become head coaches. At the time, there were only six black head coaches out of 127 FBS schools. One was Sylvester Croomthe first African-American head coach to serve in the SEC. The rest can be easily solved: the prince, Carl Dorrell, Randy Shannon, Turner Gill, Randy Shannon and Tyrone Willingham.
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“There are now 16 coaches of color in these positions,” Franklin said. “Hopefully a game like ours could have an impact, really just looking for opportunities for guys to be able to get in front of some of the scouting firms and (athletic directors) and get the opportunities that they’ve earned.
“I don’t take it lightly. I really don’t know. I’ve had tons of messages from people all over the country that I’ve worked with or know.”
Freeman said he was grateful to be a part of something as historic as this moment, and that it took a special team to get him to the brink of the title game. And it took other black coaches before him to lay the groundwork for an opportunity like the one he got from former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who hired Freeman for the role when he was just 35 years old and had no coaching experience.
“It’s a reminder that you’re a representative for so many others and so many of our players who look the same as me, (that) your color shouldn’t matter,” Freeman said. “Evidence of your work should. But it takes everything. And that’s what I’m still reminded of. When people try to point the finger at you, it’s a great reminder that you’re not in this position without everybody, without all these guys.”
It’s a really cool moment for all four of these coaches, individually, and their programs, collectively. All are in uncharted territory (although Texas was one of four teams in the four-team CFP last year), going through the new expanded Playoff format for the first time and leading teams through a potential 17-game season. Whoever lifts that trophy as the confetti falls that Monday night in Atlanta will surely deserve it.
And that’s the point. It should be hard to join that fraternity of championship-winning coaches. These four know that better than most, sitting here so close to the top of the mountain.
