David Duprey / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Turner Gill is proving himself at the University at Buffalo. More black coaches should do what Gill is doing and target mid-major programs. That, writes Bryan Burwell, is the sure path to the big-time college football jobs.

Destroy the myth that a black man won’t sell. Step by step, show these same men who have bought into the concept with basketball that it can work in football, too.

A lot of eyes should be on Randy Shannon’s work with the Miami Hurricanes. Shannon has taken only two years to rebuild the once nationally prominent Miami program into a Top 25 outfit again. Shannon had the ‘Canes in the Top 25 a few weeks ago, and needs to continue to win and eventually return the ‘Canes to legitimate national championship contenders, and do it with no scandalous shortcuts.

But the biggest challenge for the BCA will be convincing black coaches that they need to target Mid-Majors as the surest path to the major jobs. Not everyone gets to be Randy Shannon, who was the logical choice to take over the ‘Canes after so much success as a coordinator at Miami. There are only 31 minority offensive and defensive coordinators (out of 255) at Division IA, and 312 of 1,018 assistant coaches. Many more ultra qualified candidates have fled the colleges to work as well-paid NFL assistants and are reluctant to take a step back to chase a college job with less pay.

One athletic director told me those mid-major jobs are the ones that will provide the perfect proving ground and surest path to the top BCS jobs (see: Urban Meyer, Gary Pinkel, Nick Saban, Rich Rodriguez). “But will they take a pay cut to go there?” the AD asked. “If a Ball State or Miami of Ohio job opens up, but it only pays $200,000 or less, will a guy who is making $300,000 in the NFL take that job?”

The answer had better be “yes.”

The mid-major route is the key to all of this. Sumlin went from being a well-paid co-offensive coordinator at Oklahoma last year to head coach at Conference USA’s Houston. Turner Gill left the Green Bay Packers front office three years ago to take over the University of Buffalo. Both are now experiencing the sort of early success (Gill in his third season is 7-4, champions of the MAC East, and on the verge of taking his team to its first bowl game; Sumlin’s Cougars are also a bowl-eligible 7-4 and in first place in the C-USA West) that ought to put them on everyone’s list of rising stars.

You build a cache of well-prepared, experienced men who can step right into a BCS program with a far better chance to succeed.

It shouldn’t be just about getting jobs. It has to be about keeping them, too.

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