Last week, reports circulated that Florida International University (FIU) was interested in potentially hiring former HBCU head coach Willie Simmons to take over the struggling program. Simmons was the head coach at FAMU from 2017 to 2023, where he went 34-5 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), including a 12-1 record in 2023 and a Celebration Bowl Championship. Simmons spent this year in Durham as part of the team that helped the Duke Blue Devils to a 9-3 regular season record.

At Duke, Simmons is head coach Manny Diaz’s running backs coach. Simmons and Diaz had worked together at Middle Tennessee State, so it was a natural fit for Simmons to leave FAMU after an HBCU national championship season.

Simmons is known as a program developer. He took over a struggling Prairie View A&M team and made it relevant again in the SWAC. He took over a FAMU team that hadn’t won a championship in over a decade and built it into a national champion by winning the 2023 Celebration Bowl 30-26 over Howard University.

When Willie Simmons took over the Rattlers, they had previously had consecutive losing seasons. When he took over in 2018, the Rattlers were 6-5. After that season, FAMU would win nine games in each of the next three seasons (with 2020 canceled due to Covid-19). He would finish his career with a 12-1 season in 2023, with the only loss coming against the University of South Florida, an FBS school they lost to by just 14 points. With the exception of one bad quarter, the Rattlers had a legitimate chance to beat the Bulls.

Simmons has appeared in many places as a potential head coach at the FBS level. His youth and offensive prowess make him an attractive candidate for multiple positions at the FBS level. His years of experience turning Duke around only furthers this.

Social media is on everyone’s lips at Simmons. The FIU Twitter (X) company projects Simmons as the first or second choice, with Tim Harris Jr. as the other choice. However, as Twitter (X) posters point out, Harris doesn’t have the experience to lead a program’s turnaround.

UCF fans also agree with Simmons. With the sudden departure of Gus Malzon, the UCF Knights are also in the market for a head coach and the former HBCU champion has also caught the attention of some of their fan base. X users (formerly Twitter) have begun lobbying for Simmons to take the helm of the Knights. Some have mentioned the parallels between the young Simmons and their last successful coach, Scott Frost.

Related