Jon Embree After Being Fired By Colorado: "[Black Coaches] Don't Get Second Chances"

He also talked about African-American coaches in college football, stating “we don’t get second chances.” Embree was fired after only two seasons, and as he put it, “one and half recruiting classes.” On the flip side, Colorado was the worst BCS school this year and won only one game. Going by point differentials, the last two years have been two of the worst in school history.

The patience argument, though, would be that the guy who recruited Embree as a player, Bill McCartney, had another of those worst seasons in his third season at the school, when Colorado went 1-10 in 1984. Within a few years after that valley, the school was a powerhouse.

Hiring of African-American coaches to college football positions has been noticeably lagging until recent years. As noted in this ESPN piece before the season, there were only four African-American head coaches in 1994, four in 2002, and five in 2008. Since then, though, that number has reached fifteen, with David Shaw of Stanford and Kevin Sumlin leading top ten programs this year. In that piece, Embree said, “Yes, I think things have definitely improved, some of it has been the right timing.”

Chancellor Philip DiStefano added after Embree spoke at today’s press conference: “We didn’t hire Jon because he’s an African-American, and we didn’t fire Jon because he’s an African-American.”

[photo via US Presswire]