Maryland coach Mike Locksley didn’t hide his frustration Friday when the conversation turned to the shrinking number of Black head coaches in major college and pro football.
What stood out to him most was the current reality in the sport’s two most powerful leagues. After the 2024 season, the Big Ten had five minority head football coaches.
Two years later, that number is down to one. Locksley said he is the only Black head coach in both the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference.
“I think it’s disappointing,” Locksley said after observing Ravens practice Friday.
That drop comes as the sport continues to wrestle with broader questions about minority coaching opportunities and whether the NFL’s Rooney Rule is actually delivering what it was meant to. The policy, created in 2003, requires teams to interview diverse candidates - specifically people of color and women - for head coaching, coordinator and senior front-office jobs.
Recent ESPN reporting captured the frustration felt by Black assistant coaches who wonder whether the rule has become more of a box to check than a real path into those positions. One of the stories centered on longtime assistant Patrick Graham, who said he showed up for a post-interview dinner with Jacksonville Jaguars executives and wound up sitting alone for nearly 30 minutes because team officials never arrived. Graham later learned the team had been discussing a contract with eventual head coach Liam Coen at the same time.
This offseason, The Banner also reported on former Ravens quarterbacks coach Tee Martin, who had trouble landing another NFL job after helping Lamar Jackson to a historic MVP season. Martin is now a senior offensive analyst at LSU.
Locksley said stories like Graham’s are part of the reason he created the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches in 2020.
“I think it’s disappointing … [as] the founder of an organization that tries to promote - not push but promote - that we have people like Graham or guys that are qualified to become head coaches at any level,” he said.
The nonprofit provides training and educational programs for minority coaches trying to move up in the profession. It also vets and spotlights a yearly list of qualified minority coaching candidates chosen by its board of directors. That board includes former Ravens general manager and current executive vice president Ozzie Newsome, the first Black NFL general manager and the namesake of the league’s annual general managers forum, which is designed to prepare and educate diverse candidates for front-office roles.
Locksley said he still sees the same pattern at the top of the game.
“There is a lot of moving of the goalposts - two steps forward, one step backwards - in terms of the minorities that are leading programs,” he said. “But you know what? We just gotta keep pushing and keep showing that we have qualified guys that can do the job.”
The Ravens will hold training camp practice Saturday at SECU Stadium, the Maryland football home where Locksley has been leading the Terrapins since 2019.
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