It’s no secret by now that Florida A&M head coach Willie Simmons has a proposal to affix the Duke College workers underneath Manny Diaz.
However why Duke? Why working backs coach? Why now?
Willie Simmons and Manny Diaz truly coached collectively over a decade in the past at Center Tennessee State from 2007 to 2009. Diaz was the defensive coordinator and Simmons was the working backs coach.
Quick ahead a decade, Diaz’s son Collin needed to get into teaching, so his father referred to as up Simmons, who was now the top coach at Florida A&M.
“I’ve acquired quite a lot of respect for Willie. I feel he’s an excellent coach,” Manny Diaz informed the Tallahassee Democrat in 2019 whereas teaching at Miami. “When Willie took the job, and my son Colin needed to get into teaching, it was truly my spouse’s thought, to present her the credit score. It simply appeared like a pure factor, a pure match for him to have the ability to go and assist him out to get his toes moist.”
“I jumped on the alternative to have him round,” Simmons mentioned.
Diaz earned his stripes as a scholar assistant with FAMU.
“He has an excellent work ethic. He’s all the time right here and also you by no means have to fret about him not displaying up. He does no matter he’s requested with out a criticism. He actually appears to have an excellent rapport with the gamers. That’s what jumped out about Manny once we met, simply how personable he’s.”
Now, 5 years later, Diaz is the top coach at Duke College. Simmons has confirmed himself on the FCS stage, successful 39 video games within the final 4 seasons and main his crew to each the FCS playoffs AND a Celebration Bowl win. He’s additionally proven a capability to get proficient gamers into Tallahassee, and that may be a talent in itself that makes him very enticing to a faculty like Duke College.
Will he proceed to construct FAMU into an HBCU dynasty on the FCS stage or will he look to maneuver right into a supporting position with the potential for turning into a head coach on the FBS stage briefly order? We’ll have to attend and see.
