- At an almost three-hour board of trustees meeting on Tuesday, FAMU leaders said a new head football coach will be named before February 7th.
- FAMU will likely spend thousands of dollars on a search firm for its next head football coach.
- Watch the video to see how we got here and what's next in the process.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
FAMU will likely spend thousands of dollars on a search firm for its next head football coach.
At an almost three-hour board of trustees meeting on Tuesday, FAMU leaders said a new head football coach will be named before February 7th.
February 7th is the date of the college football national signing date.
FAMU's Athletic Director Tiffani-Dawn Sykes was in the hot seat on her handling of hiring the new head football coach.
"Our actions are more than the sentiment of our hearts," a concerned FAMU alumni said while speaking during public comments the board of trustees meeting. "It's about not talking about it. It's about being about it."
The search for a new coach comes after Willie Simmons resigned from his position at FAMU to accept an assistant coach offer at Duke.
"Over the past couple of weeks, the alumni have spoken in many languages,"
Curtis Johnson, Jr., the president of FAMU's National Alumni Association said. "Cried, championships, support, confusion and even disappointment."
Johnson revealed the association voted they had no confidence in AD Sykes at a previous board meeting.
The criticism comes after days of backlash from key stakeholders at FAMU including donors, board of trustee members and football players.
The collective conclusion was they were shut out.
"While we recognize that AD Sykes has the authority to make athletic hiring decisions," Johnson said. "No shared communication of the hiring process for the head football coach, or transparency with key stakeholders, not only led to confusion but downright disappointment."
Sykes alluded in the meeting that community backlash led her to a decision to get a search firm that would be in charge of recruiting instead of just her.
The board of trustees voted to make sure the search firm would hear voices from alumni groups, donors, students and athletic faculty.
The vote was prompted, in part, by concerns from donors who say they were asked to fund raise money to supplement a new head coach.
"The call was sent out to give money that call was matched," Curtis Taylor, a FAMU Football alum and donor said. "But then there was no call to to give us any updates of what we've got to do for our next coaching staff."
Some board of trustee members brought up concerns that a search committee alongside a search firm could delay the search process due to bureaucracy.
FAMU players also joined the meeting saying the delay in the search was impacting the future momentum of the team.
"For guys like us when it comes down to whether we're staying or leaving," one player said. " That's all based upon a decision of hiring a head coach. And so that decision, we would just like to be answered pretty quickly because this is our future that we're dealing with."
Players echoed support for FAMU Football's interim head coach James Colzie to be made the permanent head coach.
When discussing the cost of a search firm FAMU leaders said they don't know the exact price of the search firm cost. A number upwards of $70,000 was mentioned.
