Dave Martin/AP Photo
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Rick Comegy and JSU are kings of the SWAC ... for now.
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On the heels of his third season at the helm, Jackson State’s Rick Comegy is confident about the ’08 season—and brutally honest about the state football at HBCUs
By Kenny Bunch
In a career that spans 30 years, Jackson State’s man of the moment hasn’t lost his edge—or his hunger for winning. And why would he? Rick Comegy’s record speaks for itself. The Millersville University (in Lancaster, Pa.) grad is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) while serving as the head coach of Tuskegee University, earning four SIAC championships as well as a National Black College Football Championship in 2000. Comegy took the Golden Tigers to five bowl games in his 10 years with the team, winning three games. So when JSU athletic director Robert Braddy tapped him to replace James Bell after the 2004 season, he believed the veteran coach could revamp a program whose tradition had taken a hit (8-26 record under Bell) in recent years.
The move has paid dividends for Braddy and JSU. In two seasons, the reigning SWAC champions are 14-9 under Comegy. Success is good, and Comegy knows the feeling all too well. But to repeat as SWAC champs—especially with 30 brand-new recruits—Comegy knows the 2008 season will be one his toughest. His campaign begins Aug. 31, versus Hampton University in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge. We caught up with Comegy to talk about his team, the MEAC/SWAC Challenge—and the state of HBCU football.
Q: As you represent the confernece in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, are you happy to be in the spotlight this early in the season?
A: Yes, I am. It comes with the territory when we win championships, so I don't see anybody that would be better to represent [the SWAC]; after all, we’re the number one team.
Q: Do MEAC and SWAC coaches view the MEAC/SWAC Challenge as simply an exhibition game, or are you of the mindset that it could evolve into Bowl-like experience for HBCUs?
A: I don't know about it becoming a bowl-like experience, but I do know that its great competition from the very first game. You don't get a chance to play a game against somebody soft; you have to come right out of the chute, prepared and ready to play. When you know that you have to play a team like Hampton, its going to make you bear down and press harder and put more time in, something that perhaps you wouldn't have done if you were playing a team of less caliber.
Q: How do you expect your team to look?
A: It is my hope that my staff and I have these guys well-oiled and playing on a high level. We cannot afford to make a lot of mistakes, have adjustment problems, or not be able to pick up when people want to send pressure on us. We need to be able to do all those little things early and [avoid] excuses.
Q: What can you tell us about this matchup against Hampton?
A: Hampton has a solid football team. They’ve always been a solid football team. They have a beautiful area where they can recruit. They can bring young men in and show them the setting down there by the Chesapeake Bay. It’s a beautiful situation. Just recently, they put about five or six guys in the NFL who are playing actively. They lost their head coach Joe Taylor, who took the job at Florida A&M. I thought he brought a lot to the table at Hampton, but I’m sure the coaches there will keep it going. They're a fine football team … but I think that we can handle them if we come out right.
Q: Do you feel any added pressure to represent your team and the SWAC positively?
A: I would like to feel that way, and I'm thinking our conference feels that way, but a lot of times, jealously or dislike comes in because for some unknown reason, one team dislikes another or dislikes a coach, or something of that nature. But I'm dedicated to the SWAC ... I know we can't please everybody and I know there's some that hope we get beat, even in our own conference, but that’s OK too. We have to play for the right thing.
Q: How far has football at HBCUs come, and what are some of the biggest challenges its programs face?
A: HBCU football has come a long way. Coaches are starting to make better salaries. At other schools, if a coach is making $400,000 from the university, he's making over a million in outside endorsements. We need to find a way to attract that outside entity, both white and black, to be involved in our programs. Even though TV exposure is great, sometimes we feel like we're being used ... because we don't receive the dividends like a Notre Dame, who gets the exposure and millions of dollars. That's just my take on it. I'm not sitting back and sucking my thumb over it, but I would love to see it, one day, being tit for tat.
Q: How do you rank the SWAC against other conferences?
A: The SWAC has had its good and bad years, like any other conference. Its just a matter of recruiting. The competition is outstanding. The coaches work extremely hard and that’s the key. We're getting the talent level that can move on and play [in the NFL], not like some of the big schools that have 11 guys deep, but we're getting three to four guys each year, which is great.
Q: HBCUs have molded some Hall of Fame NFL talent. But it seems those numbers have dwindled of late. Why is that?
A: Because of segregation and people integrating to different schools, those schools just have more than we do. It took me a while to understand that money does talk and kids see [other schools’] facilities and are often offered than a predominantly black school can. If I was a young guy, and I see a team always on TV every year and somebody comes to me and offers me [a scholarship], it’s hard to turn it down. So in reality, I can understand [why it happens]. I’m not belittling what we do, but I can understand it in a lot of ways.
Q: Over the course of your career, what has been a constant for you as a coach?
A: Hard work and loving the athletes. We have to remember that we have kids too that we're going to have to send [to college], and we're going to have to put our trust in someone else. I will have to trust someone with my 14 year-old son if he doesn't play for dad, and I want to be able to treat their sons and daughters as I would mine. When [players] know that you love and care for them, they play hard for you.
Q: Last season, you lost quarterback Jimmy Oliver. Have you found his replacement?
A: We have Trae Rutland, who was hurt and didn't get a chance to go this spring. I'm hoping he comes out and does a real fine job. We did a great job of recruiting, guys like A.J. McKenna, and we have a couple of freshmen coming in: Dominick Britt and Dedric McDonald. And, Joseph Hawkins, a senior, is still around. So we have some competition [at the QB position]. It’s a matter now of how Rutland comes back from injury and how wide open the position comes. Tray should have the edge of the spot, but we just have to see how it plays out. If their athletic ability hinders them from being a Divison 1 quarterback that can take us to the promise land, then we got to go with one of those other guys that can do it.
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KENNY BUNCH, a sophomore Marketing major at Jackson State, is the sports editor of the Blue & White Flash, JSU’s campus newspaper.
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