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David Hale
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Resting towards the wall in Eddie George’s nonetheless sparsely furnished workplace at Bowling Green is a framed poster of the Heisman Trophy, signed by each winner of the award from its inaugural season in 1935 (Jay Berwanger) by way of 1990 (Ty Detmer).
The distinctive bit of school soccer memorabilia belongs to tight ends coach Dewayne Alexander, who procured it from a fan years in the past, however he figured it will look higher within the head coach’s workplace. In spite of everything, if the poster’s historical past prolonged one other 5 years, George’s signature can be there, too.
That is, invariably, the very first thing anybody notes about Bowling Inexperienced’s new head coach, the primary Heisman winner employed to guide an FBS program since Steve Spurrier, and George is not making an attempt to cover from the label.
“Individuals see it as me being a Heisman Trophy winner, and I embrace that,” George stated. “I’ll use that celeb to draw folks to me. However then it is time for them to know who I’m.”
If the Heisman makes him one thing of a unicorn within the teaching ranks, the distinctiveness of his journey places him in the midst of one in all school soccer’s most seen tendencies: head coaches with ample celeb cachet, however minimal teaching expertise.
Name it the Coach Prime Impact.
Deion Sanders was employed at Jackson State in 2020, landed elite recruits on the HBCU, gained a bunch of video games, was employed at Colorado, circled that program and noticed his prized pupil, Travis Hunter, win a Heisman. All of the sudden, a subset of faculties wished in on the motion.
North Carolina employed Invoice Belichick — a six-time Tremendous Bowl champion with no school expertise — this offseason. Norfolk State employed Faculty Soccer Corridor of Famer Michael Vick, and Delaware State employed former NFL nice DeSean Jackson this yr, too. Ray Lewis and Ed Reed have each been tied to varsity teaching jobs. After which there’s George, who landed the Bowling Inexperienced job after 4 seasons of resurrecting Tennessee State, the place he had been seen as a direct response to Sanders’ success at Jackson State.
“We have been a solution to give our program a jolt,” Tennessee State AD Dr. Mikki Allen stated. “We felt like we wanted to get again into the nationwide image and be related and on the minds of high proficient recruits within the nation.”
George and Sanders are proof that the gamble can work — even when George would not take into account them to be carbon copies of one another.
“We now have comparable philosophies,” stated George, who stated he speaks with Sanders a number of instances a yr. “He does issues his means by way of media and exhibits, and that is not what I do. However by way of self-discipline and work ethic and expectations and the nonnegotiables, we’re very a lot comparable.”
Nonetheless, questions linger in regards to the notion of famous person coaches. Sanders has reshaped Colorado, however he has additionally engendered his share of criticism — together with Oregon coach Dan Lanning suggesting in 2023 that Coach Prime is extra about clicks than wins.
Belichick’s offseason was coated as breathlessly by TMZ because it was by conventional sports activities media. Vick and Jackson have taken over applications with little sources whereas hardly commanding the identical nationwide cachet that Sanders did at Jackson State.
The job is tough, the expectations excessive, and repute, George stated, takes a coach solely to this point.
“If I used to be going to delve into this,” George stated, “it wasn’t going to be about seeing what number of likes I may get on Twitter or my Instagram account. I am not right here for a present. I am right here to be a head coach.”
TRUTH BE TOLD, George by no means wished to do that job.
When the emptiness opened at Tennessee State in 2021, he acquired a name from then-president Glenda Glover, asking if he’d be excited by teaching the workforce. On the time, George was centered on a burgeoning performing profession and working a monetary companies firm, the place Glover was a shopper. He provided “a smooth no,” which he stated would’ve been way more definitive if he wasn’t keen to guard their skilled relationship.
Nonetheless, Glover and Allen persevered, and over the subsequent two weeks, an thought started to crystallize for George.
His profession arc — from Heisman to a distinguished NFL profession to investing to performing — gave the impression to be the proper preparation for the job within the trendy period of school sports activities. He had success on the highest degree. He knew learn how to speak {dollars} and sense. And performing — properly, who higher to make a recruiting pitch than somebody with the expertise to woo a whole viewers on Broadway?
There’s a regular criticism of this new group of celeb coaches, one espoused most eagerly by the others who’ve paid their dues, sleeping of their workplace and dealing second jobs to make ends meet earlier than rising up the ranks as a place coach and coordinator. The criticism is just not completely unfair, George stated. It simply lacks creativeness.
“I am not coming into it from the normal means of teaching,” George stated. “I am coming from the highest down. However I’ve accomplished all the pieces on this recreation — participant, coach, commentator. And now, I consider this time in the place school soccer is, my life’s experiences have allowed me to be ready for this. I do not balk at that. Everybody’s blueprint begins with a clean sheet.”
At UAB, Trent Dilfer has been below fireplace after a 7-17 report in his first two years. It is deserved, Dilfer stated, and he has discovered loads from the battle. However what he will not concede is that his path — Tremendous Bowl winner to TV analyst to small-school head coach at Lipscomb earlier than arriving at UAB — meant he took the simple street to the job.
“My soccer life did put together me for this problem,” Dilfer stated. “I used to be very prepared. It has been a slower turnaround to success than I might’ve appreciated, however I do suppose I used to be ready for the problem.”
George was in a swimming pool when it lastly clicked that he was prepared, too. He was within the midst of an hourlong exercise, and his thoughts raced with concepts for what may very well be completed at Tennessee State. He may image the uniforms, the each day schedule, working onto the sector. He began enthusiastic about what he’d inform the gamers of their first assembly.
“I acquired so excited,” George stated. “It was beginning to come to life.”
George talked to mates within the enterprise — NFL coaches Mike Tomlin and Mike Vrabel, Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell, and former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. George even reached out to his previous highschool coach. All of them advised him the identical factor: You are meant for this.
And so he known as again Allen and made a counteroffer. He wanted a promise of funding from the college. He wished an opportunity to construct.
“I am not coming to be a pawn,” he advised Allen. “I am not the ring chief of a circus.”
George set about revamping the infrastructure of Tennessee State’s program. He earned convention coach of the yr honors in 2024 and led Tennessee State to its first FCS playoff berth in additional than a decade, all whereas pushing donors to this system to open their wallets to assist fund an more and more costly enterprise. He parlayed that success right into a reportedly spectacular interview with the Chicago Bears earlier than touchdown the top teaching job at Bowling Inexperienced.
Falcons athletics director Derek van der Merwe had labored with profitable coaches — Brian Kelly, Jedd Fisch, basketball’s Sean Miller — and he insisted on discovering comparable attributes in his subsequent rent at Bowling Inexperienced. George match the invoice.
“Teaching’s not nearly soccer, like taking part in EA Faculty Soccer and simply calling performs,” Van der Merwe stated. “It is about inspiring and motivating younger folks to wish to obtain extra on and off the sector. Eddie George, together with his background, it is extra than simply the Heisman. It is an individual who’s developed all through his profession. That is greater than only a celeb rent. This weighed all the good contributions he could make in impacting the lives of those younger folks.”
GEORGE HAS AN acronym he likes to share with gamers: G.U.T.S. It stands for gumption, understanding, tenacity and sacrifice, and on this planet of celeb coaches, that final one is especially related.
George is legitimately well-known in Ohio, the place he gained the Heisman with Ohio State in 1995. George has starred in a viral TikTok with Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer and former teammate Ray Lewis. He is married to a ’90s pop star (SWV vocalist Taj Johnson). He has acted on Broadway within the musical “Chicago.” He runs a number of companies. George jokes that on this job — on a campus only a half hour from the state line with Michigan — even Michigan residents are pulling for him.
When information broke that he had taken the Bowling Inexperienced job, the information generated greater than 4 billion worldwide social media engagements, in accordance with the college, and the Falcons’ social media channels surpassed final yr’s engagement numbers by July. Bowling Inexperienced ticket gross sales are up 157% yr over yr since George’s hiring.
In March, George was invited to ship the sport ball to the pitcher’s mound earlier than the Toledo Mudhens’ season opener. He acquired a standing ovation, then wanted police escorts by way of the group to maneuver previous the hordes of autograph and movie seekers.
And but, this isn’t the lifetime of a famous person. For the primary three months he was on the job, George left his spouse and beloved bulldogs behind and lived out of a close-by Greatest Western, consuming a large proportion of his meals on the Waffle Home throughout from campus.
“I am easy,” he stated. “Give me a cushty mattress, a room that has the temperature set at 68 levels and a clear toilet. I am good.”
George is all in regards to the grind, he stated. That is the key to this job. That is why he believes Vick and Jackson are minimize out for it, too.
“You may’t obtain that degree of greatness with out eager to grind,” he stated. “There is no means in hell. You do not simply get up within the morning like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Walter Payton or Jerry Rice. It is actually a want-to. It is a calling. It has nothing to do with being a fantastic participant. I feel that is B.S.”
It is undoubtedly true that, given all of George’s success away from the sport, the $600,000 wage he earns at Bowling Inexperienced is not what pushes him to work every morning. However whether or not coaches who’ve already loved the best ranges of success as gamers actually wish to endure this grind — the recruiting journeys, donor luncheons, bus rides to video games and lengthy nights at price range motels — is not the identical reply for everybody else.
Norfolk State’s athletics price range in 2024 was about $21 million, a fraction of Vick’s final massive contract within the NFL. Delaware State lauded a brand new $20 million funding by the state in athletics amenities, however its annual price range in 2024 was simply greater than $16 million. It is a far cry from the perks Vick and Jackson loved within the NFL.
“I feel the lesson I discovered is a whole lot of the issues that work elsewhere or different circumstances might not work within the conditions you are in,” Dilfer stated. “In case you’re Michael Vick, and also you knew all these nice folks in Philly, it could not work within the place you are in now. You should do issues which can be applicable to the place you are at.”
ESPN made a number of unsuccessful requests to Norfolk State athletics to talk with Vick over a interval of months. Delaware State didn’t reply to a number of requests to talk with Jackson or the college’s athletics director, Tony Tucker.
Belichick’s résumé commanded massive cash from UNC — a wage double what former coach Mack Brown made, sizable investments in his teaching employees and guarantees of no less than $13 million in income share cash for participant acquisition — however the schism between his fame and the college’s extra modest standing within the sports activities ecosystem was on show all through a spring through which his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, garnered way more headlines than the soccer workforce.
Even Sanders, the archetype for the brand new mildew of celeb head coach, has been a lightning rod for criticism. He has famously stated he would not want to go to recruits, sparred with reporters who criticized his strategy, and for all of the bluster and a spotlight, has only one win over a ranked foe in his two seasons at Colorado — his first recreation towards a TCU workforce that completed 5-7.
However what’s clear for everybody from Belichick to Prime to Jackson, Vick and George is, the title recognition interprets to extra money, extra consideration and extra ticket gross sales for the college. In a panorama that is much less collegial and extra massive enterprise than ever, that is a threat some colleges are wanting to take.
Contained in the locker room, none of that issues. That, George stated, is the place the true work begins.
“The gamers know who I’m, however I do not relaxation on that, and say, ‘Hey, here is my Heisman,'” George stated. “It is, ‘What are you doing to assist me? How are you going to assist me be a greater man, participant, particular person, scholar?’ I can not simply stay off my previous successes. That simply will get me within the door.”
GEORGE WAS LATE for his first assembly together with his offensive line. He had been on the job for lower than every week, and preserving the massive males from hitting the switch portal was a precedence, so he booked a dinner reservation at a well-liked burger place close to campus.
He arrived quarter-hour not on time.
“And the very first thing he did was 15 pushups as punishment,” senior Nate Pabst stated.
A couple of days into summer time exercises, George discovered the Falcons’ locker room raveled, so he gathered the workforce for up-downs below the scorching July solar.
Whether or not it is the top coach or the gamers, accountability is all the pieces for George.
“I see issues from a enterprise perspective,” George stated. “I am constructing a Fortune 500 firm, that is how I take a look at this. I am meticulous that all the pieces we do must mirror excellence.”
The pushups at dinner aren’t what Pabst remembers most about his first assembly with George, nevertheless. It was the dialog. His new coach hardly talked about soccer.
“He talked about life,” Pabst stated.
It is one of many nice ironies of George’s perspective on teaching. He landed the job as a result of his success as a participant garnered him a lot acclaim, however the factor he most desires his gamers to grasp is that he has failed — and they’re going to, too.
“You have to grow to be specialists at failure,” George stated. “Shedding is simply details about learn how to get higher. It is emotional intelligence. The whole lot I’ve completed, I’ve had failure to a point.”
It is an ethos he believes in, but it surely’s additionally a means of breaking down that barrier that his celeb can create. As a result of here is the largest fact George believes in regards to the teaching occupation: “The most effective factor you will be is weak.”
Contained in the locker room, George can’t be a celeb, set aside from everybody else. He wants his gamers’ belief, and meaning exhibiting them his weaknesses.
“Teaching, to me, is just not having a whistle round your neck and exhibiting how highly effective I’m,” George stated. “It is being weak. It is being relatable. We’re all on this collectively.”
Cornerback Jalen McClendon considers George a father determine, he stated. George recruited him to Tennessee State, and he thrived there. When George introduced his departure for Bowling Inexperienced, McClendon stated he deliberate to enter the switch portal, too.
George’s recommendation: “Take a shot on your self.”
George assured McClendon he’d have a spot on Bowling Inexperienced’s roster, however he additionally stated that the veteran nook would have presents elsewhere, too. He ought to hear. He had earned an opportunity to maximise his worth.
So, McClendon took visits, and certain sufficient, he had presents — presents that exceeded what Bowling Inexperienced may pay by a large quantity. However what he did not discover on every other campus was the identical kind of tradition, the identical devotion from a head coach, that he had discovered with George.
“I took a pay minimize, however I did not care about that,” McClendon stated. “I cared about realizing the coaches are in it for the best causes.”
A typical chorus amongst coaches is to “know your why” — to have a transparent mission assertion for the job. However George sees it otherwise. He desires to know his “the place.” The place can he take this program? How far can this workforce go in 2025? The place will his gamers be in 10 years?
What would not make the listing is a want to show himself.
“I am not frightened about how folks understand me,” he stated. “Y’all determine the way you wish to take a look at that. I’m a celeb. I am a head coach, an actor and a businessman. I am all of that. I’ve accomplished all of it.”