{"id":2931,"date":"2014-01-16T23:41:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T23:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2014-01-16T23:41:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T23:41:22","slug":"hiring-of-jsus-new-football-coach-draws-mixed-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2014\/01\/16\/hiring-of-jsus-new-football-coach-draws-mixed-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiring of JSU\u2019s new football coach draws mixed reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n[youtube uqB38qrBZcQ]
\nMark Braboy
\nNews Editor
\n<\/strong>
\nStudents have mixed opinions following a Monday press conference announcing Harold Jackson, an alum and former NFL and Big 12 Conference Coach, as the new Jackson State University head football coach.<\/p>\n

The Hattiesburg, Miss. native, replaces Rick Comegy, who was let go Dec. 17 following an unsuccessful trip to the SWAC Championship game.<\/p>\n

JSU students say they are anxious to see what Jackson can do with the program.<\/p>\n

James Holloway, a music technology major from Memphis, Tenn. said, \u201cI think it\u2019s good that we have a guy that\u2019s actually from the university. He does have experience and he has been known for working for a few NFL teams. Honestly, I don\u2019t know how I feel about him because I\u2019ve never see any of the teams he actually worked for play before, but I\u2019m looking for it to be a pretty good season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eldria Coleman, a freshman mass communications major from Carthage, Miss., said, \u201cI felt that they made a bad choice because of the history that our coach has. He took us to four SWAC championships, and I don\u2019t understand why they fired him. That\u2019s good coaching to me. I don\u2019t understand why they would do something like that to a person with such great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson is a five time Pro Bowler who played for Jackson State in the 1960s as a wide receiver and played in the NFL for 16 years. After an illustrious career with many teams, he began coaching, starting with the New England Patriots in 1985 until 1989. Since then, he has coached for various NFL teams including the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with as well as collegiate teams at Benedict College and Baylor University. In 2011, Jackson returned to professional coaching with the Hartford Colonials of the UFL (United Football League) and then with the Sacramento Mountain Lions in 2012.<\/p>\n

At the press conference, Jackson addressed several topics such as the players conditioning, the need to develop the players as athletes and citizens, whether or not the team can continue reaching the SWAC tournament and recruiting locally and statewide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to recruit Mississippi! We\u2019re not going to go outside Mississippi until we saturate Jackson and the outer areas. We\u2019re going do Mississippi first because this is our fan base. We want to put people in the stands. In order to put people in the stands, our players listen to you. If you\u2019re behind us, we will win the games,\u201d said Jackson.<\/p>\n

When asked about his recruiting methods, he stated: \u201cFirst thing is that I need to start building a relationship with the coaches and the high schools in the state of Mississippi. I want to go out and visit with them and then once you get that relationship I think we\u2019ll be able to create some feedback to get the players into Jackson State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson added that his vision for the team would be to have an offense that will be able to sell tickets and a defense that will be able to win championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure we\u2019re disciplined on this football field because when you have a disciplined team, you are winning football. We\u2019re going to be disciplined in the classroom and in competition level. If that don\u2019t work, you won\u2019t play for me,\u201d said Jackson.<\/p>\n

One of Jackson\u2019s former NFL teammates, Rodney Phillips, who played with Los Angeles Rams, vouched for his coaching abilities and football knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited and I think he\u2019s well qualified. I think he will generate a lot of excitement for the university, bring a lot of expertise, lot of know-how, and a lot of excitement to the program,\u201d said Philips.<\/p>\n

Current football player Michael Perkins, a wide receiver and red shirt junior from Valparaiso, Ind., focused his confidence on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly as a player, there\u2019s always going to confusion, especially when coaches are let go, but I trusted the school and that our Athletic Director would put the right person in place that could lead us back to the championship,\u201d said Perkins.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019m excited. Whenever you can bring back someone who played at Jackson State and knows about the history, and has played at the next level and knows how to compete at the next level you can\u2019t ask for anything more. So as a player I\u2019m excited to learn and see what he can bring to Jackson State and also what he can teach me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerlisha Gipson, a senior health care administration major from Pope, Miss., said, \u201cI think there is more to the story about him (Comegy) getting fired, but I\u2019m anxious to see what the new coach is going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Meakens, a senior criminal justice major from Vicksburg, Miss. said. \u201cI just feel like they shouldn\u2019t have fired Coach Comegy. I feel like part of it had to do with him (allegedly) not getting a long with alumni. So they could have talked to him and see how they could get the city involved because they wanted more money. They should have got all of them together to agree because his coaching skills were amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of iffy about all of it,\u201d said Chuck Holmes, a senior computer engineering major from Atlanta, Ga.<\/p>\n

At press time, it is unclear whether or not Jackson will rehire any of the coaching staff that were fired with Comegy, who led Jackson State to the last two Southwestern Athletic Conference championship games and had an overall record of 55-35 record in eight seasons at JSU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[youtube uqB38qrBZcQ] Mark Braboy News Editor Students have mixed opinions following a Monday press conference announcing Harold Jackson, an alum and former NFL and Big 12 Conference Coach, as the new Jackson State University head football coach. The Hattiesburg, Miss. native, replaces Rick Comegy, who was let go Dec. 17 following an unsuccessful trip to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}