James Franklin or Marcus Freeman will join an elite list of barrier-breakers. Up first is a historic CFP semifinal.
History will be made for the winning coach when Penn State and Notre Dame play on Thursday at the Orange Bowl. Freeman or Franklin will become the first Black coach in the title game.
For anyone whose biography, obituary, resumé, or retirement salutes do, or will, contain references to them being barrier-breakers, glass ceiling-smashers, the first “fill in the blank” of their race, gender, color, religion, there is immense pride in having etched one’s initials on even the tiniest bit of history. There also is profound introspection.
Pride, of course, comes when even the most fleeting moments send hope throughout one’s profession, culture, class, gender, and race that any belief that you cannot or do not belong can be shattered. You learn along the path you walk that, even without realizing it at times, you give back by giving hope. Your actions and achievements show that it is healthy and fulfilling to dream, because it’s what you do, or have done, to persevere, persist, and ultimately succeed even when seemingly against all odds.
There will always be a need for a Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, and Arthur Ashe. In our multicultural society, some are destined to lead with their courage, their chins, carrying many, many people on their backs — thankful people who will never forget the thankless job done by the lonely but brave on their behalf.
The profound introspection? Who can measure that, the great leveler for the pioneer, the torch carrier? As a history-making “first,” one likely will always long for the day when such references are not needed, because such distinctions by then will have long ago been relegated to bygone eras in which they were headlines rather than footnotes. Believe me when I say that as someone often cited as a “first” in this media circle, it is not necessarily the primary description you were dying to have chiseled on your tombstone or etched into every introduction. Thus, the tug-of-war between pride in the doing and the reflection on measuring one’s lifelong body of work against who you are or what you look like.
By next Thursday, either James Franklin or Marcus Freeman will find out the weight of such emotions as at least one makes history.
Franklin and Freeman, African Americans and the head football coaches of Penn State and Notre Dame, respectively, are to square off in the Orange Bowl, one of two College Football Playoff semifinal games. This assures that a Black American will lead a team into the CFP national championship for the first time in the 11-year-old system.
Franklin, Penn State’s head coach since 2014, has never been shy about aligning his aspirations with those whose path he followed and those he hopes will profit from following his lead. In an interview session with the media as far back as 2019, Franklin said he was inspired when two African American NFL coaches, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, matched up in Super Bowl XLI at the end of the 2006 season. At the time, he was the Kansas State offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach.
“I think it had a profound impact on the sport and on the game and coaches that look like me and look like Lovie and look like Tony,” Franklin said. “Then when you saw it happen at the NFL level and felt like that was an important moment within the sport and hopefully opened up some opportunities for others, that hopefully, the same thing could happen in college football.”
Fast-forward to this championship season, and Franklin stands two victories away from his ultimate goal of winning Penn State’s first national title since 1986, which came via pre-playoff system consensus voting and other championship iterations.
Freeman, like Franklin, is chasing history for his university, which last won a national championship in 1988.
If Franklin and State win out or Freeman and the Irish triumph, the winning coach will add his name to a long line of African American sports sideline pioneers, including Cito Gaston, John Thompson, Bill Russell, and Dungy.
Sadly, the notable national titles secured by coaches/managers at the college and pro levels, remain as few and far between as the opportunities to be hired to head elite programs such as Penn State and Notre Dame.
Freeman, Notre Dame’s coach since 2021, also is well-aware of those who wish to follow and succeed as he has. He was quick to remind how the introspection is inextricably woven into each narrative when he spoke to the media after the Fighting Irish’s 23-10 Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia advanced his team to the semis this past Thursday.
Freeman said he was grateful to be one of the two Black coaches in the semifinals: “It’s a reminder that you are a representation of many others, and for many of our players who look the same way I do.” He then added: “Your color shouldn’t matter. The evidence of your work should.”
The dissection of what will occur Thursday undoubtedly will turn to opportunities that have been granted, or not, to the masses of these coaches’ peers. The conversations and headshaking are inevitable in a sport overwhelmingly populated by players of color, from the colleges to the pros (according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, as of 2018, more than 54% of the players on FBS teams were Black).
» READ MORE: Penn State will play Notre Dame in the CFP semifinals: Here are three things to know about the Irish
The barrier-breaker for African American head coaches at the top levels of college football was Willie E. Jeffries, when he was hired by Wichita State in 1979. Forty-five years later, Franklin and Freeman were but two of the 16 African Americans found among the 134 FBS head coaches, numbers that are beyond head-scratching, to say the least.
As Panama Jackson of the African American cultural website, TheGrio, recently wrote of the pending achievement of Franklin or Freeman: “That’s a wild stat in 2025, but it is true. And frankly, it’s ridiculous, especially compared to the amount of players who are Black. But this isn’t a new story or a surprising one, really; the conversation around the lack of Black head coaches in both college football and the NFL is ongoing. The fact that history is STILL being made in certain corners of the athletic world is crazy but there are still doors that need opening. With that said, come Jan. 9, either Coach Freeman or Coach Franklin will march on toward history.”
History is inevitable. So, too, will be the pride. The only thing left to be written will be penned by the person whose name will be indelibly etched alongside the other “firsts.” It will be fascinating to watch how one of these two men interprets their own place in the annals of the game, and in the history of our sports and our culture.