FIU coach Simmons knows history has been made, but wants to focus on making the Panthers winners
Willie Simmons is surprised by the history he has just made.
Simmons was introduced on Monday afternoon as the sixth (non-interim) football coach in FIU history. More to the point of history, he’s also the school’s first (non-interim) Black football coach.
“It still shocks me that in 2024 — about to be 2025 — that we’re still saying first African-American or Latino doing things. It shows how much more work we have to do collectively as a nation to truly have equality.
“But I’m excited about the opportunity to lead. I’ve gotten a lot of calls from minority coaches, saying how proud they are that I got this opportunity.
“We all champion for each other. We know these opportunities are limited. There are only 14 or 15 of us [Black head football coaches] across the country.
“When we get these opportunities, we have to make the most of them. We can coach football as well as anybody, and more and more people are starting to understand that.”
Simmons, who received a four-year contract, replaces Mike MacIntyre, who was fired on Dec. 1 — one day after he completed his third consecutive 4-8 season.
FIU has to pay off the final three years of MacIntyre’s contract, a sum that is worth between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Once MacIntyre was dismissed, FIU athletic director Scott Carr worked with a search firm to find a new coach.
About 25 to 30 potential new coaches were identified. Of those, “about 12” were interviewed, Carr said.
The three finalists were Simmons, FIU defensive coordinator Jovan Dewitt and UCF offensive coordinator Tim Harris Jr.
It was a turbocharged search, lasting just six days until the news broke this Saturday.
Simmons, a 44-year-old who is married and has six children — three of whom were at Monday’s introduction — now faces several tasks.
First, he has to put together a staff. He said that at his two previous stops as a head coach — Prairie View A&M and Florida A&M — he retained some assistants at each school.
That’s at least hopeful news to FIU assistants who want to stay.
Then there’s the issue of some of FIU’s top players who — following the dismissal of MacIntyre — entered their names into the transfer portal.
That list includes quarterback Keyone Jenkins and record-breaking wide receiver Eric Rivers as well as wide receiver Dean Patterson; offensive linemen John Bock II and Naeer Jackson and cornerback Hezekiah Masses.
In a response to a direct question regarding Jenkins and Rivers, Simmons said he has spoken to both of them, and the coach feels good about bringing those stars back.
“You focus on relationships,” Simmons said. “We can’t be naive to ignore the effect of NIL [Name, Image and Likeness] in many of those decisions. But we want to recruit and develop young men (to whom) money is not their No. 1 priority.
“It’s incumbent among us [coaches] to know that in the recruiting process. If money is your No. 1 priority, you will be enticed, and you will leave. We want young men who want to come to FIU because they feel this is the best program to develop them as young men.
“If they get into the program and feel that way, then no money will entice them because they know they are a part of something special.
“But there have to be genuine and authentic relationships.”
Simmons said he believes most of the players in the portal or on the team overall do not want to leave FIU but are frustrated by the program’s string of six straight losing seasons.
Conversely, Simmons — in eight years as a head coach — has never had a losing record. Combing his time at Prairie View and FAMU, his overall record is 66-24. His conference record is 51-11.
“They want to win,” Simmons said of FIU’s players, “and they want to know that the person leading them has a pedigree of winning.”