‘Game day is showtime’: Willie Simmons is ready to lead FIU back to winning ways
Dejected, Willie Simmons bowed his head and walked into his coach’s office.
The year was 2012, and Simmons was in his first year as offensive coordinator at Alcorn State. The Braves went just 4-7 that season, and Simmons’ offense averaged only 17.7 points per game, including four contests during which Alcorn State scored in single figures.
Jay Hopson, who was Alcorn State’s coach that year, remembers the talk with Simmons well.
“Willie said, ‘I know you’re not going to keep me after this year,’” Hopson said, recalling the conversation.
“I said, ‘I ain’t letting you go. You’re a great coach.’
“We took over a 2-8 team from the previous staff. We were playing almost all freshmen. Willie did a great job.”
Hopson kept to his word.
He kept Simmons on staff, and — just two years later — they led Alcorn State to a 10-3 record, the 2014 Southwestern Athletic Conference title and the Black College National Championship by virtue of its No. 1 ranking. That team averaged 44.0 points per game, ranking second in the nation.
More than a decade later, Simmons is on the verge of the opening game of his first season as FIU’s head coach. The opener is at home on Aug. 29 against Bethune-Cookman.
Simmons said he is only thinking about the next practice. But, pressed further about Aug. 29, Simmons said:
“Game day is showtime. That’s where all the hard work really comes to fruition. Game day is go time. The nation is watching, and we have to put a good product on the field.”
Simmons, 44, is a native of Quincy, a small town — population 7,970 — that is part of the Tallahassee metropolitan area.
Simmons, the youngest of three children and the only son of Willie and Phyllis Simmons, was an All-American quarterback at Shanks High in Quincy. As a senior, he led Shanks to its first district title in 22 years, passing for 2,505 yards and 32 touchdowns.
Earning more than 20 scholarship offers, Simmons chose Clemson and coach Tommy Bowden, who beat out his father, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, for the recruit.
“That didn’t happen often,” Tommy Bowden said of his father losing out on a local recruit.
When Simmons arrived at Clemson, he met a fellow freshman, LaTroy Johnson, who was working as a Tigers equipment manager.
But Johnson was predisposed to not liking Simmons, and here’s why: Johnson is from Orangeburg, South Carolina — the same hometown as Clemson quarterback Woodrow Dantzler III. Dantzler was the first quarterback from Orangeburg’s Wilkinson High to earn a Division I scholarship, and Johnson wanted him to succeed in college, too.
Simmons, though, potentially stood in the way of that pursuit.
“I resented [Simmons],” Johnson said. “He was talked about as the heir apparent – the savior. And I wanted my guy [Dantzler] to get the job.”
As it turns out, Dantzler got the job and became the first quarterback in NCAA history to pass for more than 2,000 yards and rush for at least 1,000 in the same year. In fact, Dantzler was inducted into the Clemson Hall of Fame in 2007.
Simmons, meanwhile, quickly won over Johnson.
“It changed quickly,” Johnson said of his feelings of resentment. “I saw that [Simmons] was selfless. It was never about him. It was always about the team.
“[Simmons] played the backup QB role better than anyone I’ve ever seen. In practice, he competed. But when it was game time, he was always there to support Woody and let him know what he was seeing.”
Johnson and Simmons grew closer through the years. In fact, soon after Simmons was hired as Florida A&M’s head coach, he hired Johnson as his assistant athletic director for football operations.
And, as soon as Simmons landed the FIU job this past December, it was no secret that Johnson would be making the trip to Miami, getting hired as chief of staff in addition to his previous title.
None of that is a surprise to Bowden, who said Simmons was a stellar recruit in all respects.
For example, due to dual enrollment, Simmons arrived at Clemson with 35 college credits. Simmons then became the first Clemson football player to graduate in just three years.
“Willie was A-plus on everything — academics; personality, always smiling; good player; good leader; good communicator; handsome,” Bowden said.
“He checked all the boxes. Handsome wasn’t necessary, but it doesn’t hurt when you’re the quarterback.”
Simmons’ first coaching job came in 2005 as the passing-game coordinator at Tallahassee’s Lincoln High. In 2006, Simmons served as a Clemson graduate assistant.
In 2007, Rick Stockstill — who was the Clemson assistant who personally recruited Simmons — got a call from his former player. Simmons wanted Stockstill, who by then was the head coach at Middle Tennessee, to recommend him for a job at Georgia Southern.
Stockstill did just that, telling Chris Hatcher — who is now the coach at Samford — about all of Simmons’ qualities.
“After I hung up the phone with Chris, I realized that all the qualities Willie has was what I was looking for in a running backs coach,” Stockstill said. “I called Willie and told him that I wanted to hire him.
“Willie said, “Don’t mess with me, Stock.’”
Stockstill wasn’t messing around. He was serious, and Simmons stayed at Middle Tennessee for five years.
From there, he served at the aforementioned Alcorn State before becoming a head coach for the first time — from 2015 to 2017 — at Prairie View A&M, where he went 21-11 overall and 19-6 in the SWAC.
He was the first coach in 55 years to lead Prairie View to three straight winning seasons, and his 2015 team led all of FCS in scoring average (44.9).
Next up, Simmons returned to his home area as FAMU hired him as head coach (2018 to 2023). In five seasons there (2020 was canceled due to COVID), the Rattlers went 45-13. In the previous seasons, FAMU had gone 14-43.
Last year, Simmons was hired as Duke’s running backs coach. The man who hired him was former Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz.
Duke went 9-4 last season. It was the fifth straight season that a team that had Simmons on staff won at least nine games. In those five years, those squads went 48-12.
That record is a source of pride for Simmons and his family, including his wife, Shaia Simmons, 46, who currently works as a principal at Robert F. Munroe Day School in Havana, Florida.
Shaia and Willie met at Carter Paramore Middle School in Quincy, but they didn’t become a couple until two decades later when she tried to connect him with one of her girlfriends at an event/party.
Said Shaia: “Willie had been through a bad breakup, and I said, ‘Dang, I’ve got a nice girl for you. She’s so cute, and I know she’ll be at the event.’
“But when we got there, I discovered she was dating somebody, and I got stuck with [Willie] all night at the party.”
As it turns out, they talked for a really long time that night … and the next day, too.
“We just stuck together from then on,” Shaia said. “It was weird, but it’s true.“
The couple will celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary in December, and Shaia has a strong belief in Simmons’ talents.
“Nothing matters to him more than being successful as a football coach,” Shaia said. “His drive is insatiable. He is going to work when everyone else is asleep.
“I would put him up against any football mind in the country.”
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 6:00 AM.