‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’: Central promotes Joseph to coach as Smith takes UM job
Miami Central is keeping it within the family to try to keep its football dynasty going.
Central officially announced Jube Joseph as its new coach Monday. Joseph has been the defensive coordinator since 2019, helping guide the Rockets to three straight state championships.
“If it ain’t broke,” Joseph said, “don’t fix it.”
Roland Smith, who led Central to six state titles, has officially joined the Miami Hurricanes’ coaching staff in an off-field role and was at Miami’s first spring practice Monday in Coral Gables. Smith led the Rockets to three-peats from 2013-2015 and 2019-2021.
A few weeks ago, Smith began discussing a job with the Hurricanes to join new coach Mario Cristobal’s staff and Joseph began the process of formally applying for the Central job. Joseph said he, Smith and the coaching staff had previously discussed potentially succession plans with Joseph, who played for the Rockets, as the logical successor for Smith whenever he left.
“We’re a tight-knit staff. We’re a family,” Joseph said. “If it were to be, we already had systems in place.”
Joseph graduated from William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in 2005 -- the Miami school have a football team and students often play at neighboring Central -- and also had previous coaching stops at Carol City and Norland before he joined Central’s staff in 2019. The Rockets were already a power before Joseph got there, but the coach’s arrival coincided with Central becoming Miami-Dade County’s preeminent powerhouse and his defense was maybe the biggest reason.
The Rockets held opponents to an average of 18.3 points per game in 2019, 8.7 points per game in 2020 and 13.1 points per game last year. They finished the 2021 season as the No. 20 team in the nation, according to MaxPreps, with its only two losses coming to top-15 teams.
He’s not going to just settle for sustaining Central’s run, though.
“My plan is to uphold the standard, uphold the brand,” he said, “but also, in this respect, to actually enhance it and take it to new heights.”
With Joseph at the helm, Central should still be on the short list of favorites to win a fourth consecutive state title. Defensive lineman Rueben Bain will be back for his senior year after splitting the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Defensive Player of the Year award for Classes 5A-2A with teammate Wesley Bissainthe, who now plays for the Hurricanes, and the Rockets are set to bring back two other first-team all-county performers.
With its eighth Florida High School Athletic Association title, Central now has the most championships in Dade County history, with one more than archrival Northwestern. Joseph will try to bring the Rockets more as they try to move on without Smith, whose seven FHSAA titles — he also won one with the Bulls — are tied for most by a South Florida coach.
Joseph won’t stray too far from what Smith was doing and he has one piece of advice he always likes to lean on.
“The one thing that stuck with me the most is he always told me, ‘Any decision you make, put the kids first. You put the kids first and you’ll never be wrong,’” Joseph said. “That’s something that I’ll keep with me for the rest of my career.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:11 PM.
