Former players learn ins and outs of coaching at their alma maters

Former North Carolina Central quarterback Davius Richard is back in Durham, North Carolina, in the same meeting rooms and on the same practice fields as when he played there. The former Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Offensive Player of the Year is now the quarterbacks coach at his alma mater, helping shape his successors.

A number of football programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are turning to alums to fill coaching vacancies, offering former players their first opportunity in the profession.

For recent graduates such as Richard, it provides a springboard into the coaching ranks, and for schools, it offers a chance to preserve tradition and locker-room culture with a new generation of student-athletes.

“Even though I wasn’t experienced, they [Central’s coaches] knew the kind of player and person that I was, and that I was gonna attack [this job] the same way,” he said.

The end of Richard’s playing career was abrupt and unexpected. After an ankle injury he sustained at the 2024 HBCU Legacy Bowl sidelined him before that year’s NFL draft, Richard signed with the United Football League’s Houston Roughnecks in July 2024. He spent the summer rehabbing his ankle, studying for his master’s degree and volunteering as a coach at a local high school in Durham. Ultimately, the injury forced Richard to retire from playing football.

After his retirement, North Carolina Central head coach Trei Oliver heard that Richard was open to coaching and offered him the quarterbacks coach position in April. Oliver said he felt it was his responsibility to give back by offering Richard the role, which he described as the least the program could do for someone who had given so much to the university. Richard was the starting quarterback and team captain when the Eagles won the Celebration Bowl in 2022.

“Central could have went a whole different route,” Richard said. “They could have gotten somebody that’s experienced in the role they were looking for, or people that’ve been coaching way longer than I have.”

Richard said he wanted his first collegiate coaching job to be one where he could learn everything it takes to run a football program and to have the autonomy to coach players and make suggestions on the offense. He works closely with offensive coordinator Matt Leone, the same coach who mentored and coached him during his playing career, and a lot of the information is the same from when he played.

“The respect and the trust that I built within the players that’s still on the team when I played – that still carries weight,” Richard said. “They don’t look at me like, ‘He’s the same old Pee Wee [Richard’s nickname].’ … They respect me as a coach.”

Richard describes the life of a college position coach as a “grind,” explaining that on weekdays the coaching staff usually leaves the team facility after 7 p.m. and returns before the daily 6 a.m. team meeting. That insight has given Richard newfound respect for coaches and taught him patience when dealing with underclassmen who are new to the system.

“I’ve seen the frustration, the growing pains,” Oliver said. “When he’s questioned why somebody threw the ball [or] he didn’t throw it to the correct person, that wasn’t the right read – you know, the little things that coaches could get frustrated with – it’s funny to watch that. I said, ‘Davius, you used to do the same stuff. Man, I don’t want to hear all that.’”

Richard is focused on soaking up every lesson he can during his first season as a member of the Eagles’ coaching staff.

“I try not to look too far ahead right now as far as becoming a head coach or whatever it may be,” Richard said. “One thing that helped me early on is Leone told me, ‘Even though you’re an analyst or a position coach right now, treat it as if you’re an offensive coordinator,’ so always treat it as one step ahead.”

Richard isn’t the only player with championship experience on the sideline this season. After earning a Celebration Bowl victory in December, former Jackson State defensive back Esaias Guthrie joined the Tigers’ coaching staff this summer as a defensive analyst and assistant safeties coach.

Before the end of the 2024 season, Jackson State defensive coordinator Torenzo Quinn spoke with Guthrie about his future and whether Guthrie would be open to joining the coaching staff.

While awaiting a decision from the NCAA on whether he would be granted an additional year of eligibility, Guthrie stayed in Jackson, Mississippi, with his son, Elias, working out to stay in playing shape but also watching the coaching staff prepare the team to defend its Celebration Bowl title.

“I was always interested in it [coaching],” Guthrie said. “But then, just playing for so long, your body kind of gets that wear and tear on it. You kind of lose a different love for the game with the playing aspect. But just going over the coaching and seeing how things were working behind the scenes during last year’s season, it just made me fall in love with the game more from a different point of view.”

When Jackson State head coach T.C. Taylor accepted the head coaching position at his alma mater in December 2022, Guthrie was Taylor’s first recruit to commit to Jackson State. Throughout Guthrie’s two seasons with the program, Taylor watched Guthrie spend additional hours in the building trying to learn schemes.

Throughout Taylor’s coaching career, Jackson State and other HBCUs offered him opportunities, so when the Tigers had an opening for a defensive analyst, they knew Guthrie understood the culture and system better than anyone.

“Being around him the last couple of seasons, you just saw that he had coaching in his DNA,” Taylor said. “You could just see it. When he speaks to the team, his teammates listen. He keeps everybody lined up, and he’s doing the same things he was doing as a player right now as a coach.”

Guthrie’s duties include assisting every coach on the defensive staff by making sure the team has everything it needs to practice for the day, and for ensuring football film is ready for team meetings.

When he was a student-athlete, Guthrie picked up defensive concepts from coaches writing them out on the board. However, as a coach, he is realizing everyone doesn’t learn the way he did, and he’s learning about different teaching techniques from every member of the Jackson State coaching staff.

“It takes longer for other guys than it did me,” Guthrie said. “We have a different blend of coaches here, so they all teach in their own ways and have their different ways of doing things. So I get to see every different aspect of it, whether it’s from a PowerPoint, whether it’s from showing some film [or] where we’re going directly onto the field and doing it that way.”

For Guthrie, starting his coaching career at Jackson State is his way of continuing to build the program’s legacy of winning.

“This [winning championships] isn’t something that we just want to go one year and die down,” Guthrie said. “I wanted to make sure it’s a different type of fun here, make sure that we can build something to go back to back and then go for the three-peat and build on from there. So it’s definitely big for me to get my start here and, God willing, hopefully get my finish here, too.”

After a spinal injury ended Howard defensive back Elijah Coleman’s playing career during his senior season in 2022, he envisioned his next steps: graduate with his degree and move back home to Texas to work a 9-to-5.

Despite being injured, Coleman remained active on the sideline, demonstrating technique drills at practices and supporting his teammates. His commitment caught the attention of head coach Larry Scott, who viewed Coleman’s presence and passion as the first signs of a future in coaching.

Scott and David Davis, Howard’s assistant athletic director of football operations, offered Coleman the chance to become a quality control analyst on the coaching staff in 2023. The work sparked Coleman’s interest in pursuing a coaching career.

“You always want to give back to the place that gave you everything,” Coleman said. “I tell Coach Scott as much as I can how much I’m thankful for the opportunity and how blessed I am to be in this position as young as I am.”

Coleman’s first two seasons were filled with 12-hour days spent analyzing film, printing practice materials and making other preparations for the next day’s practice. Coleman would leave Howard’s campus after dark and work for DoorDash for several hours to make enough money for food and rent.

When Scott finally offered Coleman a full-time job as cornerbacks coach, he was overcome with emotion.

“When those words finally came out of his mouth this past spring … all that weight just felt like it just melted off my shoulders,” Coleman said. “You invest in me [and] I’m gonna make sure you get back on this investment.”

Coleman credits defensive coordinator Kyshoen Jarrett for facilitating his development. Under Scott’s and Jarrett’s leadership, Coleman is applying lessons such as being poised under pressure in his first season as a position coach.

“I commend Coach Scott for kind of seeing that [potential] in me before I saw it in myself, and giving me the space to kind of coach in my own way,” Coleman said. “Scott always says, ‘If you’re going to do it, do it your own way.’ Now I’m instilling to my players to just have open communication, which is being transparent with guys. Being honest, genuine – that brings a level of authenticity to the business.”

Former Texas Southern linebacker Tim Walton Jr. never played for head coach Cris Dishman, but their pathways crossed in a way that Walton describes as divine intervention.

After Walton graduated from Texas Southern, he was selected in the 30th round of the 2022 USFL draft by the New Jersey Generals. Dishman, then the Generals’ defensive coordinator, called Walton to tell him that he had been drafted. When Walton reunited with Dishman two years later at his alma mater, it felt like a full-circle moment for Walton.

“We joke and we laugh about it,” Walton said. “It just so happened that the man who gave me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play professionally will also be the man who would give me the opportunity to start my coaching career.”

After being hired as Texas Southern’s head coach in 2024, Dishman said bringing Walton onto his coaching staff as a defensive analyst was an easy decision.

“Being able to coach Tim for a short stint there in the USFL, I saw his dedication and his leadership,” Dishman said. “Anytime you can get an ex-player that has played there at the school and also went on to do special things at a higher level, guys respect that more.”

As a transfer from Syracuse, Walton spent three seasons with the Tigers (2019-2021). Since joining the coaching staff, he says the new team culture is a night-and-day transformation compared with what he experienced as a player. Walton said he admires how supportive Dishman is to both players and coaches, maintaining an open-door policy where players and coaches can discuss ideas or express concerns.

Walton’s first season as a defensive analyst taught him the importance of having patience as a coach and effective ways to mentor players, lessons that have shaped his mindset for his second season.

“Things are not always going to go your way,” Walton said. “Things are going to hit the fan more times than not. There’s going to be things that happen and it stresses you out, but you just got to just keep going and just understand that a lot of people would kill to be in a position that we are in right now.”

Since he wore the same uniform, Walton has much pride in Texas Southern’s football program, and he is committed to helping it succeed. In the future, he said he would love to be a full-time position coach on the defensive side of the ball, but for now he’s focused on helping his program win.

“All I want is for this team to have a winning season, to go all the way and win championships,” Walton said. “It’s going to happen. It’ll be like I was playing. I’ll be able to live this moment through them.”