St. Aug’s football players should pull a Grambling State

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

St. Augustine's football has been a revolving door of coaches since Michael Costa was fired in 2014, and Howard Feggins, who was hired in April, was ousted after six games.

Howard Feggins’ saga at St. Augustine’s reminds me of the good-girl-bad-boy scenario.

Good girl falls in love with a bad boy. Everybody tells her he’s bad: her parents, his parents, girlfriends, strangers, you name it. But she’s in L-U-U-U-U-V, and if anyone can change him, she can.
Few months later, she’s sobbing in her mother’s arms after being dumped for another.

No need to describe who’s the good and who’s the bad in Feggins vs. St. Augustine’s University.

Falcons football has been bad for a long, long time. The program’s reputation is a joke.

Since former coach Michael Costa was fired in 2014 after 12-1/2 seasons, four head coaches have come and gone during that time: Michael Morand, Tim Chavous, David Bowser and Feggins.
Three of the four firings occurred during the season and two of the four coaches went public afterwards.

I wrote a column in April about Feggins’ tough road ahead after he was hired in late March. Even he admitted that one of the first questions people asked when he told them he was taking the St. Aug’s job was “Why?”

Why indeed. But just like the lovesick bunny, coaches believe they are the answer. No program is THAT bad; it just needs the right person for the job. Besides, there’s nothing like navigating your own ship, eh?

Unless it’s sinking.

I kind of felt sorry for Feggins at his press conference. He uprooted his family for his “dream job” as he called it at his first press conference, and seven months later he’s out the door.

But, on the other hand, hey, it’s St. Aug’s. He knew the program’s reputation and what he was getting himself into. And coming from another HBCU at Fayetteville State, he also should have known the No. 1 thing you don’t do is tick Black folks off.

Playing an ineligible player is a violation, yes, but if every coach got fired for knowingly or unknowingly playing an ineligible player, half the coaches would be gone.

Feggins’ fate was set after he stirred the pot with the administration questioning why bills hadn’t been paid or why the well had suddenly run dry on athletic spending.

“Ninety-five percent of the students I brought in, I did not see” in person, said Feggins, who was told to “stop all the emails.”

Some things never change. I remember some 10 years ago, SAU coaches complained of trying to buy gas on recruiting trips with a university credit card and having it declined.

But some of the stuff Feggins revealed is just mind-boggling, even for St. Aug’s. Practicing on concrete. No full-time athletic trainer, which is just dangerous. Two meals a day on the weekends – for student-athletes! No detergent to wash uniforms.

Reports said approximately 50 players joined Feggins at his press conference. That’s nice, but if the team really wants to make a bold statement, it should pull a Grambling State.

In 2013, the winless G-men staged a boycott of practice and their next football game in protest of a myriad of complaints about the program and its facilities. It was a shocking wake-up call.
The last thing an HBCU president wants is to be embarrassed on a national stage. Boycott and threaten to air A-L-L their nasty, stanky laundry if your concerns aren’t met.

Better still, put it in an email.

Bonitta Best is sports editor at The Triangle Tribune in Durham.

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