JC Smith hires Robert Massey as assistant coach

WINSTON-SALEM STATE ATHLETICS

Former Winston-Salem State football head coach Robert Massey, a Garinger High graduate, is Johnson C. Smith's new cornerbacks coach.

A longtime CIAA football rival is now on Johnson C. Smith’s coaching staff.

Former Winston-Salem State head coach Robert Massey, who lost three in a row to JCSU during Maurice Flowers’ tenure as coach and 1-3 overall, will assist with cornerbacks, the position he played at North Carolina Central before going to an NFL career with the Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints. A Garinger High graduate, Massey is in familiar territory.

“A lot of times as a head coach, you get away from what you were really good at, what you cut your teeth with,” Flowers said. “For Robert Massey, he was coaching corners, and he’s just hungry to get back home. I say get back home in a couple of different ways. Him being a Charlottean, a graduate of Garinger High School, he’s coming back home, so I’m just excited because it's not often that you get a chance to add someone of his caliber. He’s really a lot like (former linebackers coach David) Bowser – someone that’s been a head coach … but also, we’re bringing someone on board that is a hometown hero from Charlotte.”

Massey, a longtime CIAA coach, resigned in November after going 25-34 over six seasons at WSSU after a 16-45 record in six seasons at Shaw. Although Massey is under .500 as a coach, Flowers insists his resumé and experience are an asset to a program that won a school-best 10 games, the CIAA title and earned its first Division II playoff berth in 2025.

“You’re getting somebody that’s good, that’s bringing so much credibility to the staff having sat in the head coach chair, someone that knows how to recruit and someone that knows the lay of the land in Charlotte,” Flowers said.

“The Charlotte area’s a big-time recruiting area for Johnson C Smith University football, and you’re bringing a guy that can coach the cornerback position like no other. He’s been away from it for a little while having been a head coach, but I’m just so excited.”

Massey’s arrival gives the Golden Bulls three coaches in the secondary. Chi-Emeke Worthington will move from safeties to nickel corners while James Lott will move to safeties from cornerbacks. There are a couple of open coaching positions – linebacker, where Bowser worked before taking the top job at Albany State, and defensive line, where Kevon Fly moved on to pursue other opportunities.

Massey “is very familiar with our 4-2-5 system, and coach Lott, who’s been our corners coach … has been a defensive coordinator and a very successful one, so he now moves to the safety position,” Flowers said. “And with coach Worthington going to nickels, it really is going to benefit our staff in a way that we’re going to have more quality coaches that will be coaching our players, and that's what it's really all about.”
Even with the staff transition, Flowers is excited about the arrangements.

“We’re having some change in our program,” he said. “But one thing’s for sure – if you just look at what we’ve done, you know we have not (gone) backwards. Everything about us has been about moving forward and keeping positive productivity moving forward and that’s what we’ve said about adding coaches. 

“We might have lost a couple, but we’re going to get better because we’re not going to stay the same. We're not going to go backwards. We must keep getting better. And adding Robert Massey to the staff is a sign that we're getting better as a staff.”

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