Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

How UNLV, Raiders are working for greater diversity in coaching ranks

UNLV Football Head Coach Marcus Arroyo

Steve Marcus

New UNLV football head coach Marcus Arroyo smiles during an introductory news conference at the Fertitta Football Complex at UNLV Friday, Dec. 13, 2019.

Marcus Arroyo knows how small of a circle the football coaching fraternity can be.

It seems like jobs are recycled among the same pool of candidates across the professional and collegiate game, with little fresh blood making its way in. Most of the time, those candidates are white.

The first-year UNLV coach, who is of Latino descent, helped elevate his career with a minority coaching internship in 2013 with the Atlanta Falcons. A few stops later, he got the UNLV job at age 40.

The fact that UNLV has one of college football’s few Latino coaches isn’t a surprise, considering the institution ranks high in the annual U.S. News & World Report’s listing of campus ethnic diversity.

It’s also not a surprise that UNLV is partnering with the Raiders on Al Davis-Eddie Robinson Leadership Academy, which is designed to elevate minority coaching and executive candidates throughout football. The hope is to have the academy running within a year, where it can ensure that when jobs open within the sport, it’s not the same white candidates who are looked at.

“Just to see and to learn and ask questions and find ways and see people do things to enhance yourself I think are pivotal,” Arroyo said. “I think the minority internship program and anything like that gives us all a chance to magnify who else is out there that a lot of times gets overlooked.”

The leadership academy was the Raiders’ brainchild, created by owner Mark Davis to honor the legacy of his late father, Al, and Robinson. The elder Davis was the first modern NFL owner to hire a Black head coach, and Robinson, the former Grambling State coach, is among the most successful collegiate coaches of all time, not just among Black coaches.

The overarching aim is to improve the level of diversity among coaching and executive positions in football to better reflect the diversity of its players. The Rooney Rule, which mandates the interviewing of a minority candidate for senior-level positions, was implemented in the NFL in 2002. But some feel it is inadequate considering there are only three Black head coaches and two Black general managers in a league whose players are about 70% Black.

There are 14 Black head coaches in FBS football, including UNR’s Jay Norvell. There are less than five Latino head coaches, including Danny Gonzales of New Mexico and Dave Aranda of Baylor.

Davis and the Raiders wanted to increase the pool of qualified candidates while further ingraining their roots in their new Las Vegas home. They turned to UNLV to help make the program a reality.

UNLV is well ahead of the curve on minority hiring.

Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois is the first Hispanic woman and woman of color to hold the position at the FBS level. Arroyo and predecessor Tony Sanchez are both of Hispanic descent. Former basketball coach Marvin Menzies, fired in 2018, is Black.

“Community partnerships are a cornerstone of great universities, and we’re looking forward to working with the Raiders on this important initiative,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said in a statement to the Sun. “We’re building a strong collaboration through this academy that will pair the expertise of UNLV faculty with the Raiders’ proven track record for leadership in diversity and inclusion.”

Click to enlarge photo

In this Jan. 25, 1981, file photo, Oakland Raiders managing general partner Al Davis, left, talks with sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, right, after receiving the Super Bowl XV trophy as Raiders head coach Tom Flores, center, looks on in New Orleans. When Flores won his first Super Bowl as head coach of the Raiders 35 years ago, the impact of being the first Hispanic coach to reach those heights did not hit until well after the game.

Details of the program have yet to be finalized. The idea is to begin with an online course that lasts about four to six weeks, then transition to a summer program in person at a campus somewhere in the Las Vegas Valley. Its candidates will be highly targeted so not just anyone can join, and highly selective, with an estimated five to 10 people in the first class of candidates.

It won’t be a full degree program but will offer a certificate upon completion. Beyond the online and in-person classes, there are expected to be immersion and mentorship opportunities that will last for a year beyond the program.

Nancy Lough, a professor at UNLV’s College of Education, will help design the curriculum. She’s an expert in sports marketing and other areas and is the liaison between the school and the Raiders. She said she’s excited to be part of a program with a big-picture “lofty goal of social transformation.”

“All institutions of higher education are usually trying to solve social problems and create a better future,” she said. “Certainly being able to do that in the space of diversity given the representation we have on this campus and our vested interest in improving that representation is a perfect fit with what the Raiders want to do.”

Lough pointed to the Raiders history with breaking barriers — not just in hiring Art Shell in1989 as the first Black coach since the 1920s, but also having Tom Flores become the first Hispanic quarterback in the league and first coach to win a Super Bowl. They hired Amy Trask in 1997 as the first female CEO in league history. All were hired by Al Davis (Flores as a coach), the reason the minority leadership academy will bear his name.

“In some cases, a lot of times it’s kind of just a publicity stunt — they kind of want to get a lot of attention that they’re doing the right thing in a time that social justice is really on the minds of a lot of people,” Lough said. “But I think in the case of the Raiders, this is actually part of their DNA.”

The program is sponsored by the Raiders, but it’s not designed as an executive farm system exclusively for Las Vegas. That would limit the number of available jobs. Successful candidates will be prepared for jobs for advancement anywhere in the NFL, which is the goal. There’s also sights on the NCAA, where countless jobs exist throughout the nation’s athletic departments and football coaches often go back and forth.

Diversity is an issue at the NCAA level as well. Entering the 2019 season, college football head coaches were 81% white, according to the NCAA Demographic Database. That included just five Hispanic/Latino head coaches, although that would not have included Arroyo, who started at UNLV this year.

Then if things go well, there’s hope for expansion into all kinds of sports. And if in the end, the demographics of executives start to look more like UNLV does now, the school and the Raiders will have been successful.

“The impact of this partnership extends beyond the field,” Whitfield said, “as it shows how we can leverage our respective strengths to develop innovative and collaborative programs that will make a lasting difference in the lives of many people and the sport overall.”