James Franklin of Penn State and Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame already have broken ground as the first Black head coaches to lead teams to the College Football Playoff. Both are 2-0 in the 12-team tournament and face each other in a semifinal Thursday night in the Orange Bowl.
That means one of the two is certain to become the first Black coach to play for a CFP championship.
The overwhelming sentiment around college football is that it’s about time.
Franklin, who has been the Penn State coach for 11 seasons after three at Vanderbilt, compared the opportunity to the first Super Bowl featuring Black head coaches, Super Bowl XLI between Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears in 2007.