Southern University held a press conference this afternoon following yesterday's dismissal of Eric Dooley as head football coach. The press conference was led by head athletic director Roman Banks and he also introduced acting head coach Sean Wallace and interim head coach Terrance Graves, who will be serving as Southern's head coach for the Bayou Classic on November 25th.
Banks, when speaking about the hire, said that the decision was finalized on Tuesday morning. He also expressed that a significant factor in Dooley's dismissal was because of his lack of communication with fans on a clear vision for the team.
“I just think somewhere along the way is that in this business — still communicating with your fan base, being able to, communicate about work ethic or also about when you’re at the podium talking and sometimes we have to accept responsibility and to let them know that, we are working to correct ourselves and so just looking at where we were last year versus this year — wasn’t the expectations. For me, It just didn’t have a clear version of the game plan going forward.”
Banks continued, speaking on Dooley's lack of adjustments when offensive plans weren't going right.
“It was very frustrating at times and we all have to sometimes make some changes. In this business — you’re not going to be perfect. You’re going to make mistakes. And I think its…your coaching philosophy, your administration philosophy is when you stand in the gap and say, okay, to the fans, to the people, to the media, we missed this one. This one is on me, and we’re going to make some changes. And so I just think with evaluating all that and having the conversation with him about those things just led us to this point. I just want to make sure going forward — and there won’t be a rush — these things are locked in your mind that when, when you had a next person, you just want to dig in. You’ll never be 100 percent sure about anyone, but you want to dig in and make sure that some of the things that caused frustration probably for us and our fans and players and whatever the case may be, that that doesn’t happen in your next hire.”
Speaking of Southern's next hire, Banks said that the institution is willing to look outside of the SWAC for a new leader for the program.
“I don’t we’re not going to limit ourselves to just saying that we hired someone from [an] HBCU, from SWAC, anything like that. We’re going to do look as wide as we can, look as high as we can look, and come up with the right guy for this job.”
Dooley was a SWAC veteran when he joined Southern University following the 2021 season. He played for Grambling from 1985-1988 under legendary head coach Eddie G. Robinson.
After his playing career, he served as an assistant coach at Southern from 1997-2010, serving under legendary head coach Pete Richardson for every year of his tenure but the 2010 season. He then had small stints at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Grambling as an offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and linebacker coach from 2014-2017.
Dooley then joined Prairie View A&M in 2018 and led them to a SWAC Championship in the Fall 2021 season. Following their championship birth, he departed the team to take on the Southern job.
Banks outlined qualities that he's looking for in a coach, saying, “I think that the person needs to understand the job. I think that’s the most important part,” Banks told the media. “Would I like for them to have some similarities to this job on their resume that they worked before so they won’t… I don’t want [anybody] coming from a Power Five and thinking that we have… we’re going to fly to this place, fly to that place. And they’re going to go recruit at 5:00 and be back here at 10:00 at night. You know, we don’t have those type of resources. So there needs to be someone that understands the job and [is] eager for the challenge.”
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