Clad in a long-sleeved, black Nike shirt, gray dress pants and black loafers, defensive line coach Eric Mathies watched as Western football players struggled with the cold afternoon air in the endzone between sprinting drills.

Mathies’ mind is on the speed and time it takes his pupils to cross the white yard lines. About an hour later, outside his office on a broken-in black leather couch, Mathies gave his thoughts of crossing a color line of greater significance.

“We (black coaches) have a long way to go,” Mathies said, speaking about the disparity in the number of black head football coaches. Blacks make up about 3 percent of the 117 head football coaches in Division I-A.

One reason for the slow increase in minority coaches could be the stereotypes that appear when athletes begin their career, Associate Sociology Professor Jim Kanan said.

“We (people) seem to think that black athletes are better suited for skilled positions, rather than ones where they have to think,” he said. “Whites as only the thinkers is an idea that has to change, for any real impact.”

There has been some progress that has removed some of the racial roadblocks.

On Dec. 8, Randy Shannon was hired as head coach at the University of Miami. On Dec. 19, Mario Cristobal was hired as the first Cuban head coach in Division I-A football history, at Florida International University.

Mathies said he thought the opportunities for black coaches would increase as more minorities got assistant coaching positions and were allowed to build a resume showing their potential.

In the 2006 college football season, there were 278 assistants who held the title of offensive or defensive coordinator at the Division I-A level. According to the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the racial composition of those holding coordinator jobs was:242 whites; 31 blacks; three Hispanics; and two coaches of Asian descent.

Unlike the National Football League, the NCAA does not require universities to interview a minority candidate for coaching vacancies, said Gail Dent, associate director of public and media relations for the NCAA.

In December 2002, the NFL committee on workplace diversity enacted a rule known as the “Rooney Rule” to encourage the hiring of more minority coaches. The rule, named after Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, requires NFL teams to interview at least one minority coach for openings.

Corey Jackson, director of diversity inclusion with the NCAA, said the NCAA couldn’t make policies for a university’s hiring process because colleges’ focus is on more than athletics.

A franchise in the NFL has a single purpose: football; whereas a university has academics and NCAA procedures couldn’t be applied to the hiring of a professor, he said.

Jackson said the recent moves are encouraging but he is still left with a restless feeling about the future.

“I wouldn’t say I am pleased, but I am glad about the progress that has been made,” Jackson said. “There is certainly more work to be done.”

Several reasons could be contributing to the lack of minority representation on the sidelines, Jackson said. Things like a lack of awareness of potential candidates, an insufficient education on work place diversity or the redundant hiring process that tends to recycle coaches.

“We (the NCAA) need to slow down the ‘coach swap’ mechanism that is in place and break through the ol’ boy networking to get some new fresh faces on the sidelines,” he said.

With the recent unofficial hiring of Dennis Springer to the Hilltopper football team, the number of minority coaches at Western is 11, or about 22 percent of the entire coaching staff. The percent of minority athletes at Western is about 44 percent.

Athletics Director Wood Selig said the search for a coach varies with the sport and when the vacancy occurs.

There isn’t a set time span in which a coaching search is conducted nor a standard number of minorities that serve on a hiring committee, but the affirmative action laws and Western’s policy is followed to the letter, he said.

“When we look for a coach, we’re looking for the best,” Selig said.

Reach Andrew McNamara at sports@wkuherald.com.