Rodell Rahmaan has seen enough man-on-the-street interviews on social media to know he wants to do one. He’d love for a stranger with a camera to ask him the most famous person on his phone.

“I can’t wait,” Rahmaan said, “to tell them it’s Eddie George.”

The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner is in Rahmaan’s contacts list because of George’s second football life as the head coach at Tennessee State. Players at Norfolk State and Delaware State can relate after their programs hired Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson, respectively, this winter.

The trio entered those jobs with a combined 11 Pro Bowl appearances … and one season of coaching: Jackson’s eight-month stint as a high school assistant.

George, Vick and Jackson aren’t the only high-profile NFL alumni strolling college sidelines. Hall of Fame player Deion Sanders electrified Jackson State, then Colorado. Super Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer is trying to turn around his tenure at UAB. Another Super Bowl champion, Terrell Buckley, is a few weeks into his new job leading Mississippi Valley State.

But the depth of their experience differs. Sanders coached in Texas high schools and worked with top recruits at the Under Armour All-America Game before taking over his first college program. Dilfer spent four years as head coach at a Tennessee high school and tutored top quarterback prospects in the Elite 11 camp series. Buckley’s resume includes a decade as a position coach at programs like Ole Miss and Louisville plus a year as the head coach of the XFL’s Orlando Guardians.

In a profession where coaches grind for years to climb the ladder, George skipped a few rungs when Tennessee State hired him in April 2021. Jackson and Vick did the same. Is the trend a reflection of the growing importance of money and celebrity in college football’s new era? Schools treating a marquee position as an entry-level job? Or merely Football Championship Subdivision programs with fewer resources and little to lose thinking outside the box?

“Everybody’s gotta start somewhere,” said Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference commissioner Sonja O. Stills, whose conference includes Vick’s Spartans and Jackson’s Hornets. “So why not start at an HBCU?”

The identity of HBCUs — historically Black colleges and universities — is central to understanding the moves. HBCUs like Tennessee State, Norfolk State and Delaware State were founded to provide higher education to Black students when no other options existed. It’s a mission Norfolk State rector Kim W. Brown highlighted while introducing Vick in December.

“We provide opportunity,” Brown said.

The hires provided a different opportunity when other head coaching doors were closed. Sanders tried and failed to land jobs at Florida State, Arkansas and TCU before an HBCU, Jackson State, gave him a chance in 2020. His Tigers went 27-6 — the program’s best run in more than four decades.

Though Sanders’ previous experience and one-of-one personality make him an unfair comparison to anyone else, he was a starting point in the trend. “The blueprint,” Buckley called him on social media.

Thank you brother! Proud of you too. Thanks for the support. You are the blueprint 🦾🔥 https://t.co/i37mcZu2J6

— Terrell Buckley (@27TBuck) January 31, 2025

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Seven months after Sanders’ hiring, George inherited a Tennessee State program that went 5-14 in its two previous seasons. This fall, his Tigers finished 19th in the FCS coaches poll and won their first conference championship in 25 years. The industry noticed.

“With the success Prime and Eddie George and guys like that have had, I think ADs now are starting to really open up to the idea of how prominent NFL players are serious about coaching,” said Willie Simmons, who spent eight seasons as an HBCU head coach before earning the Florida International job at the FBS level this cycle.

Simmons said the lack of coaching experience for Vick and Jackson won’t necessarily show up on the field because both have been around elite players and coaches and stayed around the game in retirement. The bigger potential bumps envisioned by Simmons — who has been in touch with both rookie coaches — are administrative: building staffs with limited resources, mastering the NCAA rulebook and bylaws, figuring out fundraising and recruiting.

The trade-off is a climate where big-name coaches can thrive as the transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments disperse talent across a wider array of schools. At Jackson State, Sanders signed better recruiting classes than a few power-conference FBS programs and poached the nation’s top recruit, eventual Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, from Florida State.

George’s name resonated immediately as Rahmaan sat in the transfer portal after deciding to leave Bowling Green. The Columbus, Ohio, native figures he stuttered and stammered through the first five minutes of his initial phone conversation with the Ohio State legend. Rahmaan agreed to switch from defensive end to tight end and led George’s first Tennessee State team in receiving.

“It’s like you’re reconnecting with your childhood self,” Rahmaan said. “I felt like a child sitting in the first row in the meeting. When he’s talking, I’m sitting there smiling.

“It’s Eddie George talking. Eddie George, he’s calling me by my nickname.”

Eddie George is 24-22 in four years at Tennessee State. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

The local impact is significant. George is in the Tennessee Titans’ ring of honor after starring at the facility (now called Nissan Stadium) where his Tigers play. Vick grew up 30 miles north of Norfolk and took Virginia Tech to the national title game. Jackson played for three NFL teams (Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore) within 100 miles of Delaware State; an “E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES” chant even broke out during his introductory news conference.

Though it’s too soon to judge the full roster overhauls at Norfolk State and Delaware State, both have seen early bumps. Jackson has added his program’s top two high school signees of the modern recruiting era in three-star receiver Jadyn Robinson and three-star running back Deuce Weston, both of whom had Power 4 interest. He also landed Michigan State transfer Antonio Gates Jr., a former four-star prospect and the son of Jackson’s NFL contemporary.

Vick’s initial portal pickups included a former top-300 national recruit and Clemson signee (David Ojiegbe), one of the SWAC’s top linebackers (Jaden Kelly) and a promising three-star quarterback (South Florida’s Israel Carter).

It’s hard to ignore Vick’s status in Carter’s announcement. His social media graphic featured Vick in the background, as the Norfolk State coach on one side and the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback on the other. Carter was in the center in a Spartans jersey. He, like Vick, wore No. 7.

Couldn’t Thank God enough for opening this door for me. All Glory To The King Most High!🔰🦅 #Committed #7Era #AllGod @MichaelVick @NorfolkStateFB pic.twitter.com/2DtmnYMIYF

— Israel Carter (@Isr8ael) January 17, 2025

If star power can lead to exposure in recruiting, the programs are also counting on it boosting exposure for the entire university, as Delaware State president Tony Allen acknowledged directly during Jackson’s introductory news conference. Allen said his three goals were to hire a leader of young men, a coach with tactical prowess and someone who could “continue to raise the profile” of a fast-growing HBCU.

The effects are real:

• Sanders’ Jackson State teams appeared on ESPN, ESPN2 and the cover of Sports Illustrated. Google searches for the team during his first fall were more than seven times what they were before his hire. Even after his departure, they’re still higher than they were before his arrival.

• Tennessee State’s football revenue and expenses have doubled since George’s hiring. Both figures totaled almost $7.1 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to data submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. The Tigers’ football budget soared from average in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2018 to first, by far, in 2022.

• Over the past 20 years, the only times “Norfolk State” was googled more than December (the month of Vick’s hiring) were its NCAA Tournament runs in 2012 (an upset of second-seeded Missouri) and 2021 (a one-point First Four win over Appalachian State).

At the MEAC, Stills said she received an immediate, initial influx from potential sponsors who wanted to “ride the wave right now.”

“Because HBCUs have always been underfunded, overlooked, they give us an opportunity to get more national exposure,” Stills said. “It gives us an opportunity to show a look into the institution — how we graduate more Black doctors, lawyers, engineers.”

And, if Vick and Jackson are successful, perhaps a new way to graduate Black coaches to the highest level.

Minorities remain underrepresented as FBS head coaches, and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman just became the first Black head coach to lead his team to the national title game. Stills said she can envision HBCUs becoming feeders to the FBS as former pros learn the ropes in the FCS.

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The cynical read in the profession is that the exposure and financial impact of hiring green NFL stars trumped on-field possibility — the idea that, as one coaching agent put it, “Mike Vick’s gonna put butts in seats” matters more than winning games.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his relationships in the industry.

The traditional path has been to grind your way up from grad assistant to position coach to coordinator to head coach. The MEAC’s other four head coaches were all hired with at least 15 years on college staffs. Two had college head coaching experience, and a third (Howard’s Larry Scott) had an interim stint leading Miami. Vick and Jackson fast-forwarded ahead as if the most visible positions on campus were entry-level gigs.

“It’s like they’re learning on the job at a major D-I institution where so many of these guys are fighting for years to become the head coach, and now they’re just thrown into it because they have the NFL label next to them,” the agent said.

Then again, the profession has never been a true meritocracy. Coaches fill out their staff by hiring buddies or agents’ connections. A famous name can help a coach’s son or nephew land a first job. Is a famous name from NFL stardom any different?

The worst-case scenario for Vick and Jackson is what happened in the 2022-23 cycle at another HBCU, Bethune-Cookman. The school was set to hire Baltimore Ravens legend Ed Reed — who spent three seasons as a Miami support staffer — before he went on a profane social media rant about the program’s resources. The deal collapsed, and the Wildcats hired alumnus Raymond Woodie Jr. His quarter-century of coaching experience included more than a decade as an FBS assistant.

A more optimistic possibility is George’s Tennessee State tenure. Ohio Valley commissioner Beth DeBauche said she was initially curious about how George would fare in her league. Since then, she has seen a professionally run team — “a program that has had its house in order,” she said — with no disciplinary issues or other problems.

And after starting with two losing seasons, George improved to 6-5 in Year 3 and went 9-4 with an FCS playoff appearance last fall. That was good enough to earn him an interview with the Chicago Bears last month.

“There’s proof in the pudding,” DeBauche said. “We’ve seen the success, and others have seen this success in being able to build a program.”

There’s a risk, of course, just like any coaching move. But the risk is relative, as former Norfolk State administrator Glen Mason knows.

Mason is a longtime resident of Virginia’s Tidewater area and graduated from Norfolk State in 1983. He watched his alma mater’s past two coaches go a combined 36-65. The Spartans’ lone conference championship in the past four decades (2011) was vacated for NCAA violations. Mason was the program’s sports information director when the school filled its 30,000-seat on-campus stadium in its 1997 debut; the venue has had only one crowd larger than 28,000 since then (though Norfolk State did rank 11th in the FCS in average attendance in 2024 at 14,544 despite its 4-8 record).

The challenges may be even greater for Jackson at Delaware State. The Hornets have lost 23 of their past 25 games. They haven’t had a winning conference record since 2013 and have won the MEAC championship only once since 1990. Their average attendance last season (3,333) ranked last in the conference and No. 102 out of 130 FCS teams.

With that as the floor, what does anyone have to lose?

“There is no risk/reward for me,” Mason said.

If the potential risk is more losing, then the potential reward is what Rahmaan experienced firsthand at Tennessee State. He credits the extra attention George brought for getting him a spot at a Seattle Seahawks camp and stints in the UFL/USFL. He still beams when George texts him on his birthday.

Rahmaan doesn’t know Vick or Jackson personally, but he knows enough to think their new players are set to benefit, too.

“I love to see all that happening,” Rahmaan said. “I love to even think about the opportunities those kids are going to have.”

— The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report.

(Top photos of DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images and Sean Gardner / Getty Images)