FIU coach, former FAMU coach Willie Simmons RETURNS to Tallahassee QB Club
Willie Simmons spent the 2018-2023 football seasons as Florida A&M’s head coach. He’s now the head football coach at Florida International.
Willie Simmons, now the head football coach at Florida International University, returned to Tallahassee as a keynote speaker.Simmons previously coached at Florida A&M from 2018 to 2023, leading the team to a national championship in his final season.He left FAMU for a running backs coach position at Duke to gain Power Four experience before landing the FIU head coaching job.Simmons discussed the modern challenges of college football, including retaining players due to the transfer portal and NIL.
Welcome back to the Capital City, Willie Simmons.
On Tuesday, Sept. 23, the first-year Florida International head football coach was the keynote speaker at the Tallahassee Quarterback Club, hosted at the Champions Club at Florida State University’s Doak Campbell Stadium.
The Quincy native spent the 2018 to 2023 football seasons in Tallahassee as Florida A&M’s head coach, going 45-13.
The former Shanks High School star quarterback, who went on to play collegiately at Clemson and The Citadel, became an honorary lifetime member of the Tallahassee Quarterback Club in December 2023. He joined legendary FAMU football coach Jake Gaither and renowned FSU football coach Bobby Bowden with that honor.
“No matter where I go in my coaching career, this will always be home for me,” Simmons told the packed Tallahassee Quarterback Club audience.
Before joining the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision coaching ranks, Simmons led one of the golden eras of FAMU football.
After being hired away from Prairie View A&M in 2018, Simmons coached the Rattlers to five consecutive winning seasons after FAMU hadn’t enjoyed one since 2011.
In his final year at FAMU, Simmons led the Rattlers to their first-ever Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship and Celebration Bowl trophies en route to the program claiming its 16th Black College Football National title.
“One of the biggest questions that I get asked a lot is why I left FAMU,” Simmons said. “Obviously, we had a lot of success there ― built that program back up to national prominence. That was one of the proud moments of my coaching career, being able to walk away with a national championship.”
Two weeks after confetti fell from the rafters of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium onto the Rattlers after completing a comeback victory over Howard 30-26 to win the Celebration Bowl, Simmons departed on Monday, January 1, 2024, to become the Duke Blue Devils running backs coach on head coach Manny Diaz’s staff.
In late January 2024, FAMU promoted Simmons’ assistant head coach James Colzie III to become the program’s 19th full-time head coach.
Looking to advance his career, moving to the Power Four level was a necessary step to climb the coaching ladder after inquiring with athletic directors, search firms, and peers. That assisted in his decision to leave the HBCU for Duke.
Simmons had been a head coach on the Football Championship Subdivision level with Prairie View and FAMU and an FBS offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State.
However, Power Four experience eluded him. The former FAMU head coach helped the Duke Blue Devils finish with a 9-4 record and 5-3 in the Southeastern Conference in 2024.
“At a certain point in my career, I had to start thinking about what’s next,” Simmons reflected.
“The end goal was never to retire at FAMU. My goal was to build the program. And we felt we did that. So, I really started to think, going into that last season, that if the right opportunity presented itself, I may have to explore it. So, after a lot of prayer and talking it over with the family, I felt it was the right decision. Because I felt that we had left FAMU on solid footing and a good foundation.”
He described Duke as a “great experience.” Simmons began getting calls to gauge his interest in forthcoming Group of Five jobs midway through his lone year with the Blue Devils.
FIU, which competes in the Conference USA, was a job Simmons was highly interested in and ultimately landed on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, replacing Mike MacIntyre after three consecutive 4-8 seasons.
The FIU hire was a full circle moment for Simmons, allowing him to return to his home state at the Miami-based public university, and saw him accept the job he was a candidate for three years prior, in 2021.
The FIU Panthers are 2-2 in Simmons’ first quartet of games, last losing 38-16 at home versus the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens. So far, FIU’s glowing moment thus far was defeating Florida Atlantic in the Shula Bowl (38-28) for the first time since 2016.
“In the back of my mind, I’ve always had FIU circled,” Simmons said. “I’m a Florida boy through and through, and I always felt that the program had the potential to be one of the top Group of Five programs in the country.”
Willie Simmons discusses NCAA Transfer Portal and NIL in college football
Simmons has seen many eras of college football as a player and coach.
However, none has been like the current landscape of the transfer portal and Name, Image, and Likeness, which promotes player empowerment and financial compensation.
For example, Simmons discussed how he foresees having to make an exerted effort to retain FIU star defensive backs Jessiah McGrew and Mister Clark. A true freshman, McGrew is a Tallahassee product out of Florida High School.
“Starting mid-October, what players on our current roster do I have to go and re-recruit? I have to start recruiting my current roster before the season ends,” Simmons explained. “All of the players that we identify as guys who have the potential to be poached, I now have to do official visits with them again ― take their parents out to eat, wine and dine them, and talk to them about what it will take to keep them in our program.”
FIU is a newer institution, opening in 1972, and introducing a football program in 2002. FIU began competing in the FBS in 2004.
With the University of Miami 15 minutes away in Coral Gables and other FBS and Power Four programs across Florida, Simmons is educating FIU alumni and stakeholders on how to support the program financially and through general player support.
“That’s the new age of collegiate athletics,” Simmons said. “We’re recruiting our own roster harder than next year’s roster. That’s everywhere in America.”
Willie Simmons still has a deep-rooted love for Tallahassee
The chill-mannered Simmons represents Quincy loudly and boldly.
And he is loyal to Tallahassee, as 28 minutes down Interstate 10 separates the two cities.
In 2023, FAMU and FSU’s football teams enjoyed conference titles, with the Rattlers winning the SWAC under Simmons and the Seminoles claiming the Atlantic Coast Conference trophy led by head coach Mike Norvell. That was the eighth time both Tallahassee football teams won conference championships in the same year.
FAMU and FSU are in action in Week 5 of the college football season.
The Rattlers are 1-2 and fresh off a bye week with an opportunity to turn their season around during Saturday, Sept. 27’s SWAC home opener on Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium versus the unbeaten Alabama State Hornets (2-1), who are projected to be one of the league’s top teams. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. on HBCU GO and 96.1 JAMZ.
The eighth-ranked Seminoles are a perfect 3-0 and host their ACC opener versus Virginia (4-0) at Doak Campbell Stadium this Friday, Sept. 26. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
“I would put Tallahassee, Florida, up against any city in the world when Florida State and FAMU are winning football games,” Simmons said.
“Crime is down, businesses are booming, the sweet tea is sweeter ― everything about this place is better when these two programs are doing well.”
Gerald Thomas, III is a multi-time award-winning journalist for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at GDThomas@Tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.