Treading water isn’t what Florida A&M leadership expects from its football program.

Not after Willie Simmons compiled 30 wins, a Southwestern Athletic Conference title and HBCU National Championship from 2021-23 before returning to coach at the Football Bowls Subdivision level, first as an assistant at Duke and this year as the new head coach at FIU.

Simmons’s successor, James Colzie, a former star player at Florida State under Bobby Bowden, isn’t expected to get a third season at the helm of the FAMU Rattlers program, sources tell FootballScoop on Monday.

Just 12-12 in two years and backsliding this year to five wins after seven in 2024, Colzie is not being retained by the Rattlers administration, sources tell FootballScoop.

Preparing to work on Florida A&M’s 2026 roster, Colzie on Monday instead was summoned to meet with university leadership and then an additional mandatory staff meeting was hastily scheduled following that development.

Sources said Colzie, who had personal travel following the conclusion of Florida A&M’s regular season, had returned to campus today and began making preparations to represent the Rattlers this week at the Florida High School State Football Championships.

Instead, Colzie was notified that he needed to meet with school leadership and all remaining assistant coaches were told to prepare for a mandatory staff meeting.

The school is in the midst of significant changes in leadership in multiple posts; John F. Davis is the incoming athletics director with a full-time start date of Jan. 5, 2026. 

Additionally, sources told FootballScoop that FAMU could shift to focus a coaching search on Quinn Gray.

A former star quarterback for the Rattlers in the early 2000s who also logged NFL stints with the Houston Texas, Indianapolis Colts and Kansas City Chiefs, Gray has 24 wins in three seasons as head coach at Albany State. Gray also guided Albany State to the 2025 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title amidst a 12-win season that included a perfect 8-0 mark in league.

Gray has emerged as a hot coaching candidate this cycle; sources on Monday told FootballScoop that Hampton University (Virginia) has Gray at the center of its search to replace Trent Boykin, who was fired by the school last month.

While Florida A&M has not released its full 2026 schedule, the program is scheduled to play at Miami, a 2025 College Football Playoff entrant, Sept. 12, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.Â