The Rise of North Carolina Central Football

the North Carolina Central Eagles is an HBCU program that did not have a ton of historical success until the turn of the century but has quickly become a program many fans should know about while their transition from the division 2 level to the FCS level has caused some Growing Pains at first after over a decade in the Mak they have built their program into one of the best at the FCS Level under Trey Oliver this is the rise of North Carolina Central football a video that's been highly requested over the past few weeks but before we get into this if you enjoy college football content like this make sure to leave a like And subscribe also let me know who you want me to talk about next in the comment section below North Carolina Central football began over 102 years ago in 1922 they joined the NAIA ranks in 1955 a year after they were named the black college national co-champions under Herman ridit and throughout the 50s and 60s the program would find a lot of success but as the '90s came to a close and the calendar turned to the 2000s the program was in a bad place from 1998 to 2002 the program fluctuated going anywhere from 4 and 6 to 6 and 4 and never being able to find a ton of success at as a division 2 program the school could only afford to give the football team 26 of the 36 allotted scholarships a division 2 School receives and there were no practice shirts and players wore whatever they had in their closet then came the the arrival of Rod Broadway now Rod Broadway deserves a video all by itself to talk about how influential of a person he was throughout his career he played college football at North Carolina and after the NFL did not work out he would decide to go into the coaching rankings starting his career as a defensive line coach at East Carolina for making stops at Duke Florida and North Carolina serving as the same role while with Florida he coached under Steve sparer and helped the Gators win the 1996 national title Broadway had his work cut out for him speaking on the practice uniform situation saying Duke North Carolina whatever we look like the Bingo Long traveling all stars out there it was tough because you're used to having everything you want when you want it we didn't have the basic needs we had to change the culture they were better than they were being given credit for they worked as hard as they do at North Carolina or Florida but they had to believe they could win even before he left North Carolina Broadway had always had his eye on working at North Carolina Central the Eagles had only only been the division 2 playoffs once in school history in 1988 so it was going to be a challenge to turn things around in his first season as head coach the Eagles would finish the year four and six and fifth in the central inter collegate Athletic Association in 2004 Broadway had to take a step back from the team as his wife was dealing with health problems that she would eventually succumb to right before the start of the Season his assistance headlined by former Florida coach Rich McGeorge helped Broadway through his grief and helped the team finish eight 2 finishing tied for first for the division 2005 would start a magical run for North Carolina Central as they would win 10 games to the first time in school history and made it to the second round of the division 2 playoffs to finish the year 10-2 and won the black college National Championship 2006 would be much the same as this time they would go undefeated in conference play and once again make it to the second round of the division 2 playoffs finishing the year 11-1 and winning their second straight black National Championship following the season Broadway would leave North Carolina Central to take the Grambling State Job to replace the stored footsteps of Coach Eddie Robinson the man chosen to replace Broadway would be Moses ryzen ryzen was originally from Flint Michigan and played at Central Michigan where he rushed for nearly 3,000 yards he made coaching stops at Central Michigan Navy Ruckers Stanford the New York Jets Arizona Livingston and Davidson before arriving at nccu serving as Broadway's offensive coordinator in 2006 following their School record set in season in 2006 the Eagles would fall to 6 and 4 in 2007 they followed that up with back-to-back 4- seven seasons in8 and 2009 and it looked like the program was going in the wrong direction after two and four start in 2010 ryzen was relieved of his duties as head coach ryzen finished his Eagles career with a 16 and 22 record and was given a tough task of helping the Eagles transition from division 2 to division 1 a decision made back in 2005 the man chosen as North North Carolina Central's next head coach would be Henry Frasier III Frasier played quarterback at Bowie State and started his coaching career there after a stint at Central High School in Maryland he returned to Bowie State serving as their head coach and leading them to a 26 and 24 record in 2004 he was named the head coach of Prairie View A&M where he turned the program around from a 3 and8 start in his first season to back-to-back 9-1 finishes in 2008 and 2009 followed by a 7 and4 season in 2010 prior to his arrival in Texas the Panthers experienced the nation's longest losing streak from 1989 to 1998 dropping 80 contests in a row and struggled through back-to-back one int seasons in 2002 and 2003 he developed a reputation as a program Rebuilder and seemed like the perfect tire at the time things would not work out for Frasier though as North Carolina Central continued to struggle at the division one level in his first season going to n the program seemingly got back on track in 2012 finishing with a 6 and5 record then right before the start of the 2013 season frasia was relieved of his duties as head coach after a domestic dispute Dwayne Foster was named the interim head coach and the Eagles finished the season with a 5- seven record Jerry Mack would be named North Carolina Central's next head coach at the age of 33 he played football at both Jackson State and Arkansas state for spending time at Delta State Jackson State Central Arkansas Arkansas Pine Bluff Memphis and South Alabama as an assistant coach helping multiple schools increase their offensive production throughout his young career while Arkansas Pine Bluff he helped turn around the offense from the 101st in the nation to 30th in the nation was a young upstart head coach looking to leave his mark on a program he would buil on the foundation left by Frasier quickly finding success at a program that up to that point was struggling at the FCS level he led the Eagles to a share of the conference title in his first two seasons as head coach with a seven and five record in 2014 and an 8 and3 record in 2015 or leading the Eagles to one of their best records since the departure of Broadway in 2016 North Carolina Central would go undefeated in the mid Eastern Athletic Conference in 2016 where they won their first outright conference title since 2006 and a birth in the celebration bow North Carolina Central University would lose in a heartbreaker to Grambling State and finished 9 and3 Mack would leave a legacy at the school although two of their Conference titles would be vacated due to APR violations and led the Eagles to a 7 and4 record in 2017 the program was finally back on track finding the same type of success Broadway had found when he was head coach but due to being a young and upcoming coach with FBS experience Mac had multiple opportunities to return to the FBS level choosing to leave the Eagles to become the offense coordinator at Rice he spoke on his departure to the HBCU game day saying I think the program is in a great place it's set up for success and I think this was a great time to leave I think it's in a better situation than we found it that's my job and I hope I pleased people by doing what they hired me to do I see nothing but success from here for that program North Carolina Central University struggled after Max's departure finishing 5- six and 48 in two seasons the program was placed on probation after self-reporting APR violations that included multiple Sports due to clerical error and spent a year with an interim coach but eventually hired Alum Trey Oliver in 2019 Oliver was a defensive back for the Eagles in the late '90s and hoped to continue the success Mac found at North Carolina Central Oliver wanted to find success at his Alma mod and while his team would not Feld a squad in 2020 they bounced back in 2021 with the 6 and5 record and a 4-1 record in conference play Oliver keeps a photo of himself as a player nccu and his head shot as a coach on his desk to remind him of his roots North Carolina Central was where his parents attended in is a school he believed he owed a lot of his success to he told Mia Barry from ancap back in 2022 I didn't want to go to Central because my parents went here wanted to do my own thing and they always talked about Central and I'm like man I'm not going there when I came in '93 I fell in love and I came back in '94 for my official visit it was an event and it was something special Oliver also learned under Broadway at North Carolina Central Grambling State in North Carolina a& matured as a coach under his former Mentor he went on to explain Broadway taught me so much as far as being a professional handling my business and there was a standard with how we were going to do things for Alabama coach Nick Sabin was screaming about standard I think the first person I heard that from was coach Broadway from the support staff to the coaches to the players he held everyone to such a high level and he always said it's not okay to just do your job you must do your job well after getting turned down by Central in 2014 from not having the defensive or offensive coordinator experience he would become the Southern defensive coordinator and help them earn a spot in the swack championship game Oliver would lead the Eagles to a 10-2 record and to the black National Championship in 2022 and last year they would go 9 and3 and lost in the first round of the FCS playoffs heading into the 2024 season Oliver has the Eagles program on the verge of becoming a jugrnaut in the Mak as they were just selected to finish first in the preseason polls earlier this week Eagles received 110 points and four first place votes to earn projected top honors Howard University was picked second receiving four first place votes with 92 Points North Carolina Central was a team that was consistently requested for me to do a video on over the past few weeks our te team FCS fans should keep an eye on heading season what do you think who wins the celebration Bowl this year let me know in the comment section below if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out one of my other videos YouTube thinks you will love right here thank you so much for watching and as always remember to embrace the GR