Van Malone, a former standout defensive back at the University of Texas, met this one player he couldn’t get rid of shortly after he started coaching at his alma school, Waldrip High School.
The child requested more work, wanted to break down footage whenever he could, and wanted to know everything Malone could tell him about football. Tremaine Jackson, the newly appointed Prairie View A&M football coach, was a defensive lineman, and Malone taught defensive backs, which is what made the relationship so peculiar.
Malone laughs at the memory, “I am a defensive back coach, and even when I was coaching him, I wasn’t into the D-line and the front.” Still, he is hanging out with a DB coach. Here’s what you’re going to do, I said. You will be performing database drills.
“This man had me out there back peddling and this and that,” he speaks of today. You lingered around me, I tell him. When I got you out there practicing the DB exercises, that improved your defensive line.
That was and still is the essence of Jackson’s football identity. He finds people from whom he can grow and learn, and then he absorbs all of the information.
That’s what Jackson has done for a living. After a successful three-year tenure at Division II powerhouse Valdosta State, the 43-year-old will take on his biggest assignment to date as head coach of the Panthers. What a career it has been.
Given that he contributed to Jackson’s success, Malone is really proud of the coach he has become.
According to Malone, there are those kids who are constantly in your face as a coach. What you want me to do is what they are all about. Can you assist me with this as I’ll be visiting there on a Saturday? Or, Coach, will you be watching a movie at home? I took this guy to his first (NCAA Football Coaches Convention) and he helped me move. One day when he was still in college, he accompanied me to the conference.
I haven’t been able to get rid of him in all these years, and you simply couldn’t get rid of him. Thankfully, he chose to become a coach for many children.
Great First Impression
After signing Jackson as a restricted pay coach in 2008, former Texas Southern coach Johnnie Cole experienced a similar situation. Jackson, a defensive coach and excellent recruiter, seized the opportunity for the Houston native to return to his alma university.
Jackson was elevated to full-time assistant after a year because Cole, who proudly calls him his protégé, was so impressed.
Tremaine was capable. Cole, who won a 2010 SWAC title with the Tigers that was later vacated, claimed to have liked and studied the game. One of his strengths was his ability to find players and recruit them. His recruiting skills contributed to our success. He was also hungry.
I made an effort to thank him for the contributions he made to our personnel.
Jackson Joins Valdosta State s Cradle of Coaches
Following his departure from TSU, where he also played for Steve Wilson, Jackson set out to build a career that would eventually earn him a position as a head coach at the collegiate level. Before accepting his first head coaching position at Colorado Mesa in 2021, he served as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville, Abilene Christian, and Texas State.
Herb Reinhard, the athletic director at Valdosta State, had seen enough of Jackson’s certain style to conclude that he was the ideal candidate to take over his Division II power program after one successful season at Colorado Mesa.
Known as the “cradle of coaches,” Valdosta State, a small institution in southern Georgia, has made it a habit to make it to the Division II national championship game. Since 2002, they have participated in seven of them and won four of them. There, renowned collegiate coaches such as Kirby Smart, Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, Will Muschamp, Dana Holgorsen, and Kerwin Bell began their careers as assistants or head coaches.
Jackson might be the next to go.
Jackson used the transfer portal to swiftly get the Blazers back on track after a difficult debut season in 2022. After leading the Blazers to the Division II National Championship Game and an undefeated regular season, he was voted the AFCA Division II National Coach of the Year.
Reinhard was impressed by Jackson’s ability to connect with his players and bring out the best in both the classroom and on the field. Reinhard retired from Valdosta State last June after 32 years of service.
Reinhard stated, “I’m definitely very, very proud of the work he did at Valdosta State.” He performed a decent, if not better, job off the field, and I’m really happy of what he was able to do with the squad on the field. His ability to relate to his football student-athletes is genuine.
Finding a place to belong at Prairie View
However, the conditions under which he prevailed at Valdosta State were more significant than the fact that he won. Unless he is at an HBCU, it is nearly impossible to find a Black man as a head coach at the Division II level. At Valdosta State, he was the first.
“My objective is to hire the best coach I believe we can find for our role,” Reinhard stated. First and foremost, that’s what I wanted, but let’s just say I knew that there was a chance for us to bring what I believed to be a highly talented minority coach to Valdosta State and the Gulf South Conference.
After Jackson decided to go wherever a head coaching opening was available, he also got his fair share of “Are you sure?” questions from his mentors. Malone, who is currently the associate head coach and coordinator of the defensive passing game at Kansas State and has been an assistant coach at the FBS Power 4 level for a long time, recalls speaking with Jackson about his intention to transfer to Division II.
Jackson, who is undoubtedly gifted with the ability to gab, persuaded Malone that it was the best course of action for him. On the biggest stage in college football, they would frequently discuss the dearth of head coaching opportunities. They even co-founded the Minority Coaches Advancement Association, which, following practice interviews, helped make it possible for Marcus Freeman to become head coach of Notre Dame.
No matter where he went, Jackson was determined to be a head coach.
Malone remarked, “You know what, he’s right,” in response to his statement. The place where they want you to be a head coach is where you must go. In light of Marcus Freeman’s chance to become the first African American coach to coach in the national championship game, we will continue to strive for opportunities.
It was not surprising that Jackson would be willing to moving on after Valdosta State’s two most successful seasons, in which the Blazers finished 25-3.
Where was the only question.
Either large college positions or at least mid-major FBS positions were taken by the former Blazers coaches. Jackson, however, was adamant that he wanted to go somewhere that would welcome him, accept him, and allow him to make a difference because he was an HBCU graduate.
So, it was a no-brainer when the head-hunting firm reached out to him about the Prairie View job, even though the Panthers were once his rivals. Prairie View fit everything he was looking for, and the bonus was that it was home, where he could be close to his family, including his 18-year-old daughter, Harmony, who is a freshman at the University of Houston.
As I watch him, I know she is his reason, Malone said of Jackson s daughter.
Cole says he had some reservations about Jackson taking the PV job, thinking that he should hedge his bets and wait for a bigger job to come. Cole, however, now sees the vision.
For me, it’s not about that, he remarked. It s about me getting somewhere where I m comfortable, where I feel like coming to work and I m looking at people who look like me, Cole said. When you ve got that and you are coming to an HBCU school, that s lovemaking.
The place to be is Prairie View.
