Grambling State Football UPDATE: Players Boycott Practice Second Consecutive Day, Ragsdale Out as Interim Coach
ByFollowing a second consecutive practice boycott from the Grambling State football team, the school has removed George Ragsdale from his interim head coach position, USA Today reported.
The Tigers will see their second interim coach as university spokesman Will Sutton announced defensive coordinator Dennis "Dirt" Winston would take over. He also said Ragsdale was not fired, but rather moved within the athletic department.
"Ragsdale has been reassigned and to go in another direction at this time, and he'll be helping in other ways," Sutton said.
Doug Williams, also a former player for Grambling State, was fired from his head coaching position in September after an 0-2 start. Ragsdale took over and did not make the team's situation any better as they remained winless over their next five games. At 0-7, the team will get its third different head coach of the season.
As for the players, who have missed practice for two consecutive days due to a boycott, Sutton said those who wish to play will play Saturday.
"No concern," he said. "We're going to play the players that want to play."
Jackson State, their opponent, and reps from the Southwestern Athletic Conference told the Clarion Ledger the game will go on as scheduled.
Sutton did not clarify where Ragsdale would be reassigned, but said that decision would come from athletic director Aaron James. Still, Ragsdale would have liked to have held his job longer than he was able to.
"I was hurt. What do you think?" Ragsdale said. "I'm a football coach. You can reassign me, but I don't want to make any waves. My plans were to restore Grambling back to its old days. I guess they couldn't wait."
According to ESPN, Grambling State football players met with administrators Tuesday including the school president Frank Pogue, James and Ragsdale. The meeting reportedly became "increasingly negative" and players began to leave before it had ended, later confirmed by Sutton.
The next day, not one member of the team showed up to practice and the same story for Thursday. The players were reportedly fed up with poor travel accommodations like taking buses instead of planes to distant road games, low-quality training equipment and, of course, the dismal 0-7 start to their season. The team's frustrations apparently boiled over in a Wednesday morning incident where a player was kicked out of the weight training session for voicing his opinions.
Perceived as the tipping point in the whole debacle, that incident led to a prompt walkout and two consecutive days of not practicing.