Maria Taylor should keep Clemson football out of her mouth

Clemson football offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is among the best assistant coaches in the country.

Under the direction of Tony Elliott, the Clemson football offense has had a lot of success and won a lot of ball games. There is no doubt that Tony Elliott is going to be a great head coach one day – when he chooses to do so.

Apparently, ESPN sideline reporter and studio host Maria Taylor thinks that Tony is stuck at Clemson because he isn’t white.

Race has always been a very hot topic in this country and for good reason but this word has become polarizing over the last nine months and is being used by people in the media to parlay their hit job hot takes into better career positioning.

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Maria Taylor did this same nonsense in 2018 when she used all of ESPN’s platforms to paint head coach Dabo Swinney into a racist for ultimately choosing quarterback Trevor Lawrence over Kelly Bryant. As we know, Lawrence went on to lead Clemson to a national title while Bryant would head to Missouri and win just six games.

Clemson football provides a great quality of life.

Tony Elliott is far from stupid. He is one the brightest minds in the game and we aren’t just talking about from an X’s and O’s standpoint. If you don’t know Tony’s story and the real struggle that he has been through, I would highly suggest reading up on it.

At Clemson, Tony has an extremely high quality of life. He makes nearly $2 million a year to work and live in an area he loves. His family is extremely comfortable and can have all of this without the stressors of being a head football coach.

Tony also realizes that he may only get one chance at being a head coach and so being selective on his next move has to be more calculated than simply chasing a dream.

As a Black college football coach, Tony may only get one chance at a Power 5 job. In the history of Power 5 football, only two Black head coaches have been fired from a Power 5 job and been rehired at another – Tyrone Willingham and Kevin Sumlin.

Because of this, Tony has to be more calculated than others in regards to his future. We have seen in recent years with Charlie Strong at Texas and Willie Taggart, that Black head coaches have not been extended the same grace as their white counterparts.

This isn’t a bad thing, take white football coach Chad Morris as an example. He jumped at the first opportunity he had to be a head coach and his journey has been a disaster.

He jumped at the SMU job and almost immediately parlayed that into a Power 5 job where the expectations were unrealistic and he never had a chance. Morris spent two years at Arkansas and was never even allowed to lay the foundation of success before he was fired.

Why would Tony want to put himself in the position? He is too smart for that.

Sure, Tony has to be more methodical in his approach as a Black college football coach, but it definitely is not the reason he is still an assistant football coach. Tony has made it very clear he is in no rush to leave Clemson football anytime soon as he loves his job, his coworkers, and his responsibilities.