Grambling State names Broderick Fobbs new head coach

The Associated Press

GRAMBLING, La. (AP) — Grambling State has named current McNeese State tight ends coach Broderick Fobbs as the Tigers' next head coach.

Fobbs, whose hiring was announced Wednesday, will remain with McNeese through the Cowboys' second-round FCS playoff game Saturday. He'll then take over for Dennis "Dirt" Winston, who was Grambling's second interim coach of 2013.

Fobbs, 39, was a Grambling running back under the late Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson. He also has been an assistant coach at Northwestern State.

Grambling closed a school-worst 1-11 campaign with a 40-17 loss to Southern in the Bayou Classic last Saturday.

The season will be most remembered for a walkout by players in protest of decrepit training conditions, long bus rides to Kansas City and Indianapolis, and the administration's general handling of the once-proud program.

Players were particularly upset over the early-season firing of popular former head coach Doug Williams, who is one of the school's best known alumni, having won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins. They portrayed the firing as symbolic of the administration's dysfunctional relationship with some of its best-known former players and other alumni or prospective donors who had the means to address the football programs' needs expediently.

Williams was replaced by George Ragsdale, who lost five games before being replaced by Winston during the same week in which the walkout was staged.

The walkout lasted about a week resulted in Grambling forfeiting Jackson State's homecoming game.

When players returned, they rallied around Winston, a former NFL linebacker and former assistant under Robinson in the 1990s. In Winston's four games, the Tigers won for the only time and lost a pair of close games before falling in the Bayou Classic.

Winston said openly he was interested in getting the job permanently, but was under the impression the university may have other plans.