Tuesday, February 11, 2020

JSU Settles with Former Head Football Coach

Harold Jackson walked away with a $170,000 check in October 2018 after he settled a lawsuit against Jackson State University and IHL.  JSU fired the former head football coach in 2015 when his team achieved a 6-11 record.  Coach Jackson sued the school for breach of contract.  JJ obtained a copy of the settlement agreement through a public records request.

Mr. Jackson claimed JSU discriminated against him and breached his contract when it fired him for having a losing record of 6-11 in 2015.  The school hired him in 2014 after firing Coach Rick Comegy. He took over a program that went to the SWAC Champeenship game for two consecutive years and promptly ran it under the ground with a 6-11 record.  He was 1-4 when he was fired halfway into his second season.  JSU gave up 47 points per game during his last season.  The team was going in the wrong direction with no turnaround in sight. Despite never being a head coach, the school paid him a salary of $260,000 -a $60,000 increase over Coach Comegy's salary.


JJ reported in 2017:

  Mr. Jackson argues his contract did not expire until January 12, 2017.  However, the contract does have a buyout provision.  The complaint states:

 16. Central to this  dispute  is provision  2.1 of  the Employment  Agreement, which states, "This agreement shall be for a term of three (3) years, from January 13, 2014, through January 12, 2017, with a buyout clause of $65,000.00 OR a figure negotiated and agreed upon by both parties if terminated earlier by the University.
JSU gave Mr. Jackson a $65,000 check when it fired him.  However, the fired coach refused to take the money:

19.  Plaintiff declined to accept the proverbial thirty pieces of silver in the form of a $65,000.00 payment because he is entitled to the remainder of his salary throughout January 12, 2017, pursuant to the terms of his Employment Agreement, and the policies and practice of the IHL in its dealings with its other employees who are Head Football Coaches. Consequently, the Plaintiff is entitled to be compensated at a minimum, for the value of the remainder of his Employment Agreement, in the amount of $329,808.22. Earlier post and copy of complaint.
 The case was assigned to Judge Bill Gowan in Hinds County Circuit Court but it was removed to federal court.  It was assigned to U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr.

JSU paid the former coach $170,000 under the terms of the agreement.  Judge Guirola dismissed the case with prejudice on October 15, 2018.


24 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's a lot of dough for someone totally incompetent. wait, its mississippi. nevermind

Anonymous said...

Nothing compared to how much Deputy Bryant will make off of this state post-employment.

Anonymous said...

The real incompetence in this situation which continues to plague JSU athletics is the position of athletic director. The hiring of questionable coaches to multi-year contracts which the school cannot afford has hurt the university since the tenure of W.C. Gorden, the best coach the school ever had. The situation continues with the idiot president who brought his own half-ass athletic director from Mississippi Valley and gave HIM a new three year contract. Now JSU is guaranteed to go nowhere for the next 3 years.

Anonymous said...

Harold Jackson was absolutely right. Hiring and firing at Jackson State had nothing to do with performance or ability. He was being judged on a scale different than others and that is called "discrimination".

Kingfish said...

Notice how many JSU alumni are screaming for someone from the JSU "family" to be the new President. Uh huh. Homeboy hires rarely work out. Do a true national search and hire someone with a proven track record.

However, Bennie won't allow that to happen. He seems to think he is the dictator of Black Mississippi and thinks he should have a say in or cut of everything Black. See airport.

Kingfish said...

1:00: BS. He should have never been hired in the first place. He sucked as a coach. Period.

TheClintonscantsuicideusall said...

"Harold Jackson walked away with a $170,000 check in October 2018 after he settled a lawsuit against Jackson State University and IHL." What dumbass lawyer represented him? That's a drop in the bucket and most likely all gone by now.

Anonymous said...

1:01 You are absolutely right, Jackson was a silly hire. But he is not the first and the beat goes on. The presidents and athletic directors have the final say and they do not hire or fire based on performance or ability. In fact THEY are not selected or fired on performance or ability. It's rotten at the core.

Anonymous said...

Hey KF. What about the new interim president? If you check you will find it interesting. Just check.

Anonymous said...

Is this just now becoming public or did this just get settled?

Anonymous said...

KF @ 1:00. With the benefit of hindsight, Matt Luke probably should not have been hired either, but each school decided to make safe homer picks. Nonetheless, Luke gets a 17 mil buyout and Jackson has to sue to get 170k. Even if you factor in the scale of the programs, where is the parity in that?

Anonymous said...

KF The reason JSU alumni "scream" for someone within the "family" is simply because we do not trust the IHL "search" process. We have no reason to. I doubt if Ole Miss trusts the process now. If the IHL had demonstrated over the years that it has the best interest of JSU at heart a national search and an impartial selection of the best man or woman would be applauded and accepted. But JSU supporters have always recognized that the IHL board is
an adversary, not an ally. It takes years to develop trust with a stranger selected by the IHL, at least we already know a member of the "family". If our own board, which we do not have, had selected a president even from distant outside, we could accept him as the best man for the job. But not this IHL board. It's a matter of trust, or should is say, distrust.

I hope this helps.

Kingfish said...

I can respect that opinion.

Anonymous said...

Bennie might as well take the job himself, at least long enough to beef up his high four in PERS.

Anonymous said...

Kingfish might respect that opinion, but the rest of thinking Americans view it as runaway paranoia.

Anonymous said...

2:25 If Ole Miss people express the same opinion you would probably accept it. And Ole Miss has dominated the IHL. Thinking American.

Anonymous said...

Why are we looking at an old lawsuit by a football coach?

Anonymous said...

3:10 Are you okay with JSU (a tax funded institution) handing me a check for $170,000. No? Fine, bring me the check!

Anonymous said...

2:25 - absolutely correct. Just because KF can respect that opinion doesn't make it any more credible.

And no, 2:45, I disagreed with the OM faithful and family that expressed the same opinion. I thought they were wrong at the time as well.

Once any of these STATE SUPPORTED institutions decides to spend their own money to operate rather than use the tax dollars that are collected from all the citizens then I will be all for them selecting whomever they want however they choose.

But until that time, while they are using tax dollars to keep their doors open, this 'family stuff' carries about the same smell as when Jimmy Hood couldn't prosecute Dickie or Zach because they were like "family".

Anonymous said...

King, there are 2 major studies that show that homeboys are the best pick. One of the studies is called "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. The book is the number one book used by master's programs throughout the U.S.

Oh, But He's My Homey said...

11:17 - Hugh Freeze was viewed as a homeboy when Archie brought him back to OM. And so was Luke. Look at the homeboy theory in the context of Valley State and even Alabama, back when. Look at the Delta State presidency. Why insist on dating your sister when there are other opportunities in the market-place? This "He's one of us" bullshit is just that.

Anonymous said...

Comegy should have never been fired.

JSU is lost, its probably as rigorous as fifth grade at St. Andrew's.

Anonymous said...

Freeze was the most successful caoch at Ole Miss in 50 years.

Luke was not even qualified to be the OL coach. Vitter was the only man in the world who thought he met the qualifications for HC. No one with football sense agreed with the decision.

Anonymous said...

"2:25 If Ole Miss people express the same opinion you would probably accept it. And Ole Miss has dominated the IHL. Thinking American."

Ole Miss is now more liberal than Millsaps. What the hell are you bitching about?

And, your IHL gave us the president at USM which has effectively been turned into Jackson State South.



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