Kermit Blount will trot to the home sideline at Bowman Gray Stadium for another football opener Sept. 5, when Winston-Salem State plays rival N.C. A&T.
But this season will be unlike any of Blount's previous 16 as the head coach at his alma mater.
Blount has two years left on a contract extension he signed in 2006 for an annual salary of about $85,000, but he'll have to prove himself all over again -- this time to an athletics director who has yet to be hired. WSSU also remains in athletics limbo, undecided about whether to continue its transition to Division I or to remain in Division II.
Chancellor Donald Reaves will decide on the next AD, possibly later this week, and said that it will then be up to him or her to decide the fate of Blount, whose contract will expire Dec. 31, 2010.
Blount, 51, said he isn't worried about the outcome.
"I'm too old to feel pressure," he said. "I'm just older now, and I don't worry about stuff like that. I've been doing this a long time. If it's not going to happen, or if it's going to happen, it will take care of itself."
WSSU had its worst record under Blount last fall, finishing 3-8 against a schedule of Division I opponents in the Football Championship Subdivision. Blount said he feels some pressure to win, but that it's self-imposed because he wasn't happy with the record.
"We were 3-8 last year, and they (fans and alumni) are going to grumble," he said. "It doesn't matter, because you can't satisfy them all."
Blount said that early in his career as a head coach, he was bothered by every critical comment. But he started to filter the criticism several years ago and said that made him a better coach.
"It never bothers me," Blount said, "because even if we were 11-0, you are still going to have fans grumbling about not scoring enough points."
There wasn't much hoopla last year when Blount passed Bill Hayes to become WSSU's career victories leader, mainly because the Rams were having a poor season.
"I never dwell on stuff like that," said Blount, whose record is 90-77-3. "We were much better than a 3-8 team, and if you look at those games, with the possible exception of (S.C. State), we had a chance to win them all."
Some players have noticed a slight change in Blount. Others say he's the same consistent coach he has always been.
Sophomore Dominique Fitzgerald, when asked about Blount's contract status, said: "We just try to worry about what we can handle. That's what we can handle, everything between the lines.… Coach just wants to come out and coach us and win football games."
Linebacker Marcus Coates, a fifth-year senior, said: "Maybe there's a little pressure on him. Seeing that we had a losing season last year, it's always better to win, but he is pushing us harder."
Blount has worked for four chancellors and three ADs and has more tenure than any other college coach in the state except Appalachian State's Jerry Moore (21 seasons) and Methodist's Jim Sypult (18 seasons).
Linebacker Juan Corders laughed and said: "He's outlasted everybody."
Another issue that Blount won't discuss publicly is the direction of WSSU's athletics program.
Although the transition to Division I continues, no final decision has been made about what division that WSSU will be playing in by next fall. Reaves said in May that the board of trustees would decide in September.
Blount backed away from recruiting large numbers of junior-college players about 10 years ago, because few of them graduated. He also tries to redshirt freshmen when possible, and those two moves have increased the program's graduation rate.
That's something that Corders said that most people don't realize.
"Coach Blount's not going anywhere," Corders said. "We have good standards with our graduation rate, and that's the most important part, we are graduating and are student-athletes."
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
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