It wasn’t even 24 hours after word circulated that Van Malone was being named head football coach of Hampton University that his text message was filled with 3,000 messages.
The task was challenging, but if you know Malone, you know that every one of those messages received a personal response.
“I’m eating it up,” Malone said. “I have to wake to wake at 4 o’clock in the morning sometimes just to respond to people’s messages that I just felt compelled to say, ‘Thank you for the congratulations,’ to say, ‘No, I don’t have a job,’ or whatever it might be. I always believe if somebody is reaching out to you, they are doing it for a reason. The least you can do is respond.”
The Houston native has shaken a lot of hands and made quite an impression on many people during an assistant college coaching career that spanned 23 years and nine schools, before the opportunity at Hampton presented itself and was too good to pass up. So for the first time, Malone is sitting in the seat he has long contemplated and now is genuinely excited to bring the leadership and football knowledge he has absorbed as a standout defensive back at the University of Texas, then in the NFL, and as a top assistant coach at places like Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, SMU and most recently as assistant head coach at Kansas State.
Malone, a product of Waltrip High School, takes over a Hampton program that has struggled to find its footing since its College Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Taylor departed in 2007, and the athletic department has changed conference affiliations a few times. The longtime defensive backs coach is still getting used to his new existence while making peace with the reality that his job isn’t to coach a position but to set the table for his coaching staff and the entire program.
“I came to Hampton to do things that hadn’t been done before. That’s what I came here to do. That’s the track that I try to live on,” Malone said in a recent conversation with the Defender. “I couldn’t be more excited about number one, the staff that I have gathered to come here to Hampton with me, because who they are as men, who they are as coaches … I don’t get to coach anybody. Some days I want to, but I understand that my job is to provide resources to clear the path so they can coach.
“I’m super excited to be doing what I… Yeah, I miss grabbing a ball and getting the cornerbacks to back pedal and open their hips. Yeah, I do miss that, but the place I see my purpose is providing support for those coaches, is providing relationships.”
Hampton athletic director Anthony Henderson set out late last year to find a new coach on the heels of a 2-10 season in which he fired Trent Boykins after one year as the Pirates’ full-time coach. Henderson, who played for Taylor, was looking for a coach with head-coaching experience, a proven leader, and respect in the game when he began the national search.
“It’s kind of funny after you’ve walked through a pit of snakes that you feel like you’re an expert at walking through a pit of snakes. So when you sit in this seat, you realize the gravity of what’s happening in this seat.”
Van Malone
Henderson thought about Malone, who had had him on his leadership podcast a few years ago, as he started looking for a new head coach. That led to the two having conversations, which in turn led to a meeting with school president Darrell K. Williams.
It wasn’t long before Malone had won them both over with his personable demeanor, leadership skills, and knowledge of the game. Malone checked all the boxes except for having prior head-coaching experience.
“When you look at Van, that was the only thing he was kind of missing,” said Henderson. “From my perspective, that wasn’t something that was going to keep me from hiring him.”
While Malone has coached at Football Bowl Series (FBS) schools throughout his career, the 55-year-old veteran coach says he is excited to take on the challenges of coaching in the Football Championship Series (FCS) level at an HBCU where he has a chance to affect student-athletes and an alumni base that looks like him. Malone understands the resource challenges he faces, coming from PWI schools with large budgets, to a school where he will have to be on a first-name basis with the financial aid workers.
Malone is already appealing to the alumni base, which shows up in force every year for Homecoming, to dig a little deeper to help support the program, whether it’s by improving facilities, adding more to the NIL coffers, or simply showing up regularly for games.
“I’m always challenging us from a resource standpoint to take another step, to go to that next place,” Malone said. “But it’s football. I believe they understand that the fact that some of the universities that I have worked at or we as a staff have worked at, the fact that they have four golf carts and we have none, is not going to stop anybody from tackling on third down. That’s not going to stop somebody from catching that ball in a key situation on gameday. The resources make it easier for us, they do.
“But at the end of the day, we tell our players: We’re all we’ve got. And we’re all we need.”
One of the first people Malone reached out to when he began considering the job was Prairie View coach Tremaine Jackson, whom Malone coached in high school and has been a friend and mentor to since. It was the first time Jackson felt like the roles were reversed and he could give his mentor some advice.
“Van Malone coached me, so I’m excited that another good one is in the chair,” said Jackson, who is coming off an impressive first season coaching at the HBCU level. “I know how those kids are going to get coached because I’m a product of it. Very happy for him. Trying to get him on the schedule.”
The pupil is also excited to be helping the teacher.
“It’s fun now because he coached me and taught me a lot. Now I’m the coach. Now you are in this world that you ain’t never been in, and I’ve got to coach you on some things. So it’s fun,” Jackson said. “I’m extremely happy for Coach. It’s much deserved, and I think it’s at the right time for him to be able to lead a program. I will do whatever I can to help him be as successful as I can.
“And Coach has got a plan. He has always had a plan. He will be able to do some things and get some things right early.”
Malone has appreciated all of the wisdom Jackson has been willing to share and has soaked it up.
“I am never above learning, and many years ago, when he took his first coaching job, he said to me, `Coach, I want to be a head coach, and if I want to be a head coach, and wait for the opportunity that I think is that rosy, that perfect opportunity. If I want to be a head coach, I must go be a head coach,’” Malone recalled. “When he said that to me, it really resonated because that’s what I was doing. I was kind of sitting around waiting for the Texas job to open up, for them to call me.”
But now, he is charged up about the opportunity that he has at Hampton and the chance to turn things around.
“This University is a national brand. It’s a storied tradition of excellence in athletics,” Malone said. “(This program) has gotten players drafted, won national championships, and elite-level coaches over the years, like Joe Taylor. I’ve known Coach Taylor for a long time. To come to this university… I’m still discovering the greatness that has preceded me.”
