Southern University football coach Pete Richardson met Wednesday with Athletic Director Greg LaFleur and Chancellor Kofi Lomotey, who gave the coach permission to pursue other opportunities at the end of this season if those opportunities arise.
“Before today, I hadn’t really taken a look at any of them,” Richardson said later. “But (now) I’ve been given permission to take a look at some of those other opportunities.”
The Jaguars (6-4, 3-3 Southwestern Athletic Conference) have one game left this season, at 1 p.m. Saturday in Houston against Texas Southern (5-5, 4-2).
Richardson has said that he plans, as always, to sit with his wife for an after-the-season assessment. This much he knows: He wants to continue coaching, and he’d prefer to continue coaching at Southern.
“I want to coach football, and I’m not going to retire. If I retire, probably it would cause havoc within my household because I’d spend too much time at home,” Richardson joked. “So I feel good … I just want to finish up because I owe that to Southern University, to finish up what I have to do with the individuals on this football team, and then I’ll make an assessment at that time.”
Richardson agreed to his current contract just before the 2007 Bayou Classic. The contract runs through the 2010 season and guarantees Richardson $205,000 per year, one of the highest salaries in the Football Championship Subdivision.
In 17 seasons at Southern, Richardson has built a 134-61 overall record, including five SWAC championships and four black college national titles.
But the Jaguars haven’t won a conference title since 2003 and by Richardson’s own standards, this season has been another disappointment. Prairie View defeated Southern 16-14 on Oct. 22, all but eliminating the Jaguars from the championship race.
SU also suffered a 31-13 loss to archrival Grambling last week, its most lopsided defeat in the Bayou Classic since Richardson arrived in 1993.
