Prairie View A&M's Tremaine Jackson calls out Texas High School Coaches Association for snub of his program

Tremaine Jackson has had success at each one of his head coaching stops, and he's never had a problem saying the quiet part out loudd he did it again this week. Prairie View A&M's head coach called out the Texas High School Coaches Association for leaving his entire staff off its list of honorees, and he's not framing it as an oversight.

"I just couldn't sit on my hands, feeling like our program has been disrespected and even our players, so anytime that happens we're certainly going to say something."

Then Jackson opened up off by giving the THSCA coaching school event it's flowers.

"We just came from THSCA coaching school, phenomenal event, always has been and always will be, I've been to a lot of states and no one does it like the THSCA. Everybody thinks they're doing a great job with high school football, but I think the state of Texas does it better. I'm biased, and I'm from Texas."

Then came the beef.

"There were college coaches there talking about football, clinic-ing on football, and my issue is, why weren't our coaches there? I found out coaches were invited based on last year's results. We've moved on, but last year's results, if that was the case and that was the criteria, then someone should have invited our assistant coaches. Our coordinators, our position coaches did a phenomenal job. We're the only school in the state of Texas to play for a national championship. Regardless of the result, we were the only school in this state to get there.  The only ones to get there."

"Top defense in the state. One of the top offenses in the state. They had some guys speaking that were way in the back compared to our coaches and our team. So if that's the criteria, then why weren't they selected?"

"I can only think of one thing, and it has nothing to do with any of the fluff that you might be thinking. My issue with the THSCA coaches board that picks clinic speakers is you don't respect our ball and I'm sitting here and I'm getting about tired of it. You don't respect our ball because we're a Historical Black College. You don't respect our ball because you think Prairie View A&M is something that it isn't anymore. I'm from this state and I know the good ole boy network. I get it. But that time is over with."

Jackson walked into Prairie View on January 1, 2025, and by December his staff had the Panthers hoisting the SWAC championship trophy, a 23-21 win over Jackson State that delivered the program's first league title since 2009. That run carried Prairie View to the Cricket Celebration Bowl, where the Panthers pushed South Carolina State to four overtimes before falling 40-38, a game that had HBCU football buzzing for weeks. Jackson finished his debut season 10-4, was named SWAC Coach of the Year and the 2025 Non-FBS All-Texas Coach of the Year, and was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, the top honor in FCS coaching.

None of that happens without the staff Jackson built around him. Most of his assistants followed him from Valdosta State, where he went 30-9 in three seasons, won back to back Gulf South Conference titles, and picked up AFCA Division II National Coach of the Year honors after a 13-0 run to the national championship game where they lost to national power Ferris State. 

Prairie View rewarded that staff with raises this spring, roughly a 35 percent bump to the assistant pool, precisely because the administration didn't want to lose the group that turned the program around in year one.

That's what makes the THSCA snub sting. This isn't a staff riding a fluke season. It's a group that's won at every level Jackson has coached, from Colorado Mesa to Valdosta State to Prairie View, and it's a group that just took a Texas program to the upper echelon of the FCS ranks.

"Prairie View A&M plays real ball," he goes on to share. "We play real ball. We coach real ball, and we recruit real football players. So whatever you thought it was it ain't that anymore."

"Jack is going to call out the nonsense that continues to happen when it comes to our football at Prairie View A&M. We will not sit on our hands and be disrespected anymore."

Jackson has been building this argument for a while. He's talked openly about the gap in how HBCU coaches get recognized compared to their peers at predominantly white institutions, and he's pushed his own program to drop the "black college football" label entirely in favor of just calling it what it is: college football. "There's a lot of decision makers at that level who have no idea what goes on in black college football," he said earlier this year, referring to FBS programs.

THSCA's summer convention has long included a forum built around Texas's FBS head coaches, a networking staple for the state's high school ranks. Jackson's message is that a Texas program playing for a HBCU national title in December deserves a seat at that table too, regardless of division. 

He's not asking for a participation trophy. He's citing results and asking why they weren't enough for what many consider the top coaching event in the country put on by a state association.

Stay tuned to The Scoop.