Bethune-Cookman (FCS - FL) is making a head coaching change with one game left on the schedule.
The university announced Sunday that it has parted ways with head coach Raymond Woodie Jr., effective immediately, after four seasons leading his alma mater.
Alvin “Shine” Wyatt will serve as interim head coach for the rest of the 2026 season, which wraps up with the Florida Classic against rival Florida A&M on November 21 in Orlando.
The program is mired in a three-game losing streak heading into the season finale.
University president Albert Mosley called the move “a thoughtful and deliberate decision” made with the program’s long-term competitive future in mind. He added that expectations remain high and the goal is building a championship culture that contends consistently in the SWAC. Vice President of Athletics Reggie Theus, who hired Woodie, thanked him for his service as both a coach and an alumnus.
Woodie’s arrival in Daytona Beach came at the end of a messy search. B-CU first hired Ed Reed in December 2022, and that deal fell apart within weeks.
Woodie was named the program’s 16th head coach on February 6, 2023.
On paper, it was a natural fit. Woodie was an all-MEAC linebacker for the Wildcats in the early 1990s, and his 14.5 sacks in 1994 set a program record at the time. He then spent 13 seasons as a high school head coach in South Florida, at Bayshore from 1997 to 2006 and at Palmetto from 2007 to 2009, where he won a district title in 2008.
From there he became one of Willie Taggart’s most trusted assistants, following him to Western Kentucky, South Florida, Oregon, Florida State and Florida Atlantic. He was USF’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator in 2016, coached special teams and outside linebackers at Oregon in 2017, coached linebackers at FSU in 2018 and 2019, and was assistant head coach at FAU in 2021 and 2022.
The Wildcats went 3-8 in Woodie’s first season and 2-10 in his second. Then came a breakthrough in 2025. B-CU finished 6-6 overall and 5-3 in SWAC play, third in the East Division, and closed the year by beating Florida A&M 38-34 in the Florida Classic on a 41-yard touchdown with 20 seconds left. That put Woodie at 11-24 through three seasons, and the school billed year four as the hopeful next step.
Pulling the plug the week of your biggest rivalry game, one year after the program’s best season since joining the SWAC, tells you the administration had seen enough.
Few people know the building better than the man tasked with taking over. Wyatt is the winningest coach in B-CU history, going 90-54 from 1997 to 2009 and leading the Wildcats to their first two FCS playoff appearances in 2002 and 2003. He was MEAC Coach of the Year in 1998 and later led Edward Waters from 2013 to 2017. B-CU moved on from Wyatt in November 2009.
Seventeen years later, the school is asking him to steady things for one more Florida Classic.
Bethune-Cookman says it will begin a national search immediately for a coach who shares the university’s values, understands Wildcat football traditions and can build a consistently competitive program. The school did not name a search firm or a timeline.
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