FAMU football coach Quinn Gray will build program on 'trust'
Quinn Gray Sr. has grown familiar with the term ‘FAMULY’ since he set foot on Florida A&M’s campus as a student-athlete in 1997.
Now, as the newly hired head football coach, Gray knows that must be one of the traits his team should have for his tenure to be a success.
“When you say ‘FAMULY,’ that’s what it truly got to be,” Gray told the Eddie Jackson 220 Quarterback Club on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
Gray, a former record-setting Rattlers quarterback who would later be inducted into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and FAMU Sports Hall of Fame, was hired by his alma mater on Dec. 23, 2025.
He replaced the dismissed James Colzie III, who went 12-12 in two years, including the Rattlers’ 5-7 finish in 2025, the program’s first losing season since 2017.
Before Gray’s return to The Highest of Seven Hills, he was head coach of the Albany State Golden Rams, a Georgia-based public Historically Black College and University.
Gray went 24-11 while there for three seasons.
After two six-win seasons, Gray’s Golden Rams finally broke through in 2025.
The NCAA Division II team went 12-2, Albany State’s most wins in a season, advanced to the national quarterfinals, won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title, and was named the Black College Football National Champions.
Reliance on one another guided Gray and Albany State to those championship heights.
“If I’m being completely honest, I think that was truly the biggest thing that helped us turn that corner at Albany State ― the trust that we had as a coaching staff and players and the trust that they had in us,” Gray explained.
Gray plans to bring the same level of trust to the Orange and Green.
He’s doing so by building connections with players on his inaugural roster.
Therefore, it may tailor the Rattlers for high-pressure situations this fall.
“That’s what we’re doing now in terms of trying to develop those relationships with those kids so they can trust us, and we can trust those guys in key situations,” the new FAMU football coach said. “As long as we’re putting them through those situations day in and day out in practice and they’re out there reacting versus thinking, we’ve got a good product.”
Gray is laying the off-the-field groundwork to ensure a seamless transition to the gridiron.
Florida A&M University held a joint introductory press conference for new head football coach Quinn Gray Sr. and Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics John Davis at the Al Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center in Tallahassee, Florida, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.
Spring football training camp is set to begin the week of Feb. 24, a little over a month away. FAMU will play the Orange and Green Game on Saturday, April 4, Gray also announced.
“I’m excited about the direction of Florida A&M football,” he said. “And I’m excited to be the person leading that charge.”
Gerald Thomas, III is a multi-time award-winning journalist for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at [email protected] or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU football must trust each other to succeed, says Quinn Gray
