Challenged by his father to consider race when choosing a college, Kellen Winslow Jr. eventually settled on the University of Miami. Not because of the color of new football coach Larry Coker, who is white, but in part because Coker has four minority assistants on his coaching staff.

	Miami's Larry Coker is still undefeated as a head coach.

When putting together his staff in February, Coker said he never set out to hire minorities just for the sake of having diversity. Instead, he chose the candidates he felt were most qualified for the job.

"Was it important to me when I hired my staff? No, it really wasn't," Coker said. "The fact that three position coaches are African-American, those are the three I wanted. Race wasn't a factor. But with that, I would never hire a staff of nine white coaches. You want to be racially mixed and have coaches of different age groups for sure. So it can be somewhat of a factor. But this time it just worked out that way."

Washington, Michigan State, Miami all recruited the 6-foot-5, 220-pound receiver. He picked Miami because of one assistant coach in particular, receivers coach Charles Johnson, who is black.

Johnson is one of four assistant coaches on Coker's staff who are minorities. In addition, defensive coordinator Randy Shannon, linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves and strength and conditioning coach Andrew Swasey are all black.

When told of Kellen Winslow Sr.'s suggestion that more recruits should consider race among many factors when selecting a college, Coker agreed that it could be effective in opening more doors for minority coaches.

"Just like anything else, it could be a subtle pressure that would cause people to think," said Coker, who became a head coach in February after 22 years as an assistant. "It certainly might have an effect that way."