Joseph rebuilding Grambling while battling current college football climate

GRAMBLING, LA (KTAL/KMSS) – The world of college athletics has been a whirlwind since the Name, Image, and Likeness legislation was passed in 2021.

That’s a storm that Grambling head coach Mickey Joseph is now facing as he tries to rebuild the Tiger football program.

“Whoever has the most money, usually wins. Whoever has the most expensive roster usually wins, because that’s 2025,” Joseph said. “The bank accounts involved, the bank account is important now with college athletics.”

But Joseph is not one to shy away from any challenge, whether its monetary or not.

“Grambling wants to win and I’m here to win and I understand what it takes to win, I’ve been a winner. I’ve been a winner for a long time. My family’s been winners for a long time,” Joseph said.

His drive and dedication to winning is mirrored by the Grambling community, from which he has felt much support over the last year. He promises that all the support will in turn produce satisfying results.

“Outside support really helps you when you can get that going,” Joseph said. “We appreciate that, we’re always gonna show gratitude to those people and these kids are gonna play their tails off now, they’re gonna play hard because they really appreciate it.”

While Grambling has a passionate fanbase consisting of many supporters with full pocketbooks, the Tigers’ resources do not compare to some larger Division I programs. The athletics program has seen support from the entire HBCU community.

“It’s special and you take your hat off to the HBCU boosters,” Joseph said. “Just your heart, you’re happy that people want to help these young men because we don’t have all the resources that we need. So when you got people like the HBCU boosters want to lend a hand, we have other guys too, that helps out a drop of a dime. And I appreciate those guys because we do have to have resources outside the university. And so we show our gratitude to them. We show them much love, but we appreciate those groups.”

The Tigers kick off the regular season and year two under Joseph on August 30, taking on Langston at Independence Stadium in Shreveport.