© Gerald Thomas III/Tallahassee Democrat/USA TODAY NETWORK
James Colzie had an impressive first season as the head football coach of the Florida A&M Rattlers. Colzie, who took over for Willie Simmons after the latter left to become the running backs coach for Manny Diaz at Duke, went 7-5 in his first season and made $250,000 in the process. But $250,000 in Florida doesn’t get you as far as it used to, so Colzie is moonlighting in a different role.
The 50-year-old went viral over the weekend after fans realized he was the home-plate umpire for a top-25 NCAA Division 1 softball game between Auburn and Mississippi State.
I done seen it all😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/K5jheBxDr5
— KheylanCarter (@khey_gotfanz) March 22, 2025
But as Doug Samuels of Football Scoop reports, umpiring is actually nothing new for Colzie. Samuels revealed that Colzie has been umpiring both Big Ten and SEC games dating all the way back to 2009 when he was an assistant coach at Division II West Georgia.
Bizarrely enough, the Auburn and Mississippi State game was played all the way back on March 9, a few days after FAMU’s first spring practice and just prior to spring break. Although that didn’t keep fans from having some questions about the time commitment.
“That’s actually dope if that’s his passion. Don’t know how he could have the time for it but that’s dope,” one fan wrote.
Colzie initially rose to fame in the 1990s as a starter at cornerback for Bobby Bowden and the Florida State Seminoles. At the same time, he was an All-ACC caliber baseball player who later had a brief stint with both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Montreal Expos organizations.
That’s what we call a multi-talented man. Football Scoop also reports that Colzie has been hard at work for FAMU, raising his roster size from just 60 a year ago to 93 for the 2025 season.