The Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual coaching school and convention, which wrapped up Tuesday in Houston, is one of the most important events on the Lone Star State’s football calendar.

Roughly 17,000 high school coaches across all sports — with football coaches representing the most significant chunk of attendees — zigzagged through the George R. Brown Convention Center to network and hear from people at the top of their profession, including college coaches at top-25 programs like Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

But there’s a championship-winning coach whose staff members didn’t speak during the three-day event, and he offered a full-throated criticism of the omission as part of his ongoing effort to garner respect for his program and Historically Black College and University football.

Prairie View A&M coach Tremaine Jackson took exception with what he called “disrespect” of his coaching staff and HBCU football when members of the Panthers’ staff were not invited to speak at the THSCA convention after a historic 2025 season for the Panthers.

Jackson, who led Prairie View to the 2025 Southwest Athletic Conference title and an appearance in the Celebration Bowl, posted a three-minute video on his social media accounts late Tuesday night venting about the omission. The Panthers went 10-4 last season — Jackson’s first as PV’s head coach — won the SWAC for the first time since 2009 and lost 40-38 to South Carolina State in the Celebration Bowl, which is considered the HBCU national championship game.

Jackson, whose staff attended the convention, prefaced his comments with praise for the THSCA and its event, calling it “phenomenal” before critiquing the lack of speaker invitations for his staff.

All disrespect will be addressed!! #FTF pic.twitter.com/1lpBwUtZVG

— Tremaine Jackson (@coachjack212) July 22, 2026

“Why weren’t our coaches there?” Jackson said in the video. “I found out that coaches were invited based off of last year’s results. … If that was the criteria, then somebody should have invited our assistant coaches.”

“Our coordinators, our position coaches did a phenomenal job,” Jackson continued. “We’re the only school in the state of Texas to play for a national championship. Regardless of the result, we were the only school in this state to get there. … Top defense in the state; one of the top offenses in the state. All due respect to those (other) guys, we have some guys that were way in the back statistically compared to our coaches and compared to our team. And so if that’s the criteria, then why weren’t (Prairie View coaches) selected? Why weren’t they invited?

“And I can only think of one thing. It has nothing to do with any of the fluff that you might say. My issue with the THSCA coaches board that picks clinic speakers is you don’t respect our ball. And I’m sitting here, and I’m getting about tired of that. You don’t respect our ball because we’re a historical Black college. You don’t respect our ball because you thought Prairie View was something that Prairie View A&M is not anymore. And I’m from this state. I know the ‘good-ol’-boy’ network; I get it. That time is over with. Prairie View A&M plays real ball. We play real ball, we coach real ball, we recruit real football players. And so whatever you thought it was, it ain’t that anymore.”

The three-day convention had 42 football lectures or demonstrations by coaches, according to the posted agenda. Of those slots, 31 went to college coaches, primarily at the FBS level, though there were speakers from FCS schools and a Division III school. The other 11 time slots went to high school coaches. The convention annually hosts a range of high school coaches and college coaches as lecturers, with college speakers typically being FBS-heavy but usually inclusive of lower divisions, too.

Colleges that had football staff members speak in those lectures included all 13 FBS schools in the state — Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston, SMU, TCU, North Texas, Rice, Sam Houston, Texas State, UTEP and UTSA — as well as FCS schools Abilene Christian, Lamar, Stephen F. Austin and Division III Trinity.

A message from The Athletic to THSCA executive director Joe Martin on Wednesday requesting comment and clarity on the speaker selection process went unreturned.

In an interview with The Athletic on Wednesday, Jackson said he nominated four of his coaches as speakers this spring through the THSCA’s website. Jackson, who said he’s been a member, annually subscribes to “Texas Coach” magazine — published by the THSCA — and has regularly attended the convention since 2006, expressed a general frustration that the issue extends beyond simply this issue or the THSCA.

“I felt like they left us out,” Jackson said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been fighting the fight that we’re not second to anybody.”

Jackson, who is from Houston, said he believes some high school coaches view his program as lesser than other FCS programs in the state and filter that message down to players he tries to recruit. “In their mind, the ball is better (in other FCS conferences),” he said. He also alluded to what he believes is a national disrespect for HBCU football.

“We played in the Celebration Bowl,” Jackson said. “It was one of the highest-rated, most-viewed bowl games. But people will respect the f—ing Xbox Bowl, where you get a controller to be the MVP. They give that game more respect than the Celebration Bowl.”

He also cited Prairie View’s football reputation from the 1990s, when the Panthers endured an 80-game losing streak — which included seven consecutive winless seasons before breaking the streak in 1998 — as something people use to discount his program.

“People hold Prairie View football hostage to the ’90s,” he said.

Jackson said he hadn’t heard from anyone at the THSCA about the issue and that he doesn’t have interest in speaking at the event, but he wanted his coaches to get recognized for what they accomplished. Having played high school football and coached in Texas, Jackson is aware of how important the THSCA is and how much influence the organization has.

“My frustration came from not only did you leave our coaches out of this opportunity to speak in front of high school coaches, but you robbed the high school coaches from learning what one of the championship programs in the state does on a daily basis,” Jackson said. “So, you’re not giving the best to our own people.”

He added: “If your criteria is picking championship coaches, then you should have considered our coaches. If nobody in the room brought up our coaches, then that’s a problem in itself. That means you’re not doing your research on your speaker. And we make enough noise on social media for you to always think about us.”

The THSCA originated in 1930 and hosted its first coaching school and convention in 1933. This week’s convention was the 94th edition. Coaches from every state-sponsored sport attend the convention, but the THSCA’s largest imprint is in high school football. It’s considered the largest convention of its kind in the country.

What an incredible three days!🙌

Thank you to every coach, speaker, exhibitor, partner, and volunteer who made the 2026 THSCA Coaching School & Convention one to remember.

📚 276 hours of content
🤝 17 networking events
🎤 11 panel discussions
🎙️ 30 press conferences
🏟️ 350+… pic.twitter.com/RKoZjFY7pm

— THSCA (@THSCAcoaches) July 22, 2026

The event is also heavily attended by college coaches from in and out of state, since Texas is considered a recruiting hotbed.

Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire served as the keynote speaker Tuesday, and coordinators from Texas (Will Muschamp), Texas A&M (Holmon Wiggins), Baylor (Jake Spavital) and TCU (Gordon Sammis) were among the notable college football speakers at this year’s event. In recent years, the convention has also hosted Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian and Lincoln Riley as keynote speakers.

Jackson has garnered attention for his social media posts in the past. In 2025, he posted a set of guidelines for interested potential transfers to follow if they wanted to join his program, which he called the “Panther Portal Understanding.” It included assertions that interested prospects should follow Jackson back within four hours of being followed by him “or we’re done,” how to properly address the staff, and to refrain from asking for name, image and likeness money if they had a limited number of college snaps. He posted the messages before the 2025 spring transfer window and the 2026 winter transfer window, and each garnered more than 600,000 views and sparked plenty of reaction and discussion.

Now that the portal opens in a few days, here’s our updated understanding!!

We look forward to hearing from all transfers that want to COMPETE for CHAMPIONSHIPS!!

Panther Portal Understanding Pt. 2 pic.twitter.com/NwEcInOH0L

— Tremaine Jackson (@coachjack212) December 28, 2025

Jackson said the social media rule was the one he got the most negative reaction about, but he found it amusing.

“Where are we as a society all the time? We’re always on our phones, right?” he said. “So if I follow you during the portal season, you know what I want, dawg. And if you don’t want me back, that’s fine. But I don’t want my Twitter ratio out of whack, so if you don’t follow me, I’m going to unfollow you.”

Jackson said he speaks candidly because his administration “won’t put a muzzle on him” and it’s how he feels. He said after he posted his video, he got messages from other coaches who felt similarly and thanked him for speaking out because they don’t feel they can.

Jackson, who is part of the Minority Coaches Advancement Association — a group that hosts events and mock interviews to train and prepare minority coaches for head-coaching jobs — doesn’t intend to stop speaking up.

“My daddy wasn’t a coach, so I didn’t start on second base,” Jackson said. “I started as a volunteer at Texas A&M-Kingsville and had a 6-month-old daughter, and I went to work for room and board. I didn’t even get a scholarship. They just gave me a meal card and told me my room was over there.”

Jackson is 50-16 in six seasons as a college head coach, including a 30-8 record at his previous stop, Valdosta State, where he took the Blazers to an undefeated regular season and trip to the Division II national championship game in 2024. He was named AFCA D-II National Coach of the Year for that effort. He won SWAC Coach of the Year honors in 2025.

“This is what I’m called to do, and just like we tell players the truth, I’m about telling grown folks the truth, too. I say this stuff because one, as a Black man, there’s a lot of us that feel frustrated, like ‘There’s no tomorrow; I’m never going to advance,’ and we refuse to talk about it.

“I’ve got a job where I can say that, and that’s how I really feel, but it also makes Prairie View A&M relevant too. Because you’ve never heard of nobody talking about Prairie View A&M in March, April, May, June and July before fall camp. And Prairie View A&M deserves to be relevant.”