HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

Hjacket

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
74
RamblinRed said:
My main goal is to get the best coach you believe you can get, who you think can win the most games for you. That means you have to understand who is interested in your job, and who you can afford.

I don't know whether Fritz will succeed but I plan to support him.

If you compare his tenure at Tulane to pretty much any coach they had before him it is quite positive. He is leading them to their 4th bowl game in 5 years, he has them in the AAC Championship game this year - ranked in the Top 25, and Tulane moved up from C-USA to the American in 2015, so he came in at a time they were transitioning to a higher level conference. Tulane had 1 winning season, 1 bowl game and a 29.7% winning percentage in the 13 years before he became their coach.

His 2 years at GSU were excellent. He managed to keep the same winning percentage as Jeff Monken at GSU while transitioning from FCS to FBS. He coached the first team in NCAA history to go undefeated in its conference in its first year in FBS and made a bowl game in year 2 (GSU was ineligible to go to a bowl game in Yr 1 in the FBS or he would have made bowl games both years). Being coach at GSU also means he has contacts within GA.

At Sam Houston State he made the NCAA FCS Championship game in 2 of his 4 years there.

The main takeaways that I have from the coaching search are the same two I had coming in - first, GT is not exactly the most attractive job in FBS, and second, GT doesn't have the finances to compete at the upper echelon, which shouldn't be a surprise to any GT fan who has paid any attention to GT's AA finances the last 15 years.

If Fritz can build a program as good as NCST I would be thrilled with that.
My belief is that the ceiling for GT football is winning an avg of 8-9 games per year (over a 5 yr period) with bowl games most seasons and the occasional ACC Championship game appearance (once every 4-5 years). Given where FBS football has moved and where GT is within that I think that is where GT sits.

Honestly, I was surprised his name hadn't come up in the rumors before, I had assumed it was due largely to his age.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Long if he is the hire - Long was his OC for his worst season of his coaching career - have to wonder if he will want to look somewhere else for an OC, or bring his current OC with him.
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Great summary. Based on my Tulane Alum info, Long would be a non-starter for Fritz.
 

bigrabbit

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
297
TromboneJacket said:
If the rumors are true that the donors wanted Key, and Batt truly has hired Willie Fritz to be our new head coach, then we had better be making bowl games immediately and be improving each year or having 8+ win seasons by year 2. Fritz (and the decision to hire him over Key) will not be given much patience.
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I agree with this to the extent that we already have (based on recent play) reasons to rationally hope for 7-8 wins next year with Key. I know we’re missing pieces, but Key knows what those are and could target the portal. Not crazy to extrapolate recent results and expect a pretty solid season next year.

Maybe the details will make more sense, something about terms, what Key wanted. Or maybe this rumor is premature and Fritz is being interviewed but not yet hired (appears unlikely). Clearing house has benefits and risks. I just hope it’s not another idiotic deal.
 
bobongo

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
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7,575
RamblinRed said:
It will be interesting to see what happens to Long if he is the hire - Long was his OC for his worst season of his coaching career - have to wonder if he will want to look somewhere else for an OC, or bring his current OC with him.
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fearthewave.substack.com

New Tulane Offensive Coordinator Jim Svoboda brings an explosive offense to NOLA

Tulane Head Coach Willie Fritz tabbed Central Missouri Head Coach Jim Svoboda as his new offensive coordinator. Coincidentally, Svoboda was hired at Central Missouri to replace Fritz when Fritz left Central Missouri for Sam Houston State in 2010. Admittedly, I knew little about Svoboda when he...
fearthewave.substack.com fearthewave.substack.com
 

jrgray

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
24
Hiring Fritz does not provide much hope. He has had one good season at Tulane (see also Lewis, Bill) and is consistently a 6-7 win coach (see Johnson, Paul). Anyone is an upgrade over Collins (see, Clown, Bozo) but this doesn’t feel like a home run hire. There is no evidence Fritz can recruit at P5 level and we are going to see a few more portal announcements from players who wanted it to be Key,
 
4shotB

4shotB

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Retired Staff
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4,938
Techster said:
You know the saying "it gets harder before it gets easier"? Well, we're about to live through that.
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Are you saying it's going to get worse than it has been over the last 6 or 7 years??!!!!!!! I can't wrap my mind around what that would even look like.
 
bobongo

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,575
jrgray said:
Hiring Fritz does not provide much hope. He has had one good season at Tulane (see also Lewis, Bill) and is consistently a 6-7 win coach (see Johnson, Paul). Anyone is an upgrade over Collins (see, Clown, Bozo) but this doesn’t feel like a home run hire. There is no evidence Fritz can recruit at P5 level and we are going to see a few more portal announcements from players who wanted it to be Key,
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It gives me a lot of hope because he's a rebuilder. He's done it several times and Tulane was a major rebuild.
 
Augusta_Jacket

Augusta_Jacket

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Staff member
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We all need a shot of optimism right now...

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