I witnessed first hand Fritz depants Major and his merry men yesterday in New Orleans. I realize Tulane's record is 5-6 which on the surface might not seem like much, but I have watched his team play 6 times this year. They punch way above their weight class. They got blown out by OU and Memphis on the road, not a crime by any means. There is not a team they play where they do not have a talent disadvantage or a resources disadvantage but Fritz' teams always compete. He is making $1.2 million a year at a school similar to Rice. I do not know that he would leave, but if Rice is serious about winning football, it would be wise to at least pick up the phone and call.

I am so disenchanted with the direction of UH athletics. I hope the Owls get something going so that there are alternatives for my football dollars.

(11-19-2017 08:46 AM)Mademen Wrote:  ...if Rice is serious about winning football...

I'm afraid I have some bad news for you buddy...

(11-19-2017 08:51 AM)Bailiff_Lingo_Bingo Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 08:46 AM)Mademen Wrote:  ...if Rice is serious about winning football...

I'm afraid I have some bad news for you buddy...

sigh, sadly, I suspect the evidence to be very true

Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.

He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

(11-19-2017 09:04 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.

He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

It's a moot point anyway. Why in the world would he leave Tulane for the same pay (at the very best) and a weaker conference?

(11-19-2017 09:12 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 09:04 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.

He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

It's a moot point anyway. Why in the world would he leave Tulane for the same pay (at the very best) and a weaker conference?

He has interviewed for the UH job twice. It may be that he likes the city. Rice might (not sure) have incrementally better facilities and recruiting base than Tulane. Maybe he thinks he could win/dominate CUSA? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I am just saying that if I was the AD, I would be making that call. Make him tell me no.

(11-19-2017 09:04 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.
He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

Fritz was at Central Missouri for 11 years before Sam, and every one of his moves has been a move up, so I wouldn't be that concerned about his moving. His age would keep most P5's away, I would think.

That being said, I would seriously doubt that we could get him away from Tulane. As noted, he hasn't made sideways moves in the past. He's an excellent coach, and a very nice and bright guy.

Fritz does remind that there is another guy doing a fine job at Sam now, K. C. Keeler, who might be worth a look. His Sam teams don't play great defense, but for those who want an offensive guru, he's pretty special on that side of the ball. He is roughly the same age as Fritz.

For those who don't think Texas recruiting connections are important, I think back to the presser where Mensa announced his Texas staff, and his first comment was that they as a group had a combined 108 years of experience recruiting Texas and 17 years as Texas HS head coaches.

(11-19-2017 09:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 09:04 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.
He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

Fritz was at Central Missouri for 11 years before Sam, and every one of his moves has been a move up, so I wouldn't be that concerned about his moving. His age would keep most P5's away, I would think.

That being said, I would seriously doubt that we could get him away from Tulane. As noted, he hasn't made sideways moves in the past. He's an excellent coach, and a very nice and bright guy.

Fritz does remind that there is another guy doing a fine job at Sam now, K. C. Keeler, who might be worth a look. His Sam teams don't play great defense, but for those who want an offensive guru, he's pretty special on that side of the ball. He is roughly the same age as Fritz.

For those who don't think Texas recruiting connections are important, I think back to the presser where Mensa announced his Texas staff, and his first comment was that they as a group had a combined 108 years of experience recruiting Texas and 17 years as Texas HS head coaches.

Keeler also has a 1-AA championship to his name (at Delaware), and 2 more appearances in the 1-AA championship game (also at Delaware). And he's continued Sam's run of success (though no championships yet). He also coached Rowan to 5 Division III championship games in the 90s (all losses - Mount Union is always consistently great and yielded 3 of those losses).

I'm glad the Rice decision makers didn't rule that Coach Graham was "too old" when we hired him to coach the baseball team.

That was an issue that was raised (Graham was about 54 or 55 when he was hired IIRC) but Graham has always been in outstanding physical condition and easily is at least 10 years younger physically than he is in actual age. So I suppose age is one factor but your fitness and enthusiasm level is another. I think everyone agrees it's not easy to be a head coach at Rice and there is nothing wrong with wanting someone who will be able to handle the stress and pressure demands of the job.

(11-19-2017 10:10 AM)gsloth Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 09:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 09:04 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.
He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

Fritz was at Central Missouri for 11 years before Sam, and every one of his moves has been a move up, so I wouldn't be that concerned about his moving. His age would keep most P5's away, I would think.

That being said, I would seriously doubt that we could get him away from Tulane. As noted, he hasn't made sideways moves in the past. He's an excellent coach, and a very nice and bright guy.

Fritz does remind that there is another guy doing a fine job at Sam now, K. C. Keeler, who might be worth a look. His Sam teams don't play great defense, but for those who want an offensive guru, he's pretty special on that side of the ball. He is roughly the same age as Fritz.

For those who don't think Texas recruiting connections are important, I think back to the presser where Mensa announced his Texas staff, and his first comment was that they as a group had a combined 108 years of experience recruiting Texas and 17 years as Texas HS head coaches.

Keeler also has a 1-AA championship to his name (at Delaware), and 2 more appearances in the 1-AA championship game (also at Delaware). And he's continued Sam's run of success (though no championships yet). He also coached Rowan to 5 Division III championship games in the 90s (all losses - Mount Union is always consistently great and yielded 3 of those losses).

And one of the DBs on those Mount Union teams was the other guy I like, Alex Grinch.

(11-19-2017 09:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 09:04 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Fritz is 57 (58 in April). And he's been at four different schools over the past decade.
He's done a good job everywhere he's been but I just think his age and constant moving around are two red flags in my book that cause me concern.

Fritz was at Central Missouri for 11 years before Sam, and every one of his moves has been a move up, so I wouldn't be that concerned about his moving. His age would keep most P5's away, I would think.

That being said, I would seriously doubt that we could get him away from Tulane. As noted, he hasn't made sideways moves in the past. He's an excellent coach, and a very nice and bright guy.

Fritz does remind that there is another guy doing a fine job at Sam now, K. C. Keeler, who might be worth a look. His Sam teams don't play great defense, but for those who want an offensive guru, he's pretty special on that side of the ball. He is roughly the same age as Fritz.

For those who don't think Texas recruiting connections are important, I think back to the presser where Mensa announced his Texas staff, and his first comment was that they as a group had a combined 108 years of experience recruiting Texas and 17 years as Texas HS head coaches.

For Rice, Texas recruiting connections shouldn't be of paramount concern, because we should be recruiting nationally, because that's what the few schools at our level that are serious about both academics and athletics have to do ... see Navy, Army, Air Force. However, if we're going to keep running our program on a shoestring, then unfortunately Texas ties are extremely important because we literally don't give our coaches money to go anywhere else. Sigh...

By the way, speaking of Navy, there was a feature on Ivin Jasper on ESPN's College Gameday on Saturday morning, a coach I know you really like and wish we could get here. His teenage son nearly died this fall during a routine medical procedure and is now on the heart transplant waiting list. Quite a story.

(11-20-2017 03:02 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  For Rice, Texas recruiting connections shouldn't be of paramount concern, because we should be recruiting nationally, because that's what the few schools at our level that are serious about both academics and athletics have to do ... see Navy, Army, Air Force. However, if we're going to keep running our program on a shoestring, then unfortunately Texas ties are extremely important because we literally don't give our coaches money to go anywhere else. Sigh...

Let me state clearly for the record that I am totally in favor of recruiting nationally, or at least regionally. But that in no way diminishes the importance of Texas recruiting connections. From a quick count, Stanford, which recruits nationally, has 8 from Texas and 5 from Louisiana on this year's roster, Northwestern has 14 from Texas, and Vandy has 4 from Texas, and 1 each from Louisiana and Arkansas. Better Texas recruiting would at least in theory have some of those players at Rice instead. If I were putting together a staff I would try to keep one or two off the old staff for continuity (particularly those with recruiting backgrounds, which on this staff I think would be Sloan and Patterson, for continuity there), add to it three guys that I trusted completely as offensive, defensive, and special teams/recruiting coordinators (and who presumably would have some national recruiting contacts), and fill out the remaining 4-5 positions with recent presidents of the Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana high school coaches associations. That is fairly similar to what Saban did when he went from Michigan State to LSU, and that worked pretty well for him. I do find it interesting that Saban was forced into that because all his old staff at Michigan State preferred to stay and work with his successor, Bobby Williams, than to go with Saban, and today Bobby Williams is back on Saban's staff. It's also similar to what Fred did when he came to Rice. His idea was to recruit everywhere that was a nonstop flight from Hobby Airport. I was doing a lot of flying out of Hobby in those days, and I saw a lot of Keith Burns. I still think that's a reasonable recruiting footprint. With Fred's background, he had lots of Florida connections, and we got a number of players out of Florida. I like the idea of Florida, Atlanta area (which is a big flexbone area in HS, so Ken had some connections and got players out of there), and California (where we could go to find our OC).

The wider footprint obviously gives his more possibilities, which is particularly critical given our academic limitations. The problem that occurs with too many out of state is homesickness leading to transfers, sort of like what happened in basketball.

Quote:By the way, speaking of Navy, there was a feature on Ivin Jasper on ESPN's College Gameday on Saturday morning, a coach I know you really like and wish we could get here. His teenage son nearly died this fall during a routine medical procedure and is now on the heart transplant waiting list. Quite a story.

I wonder if there would be a chance that Ivin would be interested in coming here because of the heart facilities across the street in the Med Center. Of course, in Annapolis he has access to military facilities including Walter Reed, so it might be more attractive to stay put. And I'm not sure whether he would find the time for HC responsibilities compatible with the time that he will need to give to his son. It is a question that I would ask. And of course, he has sort of the ultimate in national recruiting contacts.

Would rather throw the endowment at Joe Moorhead of Penn State than Fritz.

It seems to me that at some point in the last 50 years we did recruit more nationally, which led to complaints that we were not competing for talent right here in the Houston area, that guys from the neighborhood were going to Texas Tech or TCU or Stanford.

I have no problem with either approach. Why not both? I just think we need to substantially expand the recruiting budget so that we can get the players we want and need, whether they are from Houston or Spokane.

UH is doing better than Rice in football.

(11-19-2017 08:46 AM)Mademen Wrote:  I witnessed first hand Fritz depants Major and his merry men yesterday in New Orleans. I realize Tulane's record is 5-6 which on the surface might not seem like much, but I have watched his team play 6 times this year. They punch way above their weight class. They got blown out by OU and Memphis on the road, not a crime by any means. There is not a team they play where they do not have a talent disadvantage or a resources disadvantage but Fritz' teams always compete. He is making $1.2 million a year at a school similar to Rice. I do not know that he would leave, but if Rice is serious about winning football, it would be wise to at least pick up the phone and call.

I am so disenchanted with the direction of UH athletics. I hope the Owls get something going so that there are alternatives for my football dollars.