At a program like the University of Memphis, success in football is something that does not come around often and when it does, it happens to come with positives and negatives. This past Saturday, the Memphis Tigers won what will now be a share of the American Athletic Conference Football Championship and improved their record from 3-9 to 9-3 in just one season.
Memphis is not a premier football program, and this is not breaking news. The reality is the Tigers are a second-tier football program, and barring a move into a Power Five conference, they always will be. When there is a coaching change at a second-tier football program like Memphis, they usually attempt to target a hot-name assistant who is on the rise in the coaching industry or a younger head coach from a lower division of college football.
These assistants or young head coaches use these lower D-1 jobs as a springboard in hopes of one day landing a more prominent head coaching job. Take former Colorado State University head coach Jim McElwain for example. McElwain was the offensive coordinator at Alabama for four seasons under head coach Nick Saban prior to taking the head coaching position at CSU. It was recently announced that the University of Florida had hired McElwain– who led CSU to a 10-2 record in 2014– to be its next head coach.
The McElwain situation is a perfect example of a smaller school hiring a hot-name assistant, and then turning his smaller job into one of the premier jobs in the nation.
I say all of that to say this: Memphis, you have taken a similar path, and you have an attractive head coach who will be courted by larger, more powerful and financially equipped programs.
Justin Fuente was a very hot-name assistant back when Memphis hired him in 2011. Much of the development and success of TCU quarterback Andy Dalton is attributed to Fuente and his ability to work with and develop arguably the game’s most important position. After taking over the job at Memphis– a job very few wanted– Fuente knew he had a monumental program overhaul and rebuild on his hands.
After a rather disappointing back-to-back, in which the Tigers only managed to put together a 7-17 record, expectations for 2014 were relatively high. Fan and prognosticators alike knew the 2014 version of Memphis football was talented, and their schedule was set up for the Tigers to succeed.
And succeed they did.
Now after completely turning around the fortunes and trajectory of the Memphis football program, the Tigers will have to deal with the territory that comes with having a young, exceptional football coach, and the administration understands that.
It was reported earlier in the week by The Commercial Appeal that Fuente and Athletic Director Tom Bowen had met, and the two sides were nearing an agreement to give the Memphis head coach both an extension and pay-raise. With a proactive administration like Memphis has, they will do everything in their power to keep Fuente in Memphis for as long as possible.
While the details of the contract extension have not been made public, one would have to expect that Fuente’s contract buyout would increase significantly, making it more difficult for bigger schools to lure Fuente away.
Another variable working in Memphis’ favor is the fact that Fuente has earned the right to be selective. The way Fuente has built Memphis is from the ground up. He weeded out all of the players he did not want in the program while bringing in his own over the last three plus seasons. The Tigers right now are in a good position to be able to sustain their success for the foreseeable future.
It would not make much sense for Fuente to take a job on the level of a Kansas– a basketball school who is in desperate need of a football rebuild. Is that not the same situation he is in right now? The only difference is this: he has done the hard part at Memphis, and now he can reap the benefits of all of the hard work he has put in to Tiger football to make it what it is today.
Fuente said on Memphis radio earlier this week that he had “a lot of sweat equity” invested in Tiger football, and if there was “mutual interest” between he and a school that he would sit down and make what he thought was a “calculated decision.”
It is difficult to say with 100 percent certainty whether or not Justin Fuente will be the head football coach at the University of Memphis next season. But I can tell you what does not hurt Memphis’ chances of keeping Fuente is the fact that Nebraska already filled its head coaching vacancy. Fuente’s name had been mentioned in multiple articles pertaining to potential names to fill the Cornhuskers’ vacancy.
Tiger fans should take pride in the fact that their head coach is going to be an incredibly sought after commodity. If Memphis does end up having to replace Fuente, just remember, they are replacing him because the program is great and someone else wanted him, not because they were forced to make a change due to poor on-field performance. And if Fuente stays, even if it is just for a short amount of time, expect more seasons like 2014 in the Bluff City.
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