Dannen banks on long-term stability for Tulane football program with Fritz extension

Stability is the linchpin of any successful organization.

In the NFL, Bill Belichick, Mike McCarthy, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh and Sean Payton have all been with their current teams for more than a decade.

While Marvin Lewis has also been with the Bengals for more than a decade, he is the exception to the rule.

The quintet of Belichick, McCarthy, Tomlin, Harbaugh and Payton have been with their teams because of consistent excellence. All have winning records. All have multiple teams which have made the playoffs.

The one common denominator, aside from longevity, is that each has won at least one Super Bowl.

Tulane may well be headed for stability and, in turn, long-sought after success with the announcement that athletic director Troy Dannen and the university have extended the contract of head coach Willie Fritz through the 2023 season.

Unquestionably, Fritz has the Green Wave program on the right track. He has done it by implementing a system which Tulane can succeed with. He has done it by instilling discipline. He has done it in the most obvious and most essential fashion by recruiting better players.

Since 1962, Tulane has employed 15 head coaches over that 56-year span. That includes an Interim head coach in Mark Hutson (2011). The average life span for a Green Wave head coach during that time period is 3.7 years, hardly reflective of stability.

Fritz had Tulane an inch away from bowl eligibility, a non-losing season and the possibility of a winning season in 2017. With a host of key players returning and a proven quarterback at the helm, the Green Wave appear poised to win in 2018.

With home games against Wake Forest and Nicholls and a road game at UAB to open the 2018 season, Tulane has a real shot to start fast at 3-0. Such a start, barring injury, would catapult the Green Wave to a winning season and bowl game.

Amazingly, no Tulane coach has spent a decade on the job consecutively in the 124-year history of the program. The only coach in school history to exceed 10 years on the job was Clark Shaughnessy, who was on the job for 11 years in two different stints (1915-20, 1922-26).

Tulane has either been a stepping stone or a graveyard for head coaches.

Those who have experienced success have moved on. After going 59-28-7, Shaughnessy left for a lucrative offer from Loyola, right next door. Bernie Bierman left for Minnesota after going 36-10-2 and leading the Green Wave to a Rose Bowl appearance. Jim Pittman departed for TCU after an 8-4 season and Liberty Bowl victory in 1970.

Larry Smith left for Arizona after going 9-3, beating LSU and taking Tulane to the Liberty Bowl in 1979. Mack Brown departed for North Carolina after a 6-6 season, culminating with an Independence Bowl appearance in 1987. Tommy Bowden took off for Clemson after an unbeaten season in 1998, a seventh national ranking and a sterling 18-4 record in just two seasons.

Outside of Shaugnessy, only Chris Scelfo, a Louisiana native, has experienced a long stay in the hot seat of Tulane head football coaches. Scelfo lasted nine seasons. Scelfo had a pair of winning seasons and a bowl appearance in his first four seasons before his program slowly tailed off. He was dismissed following the 2006 season.

Predictably, Tulane has not won.

The overall record is 516-642-38. The last winning season was 2013 (7-6) under Curtis Johnson. In the last 50 years, the Green Wave have posted just 11 winning seasons.

While the verdict is not in on the hires of Fritz, Mike Dunleavy and Travis Jewett by Dannen, confidence remains high that the hire of Fritz will prove to be a wise one.

While he is just 9-15 in his first two seasons at Tulane, Fritz is a proven winner, having won consistently at Blinn College, Central Missouri, Sam Houston State and Georgia Southern. It took Larry Smith until his fourth season to win. Jim Pittman had three losing seasons prior to the 1970 season. Mack Brown had two losing seasons before a 6-5 regular season in 1987.

Now 58 and contracted through 2023, there is a good chance that Tulane will finally have stability at the top of its most important athletic program. If Fritz serves out the duration of his new deal, he will have been on the job for eight seasons, tying Andy Pilney for the third longest stint in program history behind Shaughnessy and Scelfo.

With stability, winning follows more often than losing. One clearly goes with the other. You do not stick around for long if you do not win. Tulane is banking, literally, on Fritz winning and sticking around. Based on his track record and the lack of a track record with the Tulane program, the investment appears to be a very sound one.