Frank Wilson formally introduced as McNeese’s 17th head football coach

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese officially announced new football head coach Frank Wilson to a packed Buttross-Doyle End Zone Club Room on Friday as he becomes the first African-American head football coach in school history and the second in the history of the Southland Conference.

Wilson was named the program’s 17th head coach on Thursday morning.

“This is an exciting day for McNeese football, the athletic department, the university and the community,” said director of athletics Bruce Hemphill. “Coach Wilson is well known around the country as one of the top coaches and recruiters in all of college football, and is highly respected by his coaching peers and players.”

“I am proud and honored to have Frank Wilson join McNeese. He is a man of great character and integrity and he is known for his commitment to his players’ success on the field and in the classroom. Frank embodies our mission of “Changing Lives” and he believes in the values and culture that make McNeese not just a special place, but a great university,” Dr. Daryl Burckel, McNeese president.

The New Orleans native, who is widely considered one of the top recruiters in college football, comes to McNeese after spending the last four seasons as the head coach at UTSA.

Wilson’s debut campaign at UTSA made history as he led the Roadrunners to six wins and the 2016 Gildan New Mexico Bowl to match the NCAA modern startup program record by reaching a bowl game in just their sixth season.

Wilson guided UTSA to bowl eligibility for the second straight season in 2017. The Roadrunners pulled off another program first when they defeated Baylor, 17-10, in the season opener in Waco for UTSA’s first victory against a team from a Power 5 Conference.

During his four years at UTSA, 26 players garnered All-Conference USA, two were named All-Americans, a league Defensive Player of the Year, two Freshman of the Year selections, a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award and the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy.

Prior to being named head coach at UTSA, Wilson served a six-year stint as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at LSU from 2010-15, where he also served as associate head coach for his final four seasons with the Tigers. He also has been an assistant coach at Tennessee (2009), Southern Miss (2008) and Mississippi (2005-07).

While at LSU, he was recognized as the nation’s top assistant coach at his position in 2011. Wilson also was named the 2011 Recruiter of the Year by Rivals.com, the 2014 NFL.com Top Recruiter in College Football and the 2015 Scout.com SEC Recruiter of the Year.

As the recruiting coordinator at LSU, Wilson led the Tigers to back-to-back top-five recruiting classes in 2014-15 among five total groups that ranked among the top 10 nationally. He served as the lead recruiter for a long list of prominent players, including Odell Beckham Jr., La’el Collins, Jeremy Hill, Jarvis Landry, Tyrann Mathieu, Zach Mettenberger and the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit in 2014 in Leonard Fournette, a 2014 Freshman All-SEC honoree and consensus first team All-American a year later.

Overall, Wilson has coached or recruited 40 individuals who have made it to the NFL. That list includes Davenport, Jordan Moore, Kevin Strong Jr., Dalton Sturm, Josiah Tauaefa and Jarveon Williams from UTSA, Beckham Jr., Collins, Fournette, Hill, Landry, Mathieu and Mettenberger along with Lamin Barrow, Kendell Beckwith, Alfred Blue, Will Clapp, Malachi Dupre, Ego Ferguson, Russell Gage, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Derrius Guice, Jerald Hawkins, Kenny Hilliard, Anthony Johnson, Deion Jones, Arden Key, Kendrick Lewis, Terrance Magee, Ronald Martin, Dexter McCluster, Denarius Moore, Eric Reid, Stevan Ridley, Duke Riley, Trai Turner, Mike Wallace, Spencer Ware and James Wright.

In six seasons at LSU, Wilson developed seven running backs that were selected in the NFL Draft, including first-team All-SEC performers in Fournette, Guice, Hill and Ridley. During his tenure, the Tigers posted a 61-17 overall record, captured the 2011 SEC Championship and appeared in the National Championship Game that same season.

Under his guidance, LSU rushed for at least 200 yards 39 times, including 12 300-yard games. The Tigers also recorded 45 100-yard individual rushing performances and four 1,000-yard individual rushers.

Wilson joined the LSU staff after spending the 2009 season at Tennessee, where he coached the wide receivers under Lane Kiffin.

Prior to joining the Tennessee staff, Wilson spent the 2008 season as the running backs coach/recruiting coordinator at Southern Miss under Larry Fedora.

From 2005-07, Wilson served as the running backs/assistant special teams coach at Mississippi, where he recruited prominent future NFL stars Kendrick Lewis and Mike Wallace. He also developed a first-team all-conference running back in Green-Ellis.

Wilson joined the Rebels’ staff after serving one year as director of athletics for the New Orleans Public School System after spending three-and-a-half seasons as head football coach and offensive coordinator at O. Perry Walker High School.

Wilson led O. Perry Walker to two District 10-4A championships and the Louisiana Class 4A State Championship game in 2002. He was honored by the NFL as the 2002 Louisiana Coach of the Year and was voted by his peers as the Louisiana Class 4A Coach of the Year. Wilson also was a finalist for the 2002 Nike National Coach of the Year.

During his head coaching stint at O. Perry Walker, Wilson developed 22 players who earned Division I scholarships, including 11 in 2002 to rank as the nation’s largest high school class of D-I signees. The 2002 team defeated national-power John Curtis Christian School, 20-0, during the regular season, which snapped a 136-game district winning streak for John Curtis and marked the first time that team had failed to score in 303 consecutive games, a national record.

Wilson spent three years as an assistant coach at Edna Karr High School, also in New Orleans, from 1997-2000. He served as offensive coordinator at Edna Karr during the 1999 season in which the team reached the Class 3A state finals and recorded its best statistical season on offense in the program’s history.

Wilson got his start in coaching as a student assistant at his alma mater, Nicholls State University, working with the running backs while he finished his degree. While in Thibodaux, Wilson helped coach the first 1,000-yard rusher in school history and was part of the biggest turnaround in NCAA history at the time for the Colonels, who improved from 0-10 in 1995 to 8-2 in 1996.

A three-year letterman at Nicholls State, Wilson earned honorable mention all-conference honors as a running back his sophomore year.

Wilson attended Geneva University in Beaver Falls, Pa., his freshman season, earning conference Freshman of the Year honors as a running back and kick returner. He also earned first team all-conference honors and was an honorable mention NAIA Division II All-American.

Wilson received his bachelor of arts degree in general education from Nicholls State in 1997.

Wilson and his wife, Tiffany, have three children: Alaina, Sabree and Frank IV.

Frank Wilson press conference transcription

“Thank you very much. First of all, my obedience to God for this opportunity to be here today. I’m so grateful for my family and what we have in front of us here.

“Secondly to Dr. Burckel and our administration who worked diligently, and furiously, at a record pace time to fulfill this head coaching spot but yet, very detailed. Enough to where they went all the way back to, many years ago, people that I’ve had relationships with – athletic directors, coaches, state senators, etc., to get it right. To get it right this time.

“When I had a chance to talk to the committee, we had a chance to talk about many things, most importantly about this university and what it has always been. I said to Dr. Burckel, I said from afar, I’ve always watched this place as a Nicholls State alumnus, with tremendous envy. It was always the premier school in the Southland Conference. It was always the premier school in Louisiana.

“I had a chance to have a conversation with Coach Ed Orgeron as they were preparing to go into the White House and he said to me, ‘you know coach, my boy is there. We love McNeese. And we had options in this state and we chose to go to McNeese because we really believe that it is a premier school in this state. It’s an honor for you to be the head coach of my son’. We go back a long way when he was an assistant at Nicholls when I was a player and then a student assistant. And it all culminates, it comes full circle. You just never know.

“When this job opportunity came, my agent reach out to me and he said ‘what do you think about it?’, and I had been entertaining different jobs at different levels, all the way up to the National Football League. And I said ‘I want it.’ He said ‘well do you want to talk about the budget?’ I said ‘I want it’. He said ‘you want to talk about the facilities?’, I said ‘I want it.’ And he said ‘so I take it you want it?’ I said yes I do and it became with the phone conversation and then a Skype that lasted an hour and beyond, and then a sit-down with the committee and then with the president and they were very, very prideful of their university. And as we spoke, and they spoke, glowingly with endearment about what McNeese has done for them.

“A school where football players become coaches. Where coaches become athletic directors. Where athletic directors have become presidents. And twice, a football player had become a president. And you look at the product of what happens when the coach recognizes how profound, how powerful it is with the power of the tongue. To impact lives. To shape lives. To change lives. And in some rare cases, to save lives of young men.

“Throughout our lives, we continually tried to figure it out. What is our purpose? What is it that God has for us to do? I was very fortunate at a young age that I was able to identify it. I played, like many collegiate players, with aspirations to go on and play in the National Football League. It didn’t happen. And I didn’t know why. Early in my career, I was in my early 20s when I coached Ked and those guys. But it was revealed to me, this is your purpose, to serve. I am in the business of service. This moment is not about me. It’s about serving our young men at McNeese State University. To help shape lives. To help lead lives. And in some rare occasion at this institution of higher learning, to save lives. That gives them a degree in hand that says I can.

“Whatever it is you ask of me, I’m capable of doing it. I can do it. I’ve been trained. I’m a football player at McNeese. We do hard things, we embrace hard things, and I’m prepared for this moment. It’s what we seek to do. It’s our creed. That their degree, competing for championships, and the maturation process and becoming a man is the full measure of success. That one without the other is not good enough. It’s something we will live by.

“We will get back to our winning ways that we have so much pride for. There is no other team in this conference that have had more all-conference player, over 200 over the years. There’s no other team in this conference that have had five coaches from here to be in the top 10 overall in winning percentage. There’s been no other team in this conference that have won more conference games, have made more playoff appearances, and if you’re looking to find out how to do it right, you turn to Lake Charles. You turn to McNeese. Because it has been, and it will continue to be, the standard in the Southland Conference.

“It’s an honor, it’s a pleasure, to serve this university. To serve those young men in the back who have been looking for it. It’s here. Our moment is here and we will be back to our winning ways sooner than later. Thank you so much.”

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT COACH FRANK WILSON:

“Frank is a great Louisiana man. He was one of the best assistant coaches in LSU history and he will do a great job for McNeese.” – Ed Orgeron, LSU head coach.

“Coach Frank Wilson changed my life. He gave a young kid from New Orleans a chance to compete and learn on a higher level. He opened the doors for so many of us Louisiana athletes and I’m just happy to see him making strides and becoming all that he can be. He is a true inspiration.” – Tyrann Mathieu, former LSU defensive back and Heisman Trophy finalist and currently with the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Be a pro. Coach Wilson made it a real possibility not with just the amount of work we put in, but with the culture he brought to the program. He gave us respect and responsibility and we thrived. I’m happy to see Coach Wilson help others turn dreams into reality.” – Marcus Davenport, former UTSA player and first round draft pick by the New Orleans Saints.

“One of the most loving and caring coaches outside of football. The love I have for him will last a lifetime. Anyone that gets him as a coach will love him not as a coach but also as a father figure. Also he’s a God fearing man.” – Leonard Fournette, former LSU running back and current running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“Coaches and players gravitate to Frank Wilson. He was a part of my staff at Tennessee and I can tell you firsthand that he develops players as well as anyone in college football. People talk about how great of a recruiter he is, but he is just as strong of a leader.” – Lane Kiffen, Ole Miss head coach who hired Frank Wilson at Tennessee.

“I had the honor to play for and be recruited by a man who was so unselfish in his work and in his life that people were drawn to his efforts and commitment, which helped them become a man foremost and then a player. I speak firsthand for how he’s stayed in contact with players even after they have left his reach. They don’t make many like him.” – Jarvis Landry, Cleveland Browns wide receiver.

THE WILSON FILE
BIRTHDATE: Nov. 5, 1973 in New Orleans
WIFE: Tiffany
CHILDREN: Alaina, Sa’bree, and Frank IV
HIGH SCHOOL: St. Augustine High School
COLLEGE: Nicholls State (B.A., 1997)

PLAYING EXPERIENCE
1992 Geneva (Pa.) University (running back)
1993-95 Nicholls State (running back/defensive back)

COACHING EXPERIENCE
1996, Nicholls State (student assistant)
1997-99, Karr High School (assistant coach)
2000-03, O.P. Walker High School (head coach)
2005-07, Ole Miss (running backs/special teams)
2008, Southern Miss (running backs/recruiting coordinator)
2009, Tennessee (wide receivers)
2010-15, (running backs/recruiting coordinator)
2016-19, UTSA (head coach)
2020-, McNeese (head coach)

BOWL EXPERIENCE
SEASON BOWL, TEAM, OPPONENT, RESULTS
2008, New Orleans, Southern Miss, Troy, W, 30-27
2009, Capital One, LSU, Penn State, L, 19-17
2010, Cotton, LSU, Texas A&M, W, 41-24
2011, BCS, LSU, Alabama, L, 21-0
2012, Chick-fil-A, LSU, Clemson, L, 25-24
2013, Outback, LSU, Iowa, W, 21-14
2014, Music City, LSU, Notre Dame, L, 31-28
2016, Gildan New Mexico Bowl, UTSA, New Mexico, L, 23-30

PLAYERS EVAULATED, RECRUITED, COACHED AND DEVELOPED BY WILSON
Odell Beckham, Jr., LSU All-American/Giants 3x Pro-Bowl WR
Alfred Blue, 6th round pick Texans
Leonard Fournette, LSU Consensus All-American/1st round #4 overall draft pick Jaguars
Benjarvis Green-Ellis, 1st team All-SEC
Derrius Guice, 1st team All-SEC/2nd round pick Redskins
Jeremy Hill, 2nd round pick Bengals
Kenny Hilliard, 7th round pick Texans
Jarvis Landry, All-SEC/Dolphins 2x Pro-Bowl WR
Tyrann Mathieu, LSU All-American/Cardinals Pro Bowl Safety
Spencer Ware, 6th round pick Seahawks/Super Bowl XLVIII Champion
Jarveon Williams, UTSA’s 2nd all-time leading rusher