Report: Tulane’s Willie Fritz under consideration for Georgia Tech vacancy

Tulane’s football team will play for a conference championship Saturday after becoming just the third Green Wave team in the last 49 years to win at least nine games.

Each of the previous two times, the head coach departed at the end of the season. Could history repeat itself?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported late Saturday that Willie Fritz is “receiving serious consideration” for the head coaching vacancy at Georgia Tech.

Fritz has ties to Georgia, having coached two seasons at Georgia Southern before accepting the Tulane position in December 2015.

In 1998, following an 11-0 regular season, Tommy Bowden left Tulane to accept the Clemson job.

In the spring after a 9-3 season in 1979, Larry Smith left Tulane to take the job at Arizona.

Additionally, Jim Pittman left following the Liberty Bowl in 1970 to take the TCU job, and in 1987, Mack Brown announced the week of the Green Wave’s appearance in the Independence Bowl that he was leaving for North Carolina.

These are different times at Tulane, however. Fritz is under contract until 2027, and the successes this year are expected to trigger clauses in his deal to enhance his status and make him the highest-paid coach in the American Athletic Conference next season.

Georgia Tech fired athletic director Brent Stansbury and head coach Geoff Collins in late September after a 1-3 start. The school named J Batt as its new athletic director last month, with his first task to hire Collins’ replacement. Batt spent the last five years as executive deputy director of Athletics, chief operating officer, and chief revenue officer at the University of Alabama.

Other names connected to the Georgia Tech vacancy include Coastal Carolina’s Jamey Chadwell and Alabama assistant Bill O’Brien, who was on George O’Leary’s staff at Tech. Tech alumnus Brent Key is also getting consideration after going 4-4 as Collins’ interim replacement.

Georgia Tech’s season ended Saturday with a 37-14 loss to top-ranked Georgia.

Tulane will meet UCF in the AAC title game Saturday at 3 p.m. at Yulman Stadium. Tulane put tickets on sale to the public Sunday morning.