Tulane retention of Fritz a watershed moment

All is well that ends well.

Fortunately, the ending may be just a new beginning at Tulane.

Willie Fritz remains the coach of the Green Wave, a huge winning development for the Green Wave and its loyal and growing fan base.

The two levels of fans are important.

Having been here all my life and having attended Tulane games from youth, having covered Tulane, having done Tulane telecasts and having seen some good and a lot of not so good times, this is the best development in my lifetime for Tulane football.

Fritz is an excellent coach and an excellent person.

No, Fritz has not been sensational. No, he has not been a savior. His record at Tulane in seven seasons is 41-45 with a 23-33 mark in American Athletic Conference games.

Of course, you must look beyond the record.

Fritz is set to continue to make history with the football program by taking the Green Wave to a fourth bowl game in five years. He had already made history and he will continue to expand the record book, hopefully for several years to come.

We all know the history of the program. Success has been fleeting.

Tulane had five straight winning seasons from 1916-1920.

The golden days were from 1928-1939, where the Green Wave posted 12 straight winning seasons under Clark Shaughnessy, Bernie Bierman, Ted Cox and Red Dawson.

Otherwise, Tulane has never had more than three straight winning seasons in its nearly 130-year football history.

Then, there is the matter of stability.

Chris Scelfo had an 8-year run from 1999-2006, posting two winning seasons with one bowl game.

Andy Pilney had an 8-year run from 1954-1961. Pilney had two winning seasons with no bowl game appearances.

Shaughnessy had the longest run, coaching the Green Wave for 10 seasons in two different stints, taking a year off in 1921 before returning the following season. Shaughnessy had seven winning seasons.

With Fritz returning for the 2023 season, he will match Scelfo and Pilney for the longest consecutive year tenure as head coach of the Green Wave in program history. Fritz is already second to Shaughnessy in career victories at Tulane.

That is significant.

This is a watershed moment for Tulane.

University President Michael Fitts has shown visible public support for Tulane football, Fritz and Tulane athletics. That is positive, a breath of fresh air, compared to some of his predecessors.

Troy Dannen hired Fritz upon his arrival. It has turned out to be an excellent move, as mentioned.

Dannen also hired Ron Hunter, which also looks like a good hire after stumbling a bit over the previous hire of Mike Dunleavy.

Fritz has Dannen’s full support.

Fritz has Fitts’ full support.

For the first time in my lifetime, Tulane is keeping a coach who has experienced success. It is welcomed, refreshing and encouraging.

Now, it has to be meaningful.

Jim Pittman departed after an 8-4 season and Liberty Bowl victory in 1970 for TCU.

Tulane graduate Bennie Ellender started well, with two winning seasons in three years. After beating LSU for the first time in 25 years and going to the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in 1973, the program then had two losing seasons and he was dismissed.

Larry Smith departed after a 9-3 season and Liberty Bowl appearance in 1979 for Arizona.

Vince Gibson likely deserved to stay longer at Tulane after going 17-17 in three seasons and beating LSU twice, but could not get a vote of confidence from the university and he was out after 1982.

That begat Wally English, which did not go well.

Mack Brown picked up the pieces and went from 1-10 in his first season to 6-6 and an Independence Bowl appearance in 1987. That led to Brown departing for North Carolina.

Tulane promoted from within with a good man in Greg Davis but Davis did not have a winning season in four years on the job.

“The Buddy System” arrived with Buddy Teevens, another good man but he could not elevate the program, with a high water mark of three wins in his five seasons.

Teevens did recruit well in his last two years and Tommy Bowden came in with a great staff, led by Rich Rodriguez, and Tulane made history, going 12-0, beating BYU in the Liberty Bowl and finishing seventh in the nation after going 7-4 in Bowden’s first season.

Bowden parlayed that into the Clemson job.

Then came Scelfo.

Then came Bob Toledo, who could not produce a winning season.

Curtis Johnson had one winning season and R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl appearance in 2013 in his four years on the job.

Now, Fritz has a program poised to perhaps win its conference, playing in the title game at home, before a packed house at Yulman Stadium.

Now, Fritz has a program poised to be a significant player in a revamped American Athletic Conference in 2023, with Cincinnati, Houston and UCF leaving the conference for the Big 12.

Joining the AAC from Conference USA next July are Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA.

With all due respect to those programs, Tulane is in a good, perhaps very good position to compete well with them and the remaining AAC programs on the gridiron.

Had Fritz departed for Georgia Tech, he would have faced similar but perhaps even more difficult challenges than those he faces at Tulane.

Like Tulane, Tech is a highly ranked academic institution with significant admission challenges.

Unlike Tulane, Tech is in a Power 5 conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, dealing with programs which have a larger financial commitment to winning. That includes multiple national championship programs in Clemson, Florida State and Miami. Brown, in his second stint at North Carolina, has built a nice program as well.

Georgia Tech has had four straight losing seasons and five out of the last six ended on the wrong end of the ledger. It is 14-32 in its last four seasons.

That said, through 2018, the Yellow Jackets had a run of 20 bowl appearances in 22 seasons so history suggests it can be done in Atlanta.

With the retention of Fritz, Tulane is making history.

Now, Fritz has a chance to make history, by possibly becoming the longest tenured coach in program history and by possibly becoming the most successful coach in Green Wave history.

In can happen.

It is a good day for Green Wave football.