By Cody Stark
Sam Houston State decided to go in a different direction with the football program when athletic director Bobby Williams relieved head coach Todd Whitten of his duties Monday.
It was a tough decision for Williams. The pair had built a strong relationship dating back to Whitten’s playing days at Stephen F. Austin, while Williams was coaching against him at Sam Houston.
Monday’s firing was nothing personal. Things just weren’t working out. It happens that way sometimes. Hopefully, Whitten will catch on somewhere and have success.
Williams has another difficult decision to make. Who is going to be the Bearkats’ next head coach?
The pressure is on to get it right this time. Why? Well, after winning two Southland Conference championships in a span of four years (2001 and 2004), it looked like Sam Houston was pulling away from rivals Stephen F. Austin and Texas State.
But over the past five seasons, the Bearkats became the ones lagging behind.
The Lumberjacks went from 0-11 two years ago to 9-2 this season on the way to winning the SLC championship. SFA made head coach J.C. Harper make changes to his staff and program following that winless campaign despite the fact it was only his first year as head coach. It worked and the Jacks are back in the mix.
That is one of the things that really hurt Whitten. The Bearkats waited way too long to address the team’s defensive struggles, which ultimately led to the change.
The Bobcats, on the other hand, have won two conference crowns since 2005, including last season’s championship. Texas State was also in the mix for a third title late this fall.
The key for Sam Houston to get the program turned around will be to focus on defense. The next head coach needs to have a defensive mind-set because there are a lot of talented offenses in the Southland Conference. Special teams is a must, too.
The Bearkats scored a ton of points under Whitten, but they gave up just as many.
Now comes the fun part. There will be lots of names thrown around before the official list of candidates is released. Here are a few that might be included, or they might be a reach.
This list includes several coaches who applied for the job back in 2005 and a few newcomers with Sam Houston State ties.
All but two are defensive coaches.
For those out there hoping Williams approaches this hire like he did baseball and softball when he went out and lured former Texas A&M; coaches Mark Johnson and Bob Brock to Huntsville, don’t get your hopes up that former Aggie head coach R.C. Slocum is next in line. It’s just a hunch, but Slocum is probably done with coaching and drawing a nice check as a special adviser to the president of Texas A&M.;
The possible candidates are, in no particular order:
Willie Fritz, head coach at Central Missouri
Fritz was one of the four finalists with Whitten, James Ferguson and Turner Gill for the Sam Houston job in 2005. He just completed his 12th season at Central Missouri and is 90-43 during that span. The Mules went 8-3 this season and just missed making the NCAA Division II playoffs.
He won back-to-back NJCAA national titles at Blinn College before heading to Central Missouri and was the special teams coordinator at Sam Houston during the 1991-92 seasons under Ron Randleman. He was also a defensive coordinator at Coffeyville Community College.
Tom Herman, offensive coordinator at Iowa State
Herman is in his first season as the offensive coordinator at Iowa State and the Cyclones are currently 6-5 and bowl eligible for the first time since 2005. The previous two seasons, he was the OC at Rice and the Owls ranked in the top 10 nationally in several offensive categories.
He was the offensive coordinator at Texas State when the Bobcats won the 2005 SLC championship. He also was an assistant coach at Sam Houston State from 2001-04, helping with special teams during “the Block Party” days and won two SLC titles as well.
Joe Tumpkin, linebackers coach at Pittsburgh
Tumpkin is in his second season as the linebackers coach at Pitt. He held the same position at SMU under head coach Phil Bennett for three seasons. Tumpkin was a linebacker and secondary coach at Sam Houston from 2002-04.
Rumor has it that he was asked to stay on board following Randleman’s retirement, but decided to move on.
Mike Hudson, director of football operations and
secondary coach at Montana
Hudson was the defensive coordinator during Sam Houston’s run to the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in 2004 after serving as the defensive line coach the previous season. He was hired by Montana not long after Randleman left. The Grizzlies are a perennial power in the FCS and are the top seed heading into the playoffs this season with an 11-0 record.
Kevin Fouquier, defensive coordinator at La.-Lafayette
Fouquier applied for the Sam Houston job in 2005. At the time he was a defensive assistant at Middle Tennessee State. He has been the DC for the Ragin’ Cajuns for three seasons and ULALA is 6-5 this year. He coached the defensive line at Sam Houston from 1993-95.
Sam McElroy, head coach at Tarleton State
The thing that hurts McElroy is that he replaced Whitten at Tarleton State. Bearkat fans might not be too happy if Sam Houston goes after another Texans coach so soon. But McElroy has been solid since taking the job in 2005. He is 40-15 in five seasons at Tarleton. This year the Texans were Lone Star Conference co-champions and advanced to the second round of the Division II playoffs.
McElroy was a defensive backs coach at Sam Houston from 1993-99. He was also an applicant for the Bearkats head coaching spot in 2005. Another plus, he has a win over Stephen F. Austin (2007).
Mike Schultz, offensive coordinator at Illinois
This is a reach, but Schultz is a Sam Houston graduate and former player. He is in his first season as the OC at Illinois. Schultz was previously the OC and a running backs coach at TCU from 1998-2008, helping develop NFL star LaDainian Tomlinson. He also helped coach linebackers, quarterbacks and wide receivers at SHSU from 1979-80.
With the state of the TCU program at an all-time high now, just imagine what he could do at Sam Houston.
Mike Lucas, head coach at Southeastern Louisiana
This is probably the biggest reach, especially since Lucas is the head coach at another Southland school, but he was the defensive coordinator and associate head coach at Sam Houston from 1987-2001 before getting out of football. He applied for the Bearkats’ top job in 2005 when he decided to get back into coaching. After serving two years as the DC, Lucas was promoted to head coach at Southeastern Louisiana in 2006.
After a couple of tough seasons, the Lions came out of nowhere to compete of the SLC championship in 2009. Picked to finish near the bottom of the league in the preseason polls, Southeastern Louisiana finished fourth with a 4-3 SLC mark and went 6-5 overall.
During his time at SHSU, Lucas guided the Bearkat defense among the top 15 in national defensive statistical categories 11 times and led the Southland in defensive statistics five times.
There you have it. Maybe the next Sam Houston head coach is on that list and maybe he isn’t. Those are just a few names to think about. Feel free to add your own, pencil somebody off or throw this in the trash.
Some quality candidates were left off this list, mainly because there is just a feeling the emphasis will be on defense this time.
