Head coach reflects on 2010 season
12/3/2010 9:20:00 AM | Football
It truly was a memorable season for the Sam Houston State football team and head coach Willie Fritz.
Back in the spring, the new coach and his staff had the daunting task of building the program they wanted and most of the work was teaching the returning players how to do it. When preseason camp rolled around, everything had to basically start over from scratch with a boatload of newcomers joining the mix.
Expectations for the Bearkats were up in the air. Some believed the team was destined to struggle, while others thought that a five-win season was not out of the question.
After Sam Houston opened with a pair of blowout losses on the road at Baylor and Western Illinois, there were even some fans who wondered if the Bearkats were going to win a game at all.
But as the coaches and players began to believe in each other, Sam Houston closed the season strong, winning six of its last nine contests to finish 6-5. The Bearkats also went 4-3 in Southland Conference play to finish tied for third after the preseason poll predicted a seventh-place showing.
On top of that, Sam Houston came within 11 points of possible winning nine games and claiming a conference championship and postseason berth.
After having a couple of weeks to digest his first season back at SHSU, Fritz sat down to answer a few questions about the past and future of the Bearkat football program heading into the offseason and recruiting.
Question - Now that your first season is over, what are your overall thoughts about what happened?
Fritz - Well, I really did not know what to expect coming into the season. I didn't know what to expect from week to week because I hadn't been in this league for so long. It is hard to gauge what talent other teams have and what talent you have until you have a season with them. The most difficult thing was probably starting all over again when they came back in the fall. All the explaining and learning that goes on.
I'm really pleased with what we have here. I feel like we have a really good group of young men and I had very few problems with them. We made a lot of strides. I would say that there weren't a lot of people that thought we would win many games, let alone six games and have a chance to win nine. What I told our guys is that this step we made, really from my vantage point, took organization and a strong work ethic and being very demanding. That is what we did this year, now we have to make that same type of improvement next season in order to be a championship-caliber team. In no way, shape or form have we arrived going 6-5. We have a very good nucleus coming back, but us coaches and the players have to strive to get better and bring more to the table.
Question - Now that you have an idea of what you have coming back and where this program stands, what is the next approach this offseason?
Fritz - Number one, I want to get to know the players better. I didn't really get that chance because we had so many new guys show up in the fall. I'm excited about getting to know my guys a lot better. We need to learn about each other more.
The thing I'm looking forward to the most is that when we start spring football, we get to pick up where we left off rather than learning stuff like how to do a huddle or call plays. We are going to have good numbers and that is going to lead to a lot of competition.
Question - As you head into recruiting, what positions are you looking to go after to make your team stronger?
Fritz - We are still at the point, and I think all programs are this way, that you go after every position. You don't want to get into a position where you are running thin. But if I had to go down the list, defensive line-wise, we need some more depth there. We have some guys who have played for us and have more experience, but we have to develop more explosive guys and recruit more explosive guys across the board - offense, defense, kicking game.
We feel good about our kicker and punter and snappers coming back. Our offensive line is back, running back, quarterback. We just need some depth. We need to bring somebody in to compete with Brian Bell, who did a good job starting nine games as a true freshman. Good teams are ones that have good competition within the team. We need to develop more of that. I think we have that at linebacker and at some spots in the secondary, but we need more competition across the board. That gets guys to play at a higher level.
Question - You are losing seven seniors, how many recruits are you looking to sign?
Fritz - We would like to sign about 20 guys - transfers and high school kids - and have about 10 to 15 preferred walk-ons. We were under in our scholarships. You are allowed to have 63 and we had 52. We have some scholarships and some room to play with right now. Really out of the seven seniors, only five were on scholarship. We purposely tried to stay under our number, so we could have solid back-to-back recruiting classes
