and illustrate what can be done in what is, frankly, a very similar environment to KU might just be Memphis....you can nearly fill in the blanks and replace Memphis with Kansas and Fuente with Beaty.....
Justin Fuente took over in 2012.....here are some quotes about Fuente and Memphis from a story SB Nation ran about building and rebuilding programs.....when you hire the right guy and have the proper institutional and community support it can (and probably should) turn around fairly quickly (mind you I understand that his conference competition isn't close to the same).....
A. "They had done it before," he says. "There was a time not that long ago that it was a very competitive program. And for whatever reason, a perfect storm of events, they never really capitalized on that run they had there with Coach West."
B. During his nine seasons at Memphis, West's Tigers beat Ole Miss twice (and almost two more times), scared Mississippi State and Tennessee, whipped Bobby Petrino's Louisville Cardinals, and scored the program's second (2003 New Orleans) and third (2005 Motor City) bowl titles. But the Tigers faded swiftly, losing 14 of 19, and after a 2-10 2009, he was let go. Larry Porter replaced West and proved how quickly the wrong hire can prove to be the wrong hire. He won three games in two years.
The same program that had won 24 games from 2003 to '05 and 13 from 2007 to '09 was 5-31 in its previous three years when Fuente took the job. But he took it.
C. "I felt like the people here, the powers that be, the people who support the program, were ready to jump into this thing with both feet. You've got to have great support; you can't do it yourself. The prominent people here in the community, the university as a whole, everybody has to be on board."
D. "The first thing we needed were some numbers. Our roster had been decimated. We just didn't have people in the program. And through some of the legislation passed through the NCAA, it's a little more difficult to build that back up. You can't just go out and sign 40 guys. We had to figure out a way to develop our walk-on program just to increase our numbers."
An FBS team is allotted 85 scholarships. In 2012, Fuente inherited a team that had just 50. His first offense returned just three starters..."
E. Fuente's biggest coup may have been nabbing and keeping Barry Odom as his defensive coordinator. A longtime assistant under Gary Pinkel at his alma mater, Missouri, Odom needed only one season to begin crafting something useful of the Memphis defense. He was a rumored candidate for Arkansas' defensive coordinator position in the weeks after the 2013 season ended.
F. "This spring, we were physically capable of making it through practice. We weren't there in 2012. Our conditioning and strength were so poor that we weren't able to practice in the manner that I wanted to. It wasn't like the previous staff made a conscious decision not to do that, obviously," -- Fuente quickly covers up what appears to be a slight to other coaches -- "but it just wasn't where we needed it to be.
Anyway, you get the point. It's an interesting compare and contrast to what we have at Kansas right now. You have to have the full support of community and school and you have to hire the right coaches.....you do that and things will progress rather quickly......from 2012 to 2015 Memphis is night and day and Fuente is off to Va Tech.....it can be done.....but all the right pieces have to be there.....
Justin Fuente took over in 2012.....here are some quotes about Fuente and Memphis from a story SB Nation ran about building and rebuilding programs.....when you hire the right guy and have the proper institutional and community support it can (and probably should) turn around fairly quickly (mind you I understand that his conference competition isn't close to the same).....
A. "They had done it before," he says. "There was a time not that long ago that it was a very competitive program. And for whatever reason, a perfect storm of events, they never really capitalized on that run they had there with Coach West."
B. During his nine seasons at Memphis, West's Tigers beat Ole Miss twice (and almost two more times), scared Mississippi State and Tennessee, whipped Bobby Petrino's Louisville Cardinals, and scored the program's second (2003 New Orleans) and third (2005 Motor City) bowl titles. But the Tigers faded swiftly, losing 14 of 19, and after a 2-10 2009, he was let go. Larry Porter replaced West and proved how quickly the wrong hire can prove to be the wrong hire. He won three games in two years.
The same program that had won 24 games from 2003 to '05 and 13 from 2007 to '09 was 5-31 in its previous three years when Fuente took the job. But he took it.
C. "I felt like the people here, the powers that be, the people who support the program, were ready to jump into this thing with both feet. You've got to have great support; you can't do it yourself. The prominent people here in the community, the university as a whole, everybody has to be on board."
D. "The first thing we needed were some numbers. Our roster had been decimated. We just didn't have people in the program. And through some of the legislation passed through the NCAA, it's a little more difficult to build that back up. You can't just go out and sign 40 guys. We had to figure out a way to develop our walk-on program just to increase our numbers."
An FBS team is allotted 85 scholarships. In 2012, Fuente inherited a team that had just 50. His first offense returned just three starters..."
E. Fuente's biggest coup may have been nabbing and keeping Barry Odom as his defensive coordinator. A longtime assistant under Gary Pinkel at his alma mater, Missouri, Odom needed only one season to begin crafting something useful of the Memphis defense. He was a rumored candidate for Arkansas' defensive coordinator position in the weeks after the 2013 season ended.
F. "This spring, we were physically capable of making it through practice. We weren't there in 2012. Our conditioning and strength were so poor that we weren't able to practice in the manner that I wanted to. It wasn't like the previous staff made a conscious decision not to do that, obviously," -- Fuente quickly covers up what appears to be a slight to other coaches -- "but it just wasn't where we needed it to be.
Anyway, you get the point. It's an interesting compare and contrast to what we have at Kansas right now. You have to have the full support of community and school and you have to hire the right coaches.....you do that and things will progress rather quickly......from 2012 to 2015 Memphis is night and day and Fuente is off to Va Tech.....it can be done.....but all the right pieces have to be there.....
