Sam Houston State Names Willie Fritz New Football Head Coach

According to an official release from the Sam Houston State athletic department, former University of Central Missouri head coach Willie Fritz has been named as the replacement for fired Bearkat coach Todd Whitten. Fritz, transitioning from his job in NCAA Division II, was 97-47 in 13 seasons at UCM and took the program to the Division II playoffs in 2002. He also coached at Sam Houston State from 1984 to 1985 as a graduate assistant.

This may or may not be completely representative of the SHSU fanbase's reaction to the hire (or at least what's left of it) so take this information with a grain of salt. However, on the most active Sam Houston State message board katfans.com, an informal look at the thread announcing the hire shows that there is a mixture of a few fans who like the hire, a considerable number of diehard fans who are fed up with the current state of affairs at SHSU, and another sect of fans who are not willing to commit either way just yet in their judgment. The overall mood appears to be of exasperation and frustration with the last five seasons under Whitten, so Fritz may have some work to do to win some estranged fans back into the program.

Sam Houston State finished 5-6 overall and 3-4 in Southland Conference play in 2009. Texas State won the regular season meeting with their rivals in San Marcos, 28-20.

In other Southland Conference coaching news, Nicholls has appointed assistant football coach Kent Keith as interim head coach as a search committee is formed to determine the next full-time head coach at NSU.

-Will Butler, KTSW Sports Director/Blog Editor