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Just wanted to cover this, since we could use some SHSU discussion on these forums.

Head Coach: Willie Fritz - hired from Central Missouri, former SHSU assistant - most notably led Blinn JC to NJCAA national titles in the mid 1990s before moving to Central Missouri, a Div II school

OFFENSE
Jeff Conway - Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator - comes to SHSU from Central Missouri, where he served under Fritz. Right now, the only assistant to join Fritz from Central Missouri.
Anthony Johnson - Running Backs - comes to SHSU from Texas, where he was a quality control guy. Young guy.

DEFENSE
Scott Stoker - Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers - second year at SHSU. Came from Northwestern State where he was a head coach. You guys know him...
Ben Beasley - Safeties - second year at SHSU. Also kept, presumably helped by Stoker. Was an assistant at NWST where he was the recruiting coordinator.

For those that want to know - Willie Fritz was hired because of defensive and special teams background. The AD made it pretty known what he was doing...

Jason Phillips (Co-OC at UH) was probably the No. 2 guy in this search. SHSU has struggled defensively and lost the famous touch (at least in the SLC) of the special teams success of the program. Fritz was the ST coach while at Sam and helped build the basis for that.

I think the Central Missouri coach is a good pickup

dbackjon wrote:I think the Central Missouri coach is a good pickup

We'll keep our fingers crossed that he is.

He was in the mix when Whitten was hired and he has done everything to separate himself from Whitten, namely the big mistake of bringing in plenty of Div II assistants. I like his group thus far and hopefully, his recruiting class is reflective of the group he brought in.

Sam Houston State: FootballScoop has just learned that former Purdue and Texas A&M assistant Bob Debesse has accepted the offensive coordinator job at Sam Houston State.

Wonder if that name rings a bell for anyone? If it does not, perhaps this helps...

DeBesse came to the Boilermakers from Southwest Texas, his alma mater, where he served as head coach from 1997 to 2002. The Bobcats were 7-4 during the 2000 season -- their best record since 1991 -- including a school-best 5-2 mark in the Southland Football League and a No. 24 national ranking in the NCAA Division I-AA final poll.

DeBesse was a three-year letterwinner at Southwest Texas from 1978 to 1980 and was special teams captain his senior year. He was named to the 1980 Texas All-Academic team. His final two seasons came under head coach Jim Wacker, beginning a partnership that lasted nearly two decades from Southwest Texas to TCU to Minnesota. DeBesse then spent two years as a student assistant with the Bobcats and was a part of their back-to-back Division II national championship teams in 1981 and 1982.

A native of Boston, DeBesse (born Sept. 30, 1959) grew up in Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Southwest Texas in 1982. He and his wife, Janet, a former Southwest Texas gymnast and cheerleader, have three children: Brittney, Kaila and Cameron.

Good luck with that hire. I think TXST will know every play you are going to run, or maybe he picked up a few more in the passing years

CatMom wrote:Good luck with that hire. I think TXST will know every play you are going to run, or maybe he picked up a few more in the passing years

Until SHSU announces it, we'll see if it's true. FootballScoop is wrong a lot of the time until it is officially announced by a school.

I will be intrigued to see if true and while it may not be the greatest hire in the world, SHSU is really looking at a diverse coaching staff from many different trains of thought. It will not all be guys who have coached with our head coach before and not all guys who have strictly D2 experience - that hurt us last go around.