{"id":5113,"date":"2014-05-03T14:20:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T18:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/dev-mag\/?p=1630"},"modified":"2014-05-03T14:20:45","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T18:20:45","slug":"six-for-fritz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2014\/05\/03\/six-for-fritz\/","title":{"rendered":"Six for Fritz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1842\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/SixforFritz.jpg\" alt=\"SixforFritz\" width=\"650\" height=\"604\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In honor of Georgia Southern\u2019s six FCS national championships (and the number of points awarded for scoring a touchdown), the editors of <em>Georgia Southern<\/em> magazine caught up with Eagle\u2019s new head football coach Willie Fritz to ask him six special questions.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Through the search process, and now after being immersed in the football program for several months at Georgia Southern, what one word would you use to describe the University?<\/strong><br \/>\nAwesome!<\/li>\n<li><strong>What motivates you?<\/strong><br \/>\nCompetition<\/li>\n<li><strong>What is your favorite sports movie?<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cRemember the Titans\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>What is your favorite song?<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cThe Chair\u201d by George Strait<\/li>\n<li><strong>What would you consider to be your most prized possession?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy family<\/li>\n<li><strong>What person in history would you like to have met?<\/strong><br \/>\nErk Russell<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Former Sam Houston State coach Willie Fritz will lead the Eagles into their new era as a Football Bowl Subdivision team. Fritz, who was 40-15 in four years with Sam Houston State, succeeds Jeff Monken, who was named Army&#8217;s coach on Dec. 24.<\/p>\n<p>Fritz, 53, led Sam Houston State to the Football Championship Subdivision championship game in 2011 and 2012, losing both years to North Dakota State. Georgia Southern President Brooks Keel said Fritz is a &#8220;perfect fit for this program.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fritz has a 176-67-1 record in 21 years as a head coach. He was named Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association in 2011, when Sam Houston State finished 14-1.<\/p>\n<p>He previously coached at Central Missouri, where he was 97-47 in 13 seasons, as well as Blinn College.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia Southern finished 7-4 in 2013, including a stunning 26-20 upset of the Florida Gators in Gainesville to close the season. Fritz said he was attracted to Georgia Southern by &#8220;the opportunity to compete at the highest level and to be at the ground level&#8221; of the move to FBS. &#8220;We want to continue the success at FCS at the highest level of college football,&#8221; Fritz said. &#8220;I want to be involved in that type of situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>The following is a full list of Georgia Southern&#8217;s assistant coaches:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jack Curtis<\/strong>,\u00a0Defensive Coordinator\/Secondary<\/li>\n<li><strong>Doug Ruse<\/strong>,\u00a0Offensive Coordinator\/Quarterbacks<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alex Akins<\/strong>,\u00a0Offensive Line Coach<\/li>\n<li><strong>Matt Barrett<\/strong>,\u00a0Wide Receivers Coach<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chad Lunsford<\/strong>,\u00a0Tight Ends<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Johnny Jernigan<\/strong>,\u00a0Defensive Ends Coach<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dell McGee<\/strong>,\u00a0Running Backs Coach<\/li>\n<li><strong>Michael Mutz<\/strong>,\u00a0Linebackers Coach<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kevin Peoples<\/strong>,\u00a0Defensive Line Coach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Catching Up with New Head Football Coach Willie Fritz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-5113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-spring-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}