Kansas State football game feels like homecoming for Tulane coach Willie Fritz
It’s hard to believe Willie Fritz has never witnessed a football game at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
He has so many connections to Kansas State that you would think he would have stumbled into free tickets at some point in his life ... or coached for an opposing team.
This is a man who grew up in Shawnee and played football at Pittsburg State. He has coaching experience at Coffeyville Community College and Central Missouri. Fritz even coached a pair of K-State greats (Michael Bishop and Quincy Morgan) before they became Wildcats, back when they were playing for him at Blinn junior college in Texas.
Quick aside: Bishop was even more dominant at the juco level than he was for the Wildcats.
“We were 24-0 with him as our quarterback, so he was pretty good,” Fritz said during a phone interview. “I remember our offensive coordinator wanted to put in a QB draw, and I told him, ‘That’s called Michael scrambling. He already does it eight times a game and no one can stop him.’ I hope he gets into the College Football Hall of Fame. He deserves it. He elevated everything for us and Kansas State.”
Despite all of that, Fritz;s first gameday experience will come at 2 p.m. on Saturday when he leads the Tulane Green Wave against K-State in a matchup of undefeated teams.
“I have been to Manhattan many times and Coach Snyder used to let me watch practice when I wanted to check in on Michael or Quincy,” Fritz said earlier this week in a phone interview. “But this will be the first time I have ever been inside the stadium. I’m excited about that.”
Fritz has many reasons to look forward to this game.
He has four brothers and one sister who still live in the Kansas City area, and he will have close to 50 friends and family members cheering him and his team on from the Tulane section of the crowd. Needless to say, he would like to put on a good show for them.
“When you come into these games you don’t really get to see anybody, except for maybe 10 minutes after the game,” Fritz said. “You are in and out. That’s the difficult part. We will get in Friday night, play the game and then fly back. They will have a lot of fun and get to relax, but I will be working.”
Fritz is always working.
The coaching journey he followed from his KC area home (he grew up near the intersection of 75th Street and Quivira Road) to Tulane was filled with more stops than a cross-country drive. After his playing days as a defensive back ended at Pittsburg State he got his coaching start as an assistant at Shawnee Mission Northwest.
From there, he became a graduate assistant at Sam Houston State, then an assistant at Willis (Texas) High School, then a defensive coordinator at Coffeyville, then back to Sam Houston as a position coach and then to Blinn for his first head-coaching gig.
That led to a job at Central Missouri, then Sam Houston State, then Georgia Southern and finally Tulane, where he has been calling the shots since 2016.
Talk about climbing the ladder.
“I really feel like I am very lucky to have done it this way,” Fritz said. “Some coaches start on third base and think they hit a triple. That’s not me. My wife and I enjoyed every spot we have been at. I have great friends from all those spots. It has been very, very enjoyable and very rewarding. Let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The Green Wave have proven to be an excellent match for Fritz, who loves living in New Orleans.
Though his overall record at the school is only 33-43, he has guided Tulane to three bowl appearances. No other coach in school history has led the Green Wave to more than two.
“I have so much respect for Willie and what he did at Central Missouri for so long,” K-State coach Chris Klieman said. “Then he went to Sam Houston and turned them into a perennial power in the FCS. He went to Georgia Southern and did some really good things ... (Tulane) made a great hire in Willie. So much respect for Coach Fritz. He’s doing a terrific job down there, and he is a winner.”
Tulane could be a challenging opponent for K-State. The Green Wave is off to a 2-0 start that includes a pair of blowout victories over Massachusetts and Alcorn State.
Michael Pratt is an experienced quarterback who has already thrown for 482 yards and five touchdowns this season. Tulane is also averaging 177.5 yards per game on the ground. This might be the most well-rounded offense the Wildcats have faced.
But this will also be Tulane’s first road game of the season. Fritz isn’t the only one who will experience K-State’s stadium for the first time this weekend.
“We are going to go up, big time, in level of competition this week,” Fritz said. “We have played well, but we need to be a heck of a lot better than we have been. I have been very impressed by Kansas State. They are great in all three phases.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Kansas State football game feels like homecoming for Tulane coach Willie Fritz."