Georgia Southern will have a new head coach when the Eagles officially begin the transition from FCS to FBS competition.
The school announced that Willie Fritz, formerly the head coach at Sam Houston State, will succeed Jeff Monken as head coach. Monken left the school in December to take the head job at Army.
Fritz has been a head coach since 1993 and has had stops at Blinn Junior College (1993-1996) and Division II Central Missouri from 1997 to 2009 before coaching Sam Houston State from 2010 to 2013. At Sam Houston State, Fritz led the Bearkats to back-to-back conference titles and NCAA FCS championship game appearances in 2011 and 2012. Fritz was the American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 2011.
Fritz is taking over a program that made a big splash in November when the Eagles knocked off Florida in Gainesville. In what was their last season in FCS play, the Eagles compiled a 7-4 overall record and now will officially join the Sun Belt Conference for the 2014 season.
Fritz will bring a unique offense to Statesboro. He runs the “pistol triple option” offense. Which, in the most simple terms, is like your typical triple option offense, except much more spread out and usually run out of the shotgun (Good Bull Hunting has an awesome breakdown of the offense).
Fritz has had success at each of his head coaching stops in his career, but leading GSU's transition to the highest level of college football could be his biggest challenge yet.
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