The Tulane football team won 11 games this season for just the third time in school history.
But its biggest win happened off the field.
Keeping Willie Fritz as head coach was a major victory — not just for the football program but for the university. It’s also one the school probably couldn’t have pulled off a few years ago.
And the crazy thing is, it almost didn’t happen.
By all accounts, Fritz’s courtship with Georgia Tech was serious. The situation was touch-and-go until the day Green Wave officials announced publicly Fritz planned to stay.
Here’s the back story of how it all went down and how Tulane retained its beloved coach.
Georgia Tech reached out to Fritz through informal back channels in mid-November. By late that month, Fritz had emerged as the school’s top target over the other three finalists for the job: Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell and Brent Key, the school’s interim head coach.
Tech officials interviewed Fritz on Sunday, Nov. 27, and offered him the job that day. It was two days after the Green Wave's win at Cincinnati, one that gave Tulane home-field advantage in the American Athletic Conference championship game the next weekend.
Fritz seriously considered the Georgia Tech offer but wanted time to think about it and take care of unfinished business in New Orleans. Being a man of his word, Fritz needed to talk to Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen and others at the university before making a final decision.
For Fritz, the Georgia Tech position held allure. Tech plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference, a Power Five league. During his 29-year coaching tenure, Fritz never had coached at that level of college football. And at age 62, this might be his final chance to do so.
Tech, like Tulane, is a prestigious academic institution in an urban setting. Moreover, Fritz was familiar with Georgia recruiting circles from his two years at Georgia Southern in 2014 and 2015. Also relevant: The job came with a significant six-figure raise.
The match between school and coach made sense on several levels.
There was, however, one major hang-up. Tech officials wanted Fritz to take the job immediately so they could announce his hiring and move forward with the offseason. Tech had been without a head coach for two months since school officials had fired Geoff Collins in late September. Officials there were understandably concerned about losing players to the transfer portal, which opened Dec. 5.
Fritz, however, wanted to wait until after his team’s AAC championship game against Central Florida on Dec. 3 before taking the job.
It didn’t help Tech’s cause that word leaked about the school’s plan to hire Fritz on Nov. 27, mere hours after the sides had met.
Understandably, Fritz was concerned the news would create a distraction for his team as it prepared for its biggest game of the season.
When Fritz returned to New Orleans, Tulane officials met with him and assured him they would do everything in their power to ensure his long-term success at the school. Tulane couldn't match Tech’s salary offer, which averaged more than $3 million annually, but it could take care of him in other ways.
Tulane committed to rework Fritz’s contract, increase the salary pool for his coaching staff and to push for a pair of longstanding Fritz requests: facility upgrades for the football program and an increase in donor support for the athletic program’s Fear the Wave collective.
Ultimately, the combination of Tulane’s commitment and Tech’s rigid timeline sealed the deal for the Wave.
To his credit, Fritz put his team first. You can count on one hand the number of coaches who would have turned down such a great opportunity.
School officials formally announced Fritz’s decision to stay at Tulane on the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 29. Hours later, Tech officials announced a deal to make Key their coach.
“The timing wasn’t right for me,” Fritz said Wednesday. “Everybody has put a whole lot of time, effort and energy into the program, including myself. My loyalty was to the team and to the players.”
Keeping Fritz was a huge win for Tulane, which historically has seen its most successful coaches bolt for more lucrative jobs in more prestigious conferences.
No one would have blamed Fritz if he had followed the path Mack Brown and Tommy Bowden took before him and left for greener pastures. From a timing perspective, though, Fritz’s loss would have been more damaging than either Brown or Bowden’s departures.
Thanks to its breakthrough 11-2 season, Tulane football has real momentum. On the field, the roster has the talent and depth to compete regularly at the high Division I level. The coaching staff is the best in Fritz’s seven-year tenure.
Off the field, the administration, athletic department and donor base are aligned better than ever. The athletic department's Fear the Wave collective has experienced a threefold increase in donations since the AAC championship game victory, Dannen said.
"If this was a financially based decision, he would have left," Dannen said. "This was about his commitment to his team, his commitment to the program, the ability to have success here, the willingness and ability of our institution to commit to that success. It's about more than the money."
Tulane shouldn’t have to worry about losing Fritz for a while now. He didn’t ask for it, but Fritz has a new contract that will keep him at the school for the foreseeable future. It’s not a lifetime deal, but Fritz can stay as the coach at Tulane for as long as he wants.
“We want to have this be a program everybody looks at and sees great things with, and I think it can happen,” Fritz said. “Everyone is excited about where we’re at right now. We’ve got to build on that momentum and take advantage of it.”
By keeping Fritz, Tulane leadership showed it understands what football can do for a school, its students and alumni.
In a season of milestones, it was a milestone moment for Tulane.