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(female announcer) This is a production of WKNO - Memphis.
Production funding for "Sports Fies" is made possible in part
by..
My guest today on "Sports Files" is the Head Football Coach of
the University of Memphis Tigers, Justin Fuente.
[theme music] ♪♪♪
There is never an off season for a College Football Coach.
There's spring football, there's training camp,
there's the actual season, and then there's recruiting,
which seemingly is happening all the time,
24-7, 12 months a year.
Justin Fuente just completed his third signing class as Tigers
Head Football Coach.
And as everyone knows, the business of recruiting is an
inexact science, and often the benefit of all the hard work
doesn't payoff for several years.
Of course when you're a program like Memphis,
you hope the payoff is much quicker.
When Fuente accepted the job, Memphis Football was in a deep
hole.
And for the last two years, he and his staff have been trying
to dig themselves out of it.
After a four win season in Fuente's first year,
the Tigers could only muster three wins last season,
although many will tell you the team was much improved.
But even if you believe that to be the case,
the Tigers ended the season with a thud,
losing their last three, two of them by blowout margin.
Today Justin Fuente joins me to look at his latest recruiting
class, his assessment on where the program stands,
and a look at the future which includes a very formidable 2014
schedule, it's all next on "Sports Files."
[theme music] ♪♪♪
Hey Justin, great to see you again!
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Thanks for coming in again.
Your goals going in to recruiting and do you feel
you'll accomplish those goals?
Yeah, we knew we had to address the front seven of the future.
That was the first thing that we said defensively.
You know we are a senior laden defense.
We have 13 seniors on defense coming back this year.
You know it's still gonna take us another year to kind of
balance our roster out after the things that we inherited.
But we really felt like we needed to sign a front seven,
a defensive line and line backing core that could play for
us for the next several years after we graduate all these
guys.
So that was the first thing.
The second thing was we had to continue to add depth in the
offensive line.
You know that's been a much talked about position since we
got here.
We are about to get that thing about balanced out from numbers
wise and having the ages of the kids spread out through our
roster.
And then we needed a couple of skill kids.
We signed a couple wide receivers I'm excited about and
we wanted a big tailback.
And we certainly found that over in West Memphis.
Yeah, I want to talk specifically about these
individuals.
But in general terms, how well received is Memphis football
when you're out on the road recruiting this program?
Well it's been great.
You know we signed about seven kids from within 100 miles of
Memphis this year.
And I think the word is getting out about -- not just about our
staff but about the type of program we're building,
about the support that we have from our athletic director,
Tom Bowen, from Brad Martin, our interim president.
I think words getting out that way.
I think as a league, personally, I think weve got to do a betetr
job of selling our league.
You know you take a step back and watch bowl season and watch
what our league did in the bowl season between what Central
Florida did to Baylor, what Louisville did to Miami and,
you know, that's not even counting Cincinnati and some of
the other good teams that we've got in the league.
So I think there's some unfamiliarity with our league.
I think as a league, we've got to do a better job of getting
that out so that the kids truly understand how good of football
is being played in the league.
But we're being received very well.
I'm awfully excited about it.
But I guess that does come with the territory of being a league
that's been around for a year.
Well yeah and there's been so much turnover in realignment
and all that kind of stuff, just kind of finding your identity.
And you know the ultimate way to prove it is on the field.
And you know I think slowly through time,
you'll see this league as South Florida continues to improve,
as we continue to improve.
We're bringing East Carolina in to the league whose got a very
good tradition.
I think you'll see us start to earn that respect that maybe we
don't have as much as we feel like we deserve right now.
Alright, let's talk about some of these individuals.
The big receiver, six foot five, juco guy.
You got, what?
-- four or five juco guys and the rest are high school
seniors.
Tell me about him because I know last year,
the receiving core.
And there was guys that stepped up like Sam Craft who you got
from Olive Branch.
But for the most part, they struggled as a unit.
What's he gonna bring to the table?
Well Greg, he's a big kid.
He's 220 pounds.
He's from just up the road in Blytheville, Arkansas.
You know went to junior college, was kind of a very heavily
recruited kid out of high school.
And then went to junior college in Mississippi and got hurt and,
you know, was kind of bounced around.
But a great kid, a great worker that is really gonna add some
size and strength.
Six-two, six-three guy that I think can handle,
you know, the bigger league and a more physical league that
we're gonna play in.
So we're obviously excited to get him on campus and get him in
the system.
I know you like the tight ends.
You went out and you got a big tight end.
It seemed like this past season you didn't go to the tight end
as much as you did your first year.
But I know that's something you like to do.
Tell me about this kid you picked up.
Well Tyler was a baseball player out of highschool.
We signed a junior college.
Tyler was in junior college.
But he played six or seven years of minor league baseball.
So he's 24, 25 years old.
Wow!
Yeah, very mature kid.
I guess young man is probably what I should say.
He knocked around in minor leagues for several years,
finally realized that he probably wasn't gonna make it
and went to a junior college out in California and started
playing football.
And he's very raw but he's very gifted, you know.
And he's eager to learn.
He's on campus right now, has really jumped in to our
off-season, our lifting and our running with both feet.
Kind of a blank slate though.
He doesn't have any bad habits.
He doesn't have any habits.
You know he's just trying to figure out where the c-gap is
and all the things that come with playing tight end.
So we're excited to get him in there with the return of Allen
Cross and a couple of other guys.
You mentioned he's a mid-season.
A few of these guys are.
They're already here in campus.
Yeah, that's right.
We added about four or five mid-term guys that came in that
have been in our off-season program right now and,
you know, kind of get a little bit of a head start,
get to go through spring ball before we start practice again
in the summertime.
Alright, a moment ago you talked about the big running back from
West Memphis.
You smiled.
Jarvis Cooper is the kid you're talking about who played both
ways.
Was there a tug of war?
Now you're the head guy but did Barry Odom want him for defense?
How did that work out?
Well yes, he did.
And we have leaned that way defensively in my time here.
We'll always do that.
I believe it takes a little something extra defensively to
make those things work.
Good defense travels everywhere whether it's rainy or windy or
snowy or 75 degrees and partly cloudy.
But I'm excited about Jarvis Cooper because of the type of
kid he is.
He was obviously the large school defensive player of the
year in Arkansas on the defensive line.
He also played full back in a triple option type offense.
We're absolutely going to start him off at tailback because we
wanted a big running back, a big physical running back.
And see how Jarvis likes it and see how it goes.
But the biggest thing is is he's such a great kid.
I mean a great worker.
Everybody in the school loves him.
You know his coaches love him.
There's a bunch of people in West Memphis that are really
invested in his future.
And I'm excited that he decided to stay close to home.
I would imagine you could sell pretty much anybody but
especially an Arkansas kid that plays running back.
We had a kid named DeAngelo Williams.
He was pretty good.
He turned out alright.
Yeah, worked out pretty well for DeAngelo and for the University
of Memphis.
Let's talk about the quarterback situation.
You go out and you get a freshman,
Clay from Texas.
You get the junior college kid from Fort Scott Community
College, Jason Stewart.
Paxton Lynch will be a red shirt sophomore.
You have another young man, the Oklahoma guy.
Where do we stand?
What do these guys bring to the table?
And let's talk a little bit about the quarterback situation.
Well we're in the situation where Eric was returned.
Eric Matthews was returning but he was only one semester away
from graduating.
Here's a kid that's worked his tail off in the classroom to go
ahead and get his degree and, you know,
is going to be behind Paxton.
So our conversations with Eric..
Let's go ahead and get you graduated.
Let's go ahead and get your degree.
And then obviously we can help you go play somewhere for your
last semester, where ever it is you'd like to play.
So when that conversation happened,
all of a sudden you're sitting there with not much depth at
quarterback, which is okay and we addressed it with Jason.
We wanted to bring a guy in that's played in some games that
had a chance to come in and compete and continue to push
Paxton.
We brought Clay in because we felt like he was a very polished
kid.
He's from a coach's family.
His uncle is the head coach at West Virginia he is..
His dad was offensive coordiantor for him in high
school.
So grew up around the game, very polished.
Great understanding of the game.
So now we're sitting there with a true freshman,
a red shirt freshman, a sophomore in Paxton and a
junior.
Now we're finally getting things balanced out.
You know it's a little bit like that throughout our roster.
We're finally getting our numbers back up closer to 85 and
getting our classes and everybody balanced out so we
have a really funcitonal football team.
Well you coach like most coaches do.
You're gonna play the best players that give you the best
chance to win.
And last year -- and it may not have been a popular choice at
first -- you went with the youngter,
Lynch, over Jacob Karam.
Now you bring in a J-C guy and there's already people saying
well, he wouldn't bring in a J-C guy if he wan't gonna play him.
But that's not the case.
You like competition but may the best man win, right?
Yeah, we'll put the ball out there and put the best guy out
there.
I mean we were very clear with Jason our situation.
We had a returning starter that was a freshman that we feel like
has a chance to be very, very good.
And but the same respect.
Come on in here and let's go compete.
And Jason is fine with it.
You know we kind of put all our cards on the table in
recruiting.
You know we're gonna play the best guy.
Doesn't mean that we're gonna be disappointed in Paxton.
It just meant that we got to make sure that we've got some
depth there.
I mean we're still in a new process of building this thing.
I mean it's a lot different than a lot of other situations that
you can inherit.
I mean there's..
It's bits and pieces that ensure that you're okay down the road.
Exactly.
But I would imagine, though, your expectations for now --
Paxton with a year under his belt -- are gonna be more.
You expect more coming up.
Oh, absolutely.
We'll continue to demand more of him.
And I expect that he'll continue to feel more comfortable kind of
in his own skin and around the team and those sorts of things.
And I expect him to continue to develop.
He's a man with great, natural tools that,
at times, played outstanding for us during the year,
at times, showed that he's young.
And it's a challenge of everybody around him to continue
to get better and improve and for Paxton to do the same.
You did very well in Mississippi.
Picked up a couple kids from Grenada,
a couple kids from Byhalia.
I had an analyst on my radio show who was glowing about those
linebackers you picked up.
So you did really well down there?
Yeah, I was really excited about that.
You know like I said, it kind of falls in that within 100 mile
radius that we want to do really well.
And you know our whole staff did a great job recruiting those
kids from James Shibest who's in charge of Mississippi to Galen
Scott who's our linebacker coach to Barry Odom,
our defensive coordiantor to members of our offesnive staff.
I mean those are guys that came to our camp in the summertime
and I walked off the field and said we need those kids in our
program.
Those kids have the right kind of work ethic.
They have the right kind of dedication.
We can build a football program with those kids.
And it was a long process but that's exactly what we ended up
doing.
As a staff, we went out and recruited them and we got them
here.
I remember last year on the show you talked to me about some of
the kids that may make an immediate impact.
And you're thin on numbers so it's obvious.
Sam Craft stepped in and was one of those guys that made an
immediate impact.
You've already gone over some names like Cooper,
the quarterbacks.
Give me a couple of guys who you think from this recruiting class
will make an immediate impact.
Well I think there's gonna be opportunity for several of them.
And when we talk to them, we talk about you need to approach
it that way.
I think Thomas Brown will have the opportunity to play in some
fashion, somewhere, provide us depth at linebacker,
play on special teams.
Yeah but he's only gonna be a sophomore.
So I think he'll have a chance to get in there and get in the
mix.
Those linebackers you talked about I think will have an
opportunity.
You'll have a chance to see them out there playing early.
Let's talk spring football.
It's right around the corner.
Is it March 2?
March 2 we start.
Awesome, can't wait.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate a little bit.
I'd like for it to warm up just a tad if we could get that.
We've been working out at 5:30 in the morning Monday,
Wednesday, Friday.
And it's been..
It's been pretty chilly out there.
We had some guys that have long beards and by the end of the
workouts had icicle in their beards.
That's a great look!
But yeah, I'm hoping it warms up a little bit.
What are your goals in spring football?
My goal for the team is we have to do a better job as a team.
We have too many.
We had too many, um, other things that had nothing to do
with winning ball games going on.
And that just ain't the message I've shared with our kids.
In order for us to take the next step forward,
we've already set a level of work ethic,
a level of dedication, a level of toughness.
And the kids have risen up to that.
The kids that are still on our program are tough.
And they have demonstrated those abilities.
We've got to take the next step in accountability.
So I mean we're going to introduce offense,
defense, special teams.
But I'm as interested in watching our team come together
and our seniors learn how to lead.
We've taken it to the point now where we're teaching a
leadership class with our seniors.
This is how you do these things and these are how you handle
these certain situations.
Because I'm not sure they really had anybody to learn from in the
past.
We've had good examples.
There have been kids that have come through our program that
have done a great job in leadership roles.
But we have a large number of them now.
And I think that's the key is we have an opportunity to grow most
as a team throught that level.
One of those leaders that I believe was and hopefully will
be again this year, you fortunately get him back for
another year.
Quick thought on Brandon Hayes.
Oh, just fired up for Brandon.
You know a great kid, a great story,
local kid.
You know has a second kind of tour of duty here at Memphis.
And walks on.
Everybody knows his story.
Works his way all the way up in to playing quite a bit.
He's gonna get pushed by young kids and that's what we told him
when he decided to come back.
We said now you have to go compete for your job just like
you did when you're competing to get on the team.
You know that's the same hunger that we've got to have.
And Brandon's embraced that, done a great job in our
off-season.
I'm as excited to have him back for his leadership abilities as
anything else.
He's one of those seniors that we've got that I think has a
chance to serve as a great example for young guys.
We have about a minute.
Last year you didn't have to make any changes with your
staff.
There was no turnover, which is evry strange in this day and
age.
You had to make a couple of moves this year.
Talk briefly about that.
Yeah, excited about where we're going.
We hired Ricky Hunley as our defensive line coach.
Ricky Hunley could go do anything he wanted in the world.
And he just decided to come here and teach and mentor our
defensive linemen and be a part of us building a program here at
Memphis.
Obviously he's college football hall-of-famer,
been in the N-F-L, played and coached.
Great track record.
You know we lost Chris Vaughn, our corner coach,
to the University of Texas, which is a great thing.
You know I don't want to lose any coach but if you're gonna
lose one, losing one to a program like that coming from
here I think speaks volumes about the people that we've got
in our program.
And we've replaced him and with Ryan Walters from North Texas.
And we're excited about that fit and we're ready to move forward.
And hopefully it doesn't hurt to have Clinton McDonald and Kippy
Brown, two former Tigers, winning a Superbowl.
So you get to say listen, you know we product great players
here at Memphis and they go on to do big things.
Yeah, played great and huge win in the Superbowl.
And we were all watching and excited for 'em.
And it's great for the Tiger Nation.
Never a bad thing to be talking football in February.
No, always enjoy it.
Have a good spring camp and we'll be looking forward to
seeing you next year.
We'll be talking you throughout the months ahead.
Appreciate it.
Good to have you on again.
Thank you!
We'll take a short break.
Overtime is coming up next.
[theme music] ♪♪♪
Three..
Two..
One..
[buzzer sounds]
From Memphis Football we turn to Memphis hoops for this
week's overtime segment.
Last Saturday the Tigers pulled out a 60 to 54 win over Gonzaga
in a battle of top 25 teams.
The crowd was absolutely electric,
and present among the more than 18 thousand plus were members of
the 1973 Memphis State basketball team that advanced to
the N-C-A-A championship game, eventually falling to Bill
Walton and U-C-L-A.
The '73 Tigers were honored at halftime after spending a few
days in Memphis reminiscing about the glory days and
visiting their old stomping grounds.
Some of the biggest names from that team have passed on,
such as the great Larry Finch, Ronnie Robinson and Coach Gene
Bartow.
And like those individuals, the team,
as a whole, will never be forgotten.
I had a chance to catch up with two other stalwarts from that
squad, the great Larry Kenon and Billy Buford.
♪♪♪
Billy, it's absolutely fabulous to see you.
How does it feel to be back with many of your former teammates
who are being honored?
It's great.
You know these were my teammates and you know we're like old men
who are telling stories.
Some of them are right, some of them are wrong.
But it's good to see everybody.
So it's like a fish story.
Sometimes they're exaggerated, huh?
Definitely so.
I mean I've told a couple of them today that they don't seem
to remember.
So it must be.
Do you feel like trailblazers?
Obviously Memphis basketball was there before you guys and it's
been here for many years after.
But to be able to set the stage, to be a national championship
contender that went to the finals,
the legacy is there for this team.
You must feel good about that.
It's true.
You know when we got here, West also and myself were already
here.
And it's amazing.
West asked Coach Bartow one time and said how did you handle all
of us.
And Coach Bartow looked at us and said because you all are me
and we were able to accept our roles and play together as a
team.
And that's what I found out is that we played as a team.
What is your greatest memory other than playing in the
championship game?
What's your greatest memories of that team?
I think it was how we came together.
We had a closed door meeting and it wasn't too pretty.
But we kind of called each other out and got an opportunity to
determine what we wanted to do and what kind of team we wanted
to have.
We knew that Finch was going to shoot,
Rodney's gonna rebound and was gonna shoot.
And find a place to get in.
I just remember that they roasted me pretty good when I
was in there but they told the truth that you know coming from
a junior college and being a pretty good player that I came
in thinking that I was gonna start here.
And I remember Coach Bartow said no,
you ain't gonna start.
I'd be frustrated.
And I almost went home.
But came over after practice and said if you gonna leave,
you've gotta come through me.
And I came back to practice and at the end of the season,
Coach Bartow asked me.
He said I need you to start.
And I said why now.
And West had to go too.
But there was no decision because we just wanted to.
♪♪♪
It's a wonderful feeling to see all my old teammates and their
families and really of the days that we relived in 1973.
It's some good feelings, Greg.
What made the team so special?
Chemistry, chemistry.
We had a genuine like for each other and we had a genuine want
for the other guy to do good.
Everybody pulled together from day one.
It was always like that.
Are you..?
I know you're in San Antonio and you've been away from here a
long time.
Maybe letters or e-mails?
Are people getting in touch with you?
When you run in to somebody from Memphis,
are you constantly reminded about how great that team was,
what it meant for the city?
Yes I am.
No matter where I go, I meet somebody from Memphis -- yes.
They think of the '73 team as the greatest team.
Memphis fans as rabid as I've known them to be since my 19
years here in Memphis.
Were they as crazy, supportive and nuts as they are here today?
Were they back then the same?
I think we were like the start of it.
But I was just telling somebody here a minute ago about the
Mid-South Coliseum.
That place was rowdy!
And it was like..
I think it held 14,000 people and probably 10,000 of those
people were students.
And we had a great time.
So yeah, I think we were like the start of all of that.
I'd like to think of it.
But we had good teams.
Memphis always had good teams.
They had good teams before that and they've had good teams after
us.
So I think Memphis has been a basketball town for a long time.
What was it like playing under Gene?
Coach Bartow!
Coach Bartow was..
He was quite a disciplinarian.
He, uh..
As the year went along.
But he, you know, loosened up a little bit.
And it was more or less a working relationship between us.
He was a good guy, a very good guy.
A good guy and a good coach.
As a matter of fact, the last conversation that I had with
Coach Bartow and I asked him this question.
I said Coach -- which was a couple years before he passed.
A couple years ago I said Coach, what was it about me that you
really liked.
So here I am thinking about all of these high accolades that
he's gonna put on me and all of that.
He said no man, you practices hard and played hard.
That simple.
So that was his attitude.
It was no flashy-ness about him.
He was a great guy.
♪♪♪
How great was that?
Oh by the way, this year's Tigers squad has another huge
game this Saturday when they face U-Conn on the road,
the same Huskies team that took down the Tigers at FedExForum in
mid-January, 83-73.
Well, we've reached the N-B-A All-Star break and despite the
Grizzlies resembling a mash unit for most of the season,
the team is in position to make a run at a return to the post
season.
Nothing has come easy for the Grizz,
who will have 30 games remaining on their schedule and will need
to catch fire after the break and likley need the help of
either Phoenix, Dallas or Golden State to play mediocre
basketball.
The trade deadline is the 20th and I don't expect the team to
make a move, although it's not out of the realm of possibility.
Grizzlies fans need to collectively knock on wood and
hope that the team can stay healthy the rest of the way or
that shot at the post season becomes a very long shot.
And that will do it for today, remember you can catch any of
our past episodes of "Sports Files" by simply going to our
website at WKNO-dot-org and clicking on K-N-O Tonite.
Have a great week, and we'll see you next time.
[theme music]
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