Frank Wilson
LYNN HICKEY: This is a great turn out, so thank you for being here. My name is Lynn Hickey. I'm the Director of Athletics and just want to welcome everybody. This is a very exciting day for UTSA and the city of San Antonio. I think that it's just more -- it's more than just another historical moment in our short history of football.
There have been times the last ten days I actually called it a hysterical moment, everything has moved so fast. But this is actually -- I would deem this as a moment of impact, beginning this next phase of our program, so I would like to turn over the program to our President, who has been outstanding, who has had the courage to even let us start a program from the ground up and who has shown commitment to this program throughout the whole process. Dr. Romo.
DR. RICARDO ROMO: Thank you, Lynn. Thank you all for coming here. It is an exciting day at UTSA, as we are beginning a new chapter in our athletic program. UTSA is recognized for excellence in the classroom and in the playing fields. In the five seasons since we've seen football come to UTSA we've made many great gains because of the tremendous support from our community as well as the commitment of individuals like Lynn and her group. We are now taking a new step.
Earlier this month we engaged a search firm to help us conduct an extensive national search for a new head football coach. At this time some two weeks ago, I appointed a committee, a committee that would be the hiring committee and I asked Lynn to chair that committee and make recommendations to me and recommended finalists for the position. I got to interview these candidates and I worked closely with the committee and with the UT chancellor. These appointments are approved by the chancellor and approved by the Board of Regents, and I can tell you with confidence that we have made an excellence choice in coach Frank Wilson as our new head coach.
As some of you have already read, Frank has an outstanding 20-year coaching career including an exceptional performance at LSU as the running back coach and recruiting coordinator and when I say recruiting, he is truly one of the best recruiters in the entire country.
What I was struck by was his commitment to his players, his commitment to academics, his desire to play at a very high level all the time. He's an impressive individual and I can see why he is a great recruiter. He is engaging, as you know, and he has that passion and knows how to channel the energy and the passion. Therefore, he is an ideal person to harness this momentum to take us to new levels in football.
I'm excited about him being here. We have an opportunity to hear from him and also have some questions. So let me introduce to you the new UTSA head coach, Frank Wilson.
(Applause.)
COACH WILSON: Thank you, thank you so much. I would like to start off by first of all acknowledging the people that allowed this process to happen, to my right, Dr. Romo who has the vision to take this university to a University of excellence, a top-tier university, that allowed this university five years ago to have the vision of starting a football program. It's an honor, it's a pleasure to be here today.
I thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of the UTSA family. My family is eager and excited to be here, to call San Antonio our home and today is just the beginning of that time.
Second of all, I would like to thank Lynn Hickey for the vision, the foresight to work with Dr. Romo and seeing this five years ago, but probably more so the courage to step outside and start a program when people thought it couldn't be done, to do it anyway, to elevate it year after year to the status that it is now. I thank you.
To the UTSA family, and all of the faculty and staff, support staff that was involved in the selection committee, and I see a lot of your faces out here today, I enjoyed every moment of it. I say this to you: The warmth, the empathy, the opportunity for you guys to share with me, with this university, with this state, behold, made me want to be a part of it. I couldn't wait to get home to tell my wife and my kids about the interview process. It was truly the best.
To my agent, Pete Rucell in the back of the room who got this thing to the finish line, I thank you for allowing this to happen. Last but not least to the right, my family, my beautiful wife Tiffany, my son Frank, my daughter Sabrina, my daughter Alana, could not have done it without you. It's been a long, long time since we started this from when I was a high school football coach to the moment that we are here now.
My family and I prayed, we cried, we enjoyed every moment of it before we got on the plane today to head this way to accept this position. It is the biggest moment of our life. We don't take it for granted, and we're looking forward to it. Birds up!
(Applause.)
Q. Coach, welcome to San Antonio. Why UTSA? You've been in the mix for other coaching jobs. What set UTSA apart?
COACH WILSON: All of the things we talked about. When you talk about a school that's a top-tier university, a school that identifies itself as a school of excellence, the opportunity to be a part of the first, a program that is still new in a sense that was given birth or life was breathed into it five years ago. To have an opportunity to be the first to win a conference championship at this university in football, to have an opportunity to be the first to win a bowl game, all of those things appeal to this university, so when the opportunity presented itself, I could not be more excited about it. So really, really thrilled about UTSA and the future and the what we can do here.
Q. Coach, welcome to San Antonio. Ever since your name came up, looking at you and everything I see is you are a recruiting wizard. Can you give us any insight into why that is so?
COACH WILSON: People, being a good listener. So many times people think the recruiting process is about the words that you speak to a young man, to a committee, to a group of people but the reality is being a very good listener. For the first 60 days here at UTSA I'm going to listen, listen, understanding the culture, understand the history that allows me to first of all recruit the players on this campus and I will start that tomorrow with our team meeting.
I think from a recruiting standpoint, we've got to recruit the players that are here first. We're 20 days away from National Signing Day, which is the first day but not the last day -- excuse me, the first but not the last, and we have a plan, and we will be prepared to give us the best opportunity to get the kids here on campus.
Q. Coach, what do you see here at UTSA? What kind of -- what's the upside here? They were real good in '13, 7-5 and they are 7-17 as you very well know over the last couple of seasons. What do you see?
COACH WILSON: Opportunity. I see potential, I see a school that's nestled in the state of Texas that's fertile recruiting grounds that all around you, whether it's in San Antonio, whether it's in Houston, whether it's in Dallas, the state of Texas and its neighboring states that allow this sleeping guy ant to be awakened. It's flashed at times, it's shown it at times, whether it was the inaugural win or the seven-win season, it's shown flashes at times of the possibility of the things that could be done here. Just so excited about being in Conference USA and the potential to compete for a conference championship and go on to a bowl game.
Q. What is the process of filling out your staff going to look like? What positions are of the highest priority?
COACH WILSON: Well, first of all, we're going to take it step by step. Right now I'm soaking it in, embracing the moment. I will have the opportunity to meet with some of the guys that are currently on the staff. We will take it step by step and do it right not fast. Before Signing Day we may have some guys on the staff but not necessarily all of them, so we're going to take our time, identify, assess where we are right now and put ours in position to get the best fit for what we need to have success.
Q. Coach, you've worked with some pretty good running backs at LSU, you've got a pretty good one over there you can work with as well. If you had to tell us a little bit about your style and what kind of a offense you would like to put together here at UTSA, can you give us a glimpse of what you would like to do?
COACH WILSON: Yeah, still in the premature stages of it. Have had the opportunity to watch us on tape thus far and see our personnel and the things that we have. I like the style of spread not necessarily a dink and dunk team. We will take our shots down the field, we will throw the ball vertical, we will create run lanes within the run game, with an ability to be physical and assaulting, because that's our identity, it's what we have always done, the ability to run the ball but yet the ability to get vertical to make big plays. So we will start there and we will see how our personnel evolves with our team and adjust accordingly.
LYNN HICKEY: This is a great turn out, so thank you for being here. My name is Lynn Hickey. I'm the Director of Athletics and just want to welcome everybody. This is a very exciting day for UTSA and the city of San Antonio. I think that it's just more -- it's more than just another historical moment in our short history of football.
There have been times the last ten days I actually called it a hysterical moment, everything has moved so fast. But this is actually -- I would deem this as a moment of impact, beginning this next phase of our program, so I would like to turn over the program to our President, who has been outstanding, who has had the courage to even let us start a program from the ground up and who has shown commitment to this program throughout the whole process. Dr. Romo.
DR. RICARDO ROMO: Thank you, Lynn. Thank you all for coming here. It is an exciting day at UTSA, as we are beginning a new chapter in our athletic program. UTSA is recognized for excellence in the classroom and in the playing fields. In the five seasons since we've seen football come to UTSA we've made many great gains because of the tremendous support from our community as well as the commitment of individuals like Lynn and her group. We are now taking a new step.
Earlier this month we engaged a search firm to help us conduct an extensive national search for a new head football coach. At this time some two weeks ago, I appointed a committee, a committee that would be the hiring committee and I asked Lynn to chair that committee and make recommendations to me and recommended finalists for the position. I got to interview these candidates and I worked closely with the committee and with the UT chancellor. These appointments are approved by the chancellor and approved by the Board of Regents, and I can tell you with confidence that we have made an excellence choice in coach Frank Wilson as our new head coach.
As some of you have already read, Frank has an outstanding 20-year coaching career including an exceptional performance at LSU as the running back coach and recruiting coordinator and when I say recruiting, he is truly one of the best recruiters in the entire country.
What I was struck by was his commitment to his players, his commitment to academics, his desire to play at a very high level all the time. He's an impressive individual and I can see why he is a great recruiter. He is engaging, as you know, and he has that passion and knows how to channel the energy and the passion. Therefore, he is an ideal person to harness this momentum to take us to new levels in football.
I'm excited about him being here. We have an opportunity to hear from him and also have some questions. So let me introduce to you the new UTSA head coach, Frank Wilson.
(Applause.)
COACH WILSON: Thank you, thank you so much. I would like to start off by first of all acknowledging the people that allowed this process to happen, to my right, Dr. Romo who has the vision to take this university to a University of excellence, a top-tier university, that allowed this university five years ago to have the vision of starting a football program. It's an honor, it's a pleasure to be here today.
I thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of the UTSA family. My family is eager and excited to be here, to call San Antonio our home and today is just the beginning of that time.
Second of all, I would like to thank Lynn Hickey for the vision, the foresight to work with Dr. Romo and seeing this five years ago, but probably more so the courage to step outside and start a program when people thought it couldn't be done, to do it anyway, to elevate it year after year to the status that it is now. I thank you.
To the UTSA family, and all of the faculty and staff, support staff that was involved in the selection committee, and I see a lot of your faces out here today, I enjoyed every moment of it. I say this to you: The warmth, the empathy, the opportunity for you guys to share with me, with this university, with this state, behold, made me want to be a part of it. I couldn't wait to get home to tell my wife and my kids about the interview process. It was truly the best.
To my agent, Pete Rucell in the back of the room who got this thing to the finish line, I thank you for allowing this to happen. Last but not least to the right, my family, my beautiful wife Tiffany, my son Frank, my daughter Sabrina, my daughter Alana, could not have done it without you. It's been a long, long time since we started this from when I was a high school football coach to the moment that we are here now.
My family and I prayed, we cried, we enjoyed every moment of it before we got on the plane today to head this way to accept this position. It is the biggest moment of our life. We don't take it for granted, and we're looking forward to it. Birds up!
(Applause.)
Q. Coach, welcome to San Antonio. Why UTSA? You've been in the mix for other coaching jobs. What set UTSA apart?
COACH WILSON: All of the things we talked about. When you talk about a school that's a top-tier university, a school that identifies itself as a school of excellence, the opportunity to be a part of the first, a program that is still new in a sense that was given birth or life was breathed into it five years ago. To have an opportunity to be the first to win a conference championship at this university in football, to have an opportunity to be the first to win a bowl game, all of those things appeal to this university, so when the opportunity presented itself, I could not be more excited about it. So really, really thrilled about UTSA and the future and the what we can do here.
Q. Coach, welcome to San Antonio. Ever since your name came up, looking at you and everything I see is you are a recruiting wizard. Can you give us any insight into why that is so?
COACH WILSON: People, being a good listener. So many times people think the recruiting process is about the words that you speak to a young man, to a committee, to a group of people but the reality is being a very good listener. For the first 60 days here at UTSA I'm going to listen, listen, understanding the culture, understand the history that allows me to first of all recruit the players on this campus and I will start that tomorrow with our team meeting.
I think from a recruiting standpoint, we've got to recruit the players that are here first. We're 20 days away from National Signing Day, which is the first day but not the last day -- excuse me, the first but not the last, and we have a plan, and we will be prepared to give us the best opportunity to get the kids here on campus.
Q. Coach, what do you see here at UTSA? What kind of -- what's the upside here? They were real good in '13, 7-5 and they are 7-17 as you very well know over the last couple of seasons. What do you see?
COACH WILSON: Opportunity. I see potential, I see a school that's nestled in the state of Texas that's fertile recruiting grounds that all around you, whether it's in San Antonio, whether it's in Houston, whether it's in Dallas, the state of Texas and its neighboring states that allow this sleeping guy ant to be awakened. It's flashed at times, it's shown it at times, whether it was the inaugural win or the seven-win season, it's shown flashes at times of the possibility of the things that could be done here. Just so excited about being in Conference USA and the potential to compete for a conference championship and go on to a bowl game.
Q. What is the process of filling out your staff going to look like? What positions are of the highest priority?
COACH WILSON: Well, first of all, we're going to take it step by step. Right now I'm soaking it in, embracing the moment. I will have the opportunity to meet with some of the guys that are currently on the staff. We will take it step by step and do it right not fast. Before Signing Day we may have some guys on the staff but not necessarily all of them, so we're going to take our time, identify, assess where we are right now and put ours in position to get the best fit for what we need to have success.
Q. Coach, you've worked with some pretty good running backs at LSU, you've got a pretty good one over there you can work with as well. If you had to tell us a little bit about your style and what kind of a offense you would like to put together here at UTSA, can you give us a glimpse of what you would like to do?
COACH WILSON: Yeah, still in the premature stages of it. Have had the opportunity to watch us on tape thus far and see our personnel and the things that we have. I like the style of spread not necessarily a dink and dunk team. We will take our shots down the field, we will throw the ball vertical, we will create run lanes within the run game, with an ability to be physical and assaulting, because that's our identity, it's what we have always done, the ability to run the ball but yet the ability to get vertical to make big plays. So we will start there and we will see how our personnel evolves with our team and adjust accordingly.
