Texas State University (San Marcos) is a fairly large institution and will be moving from Division IAA to D1 next year and affiliate with the Western Athletic Conference? Whether this is a good move or not is debatable and perhaps an issue to be explored at another time. At this time the Bobcats play in the IAA Southland Conference and generally are not very competitive even in this mid level league. Now they want to move to D1? Ok the school is certainly large enough for D1. Well, let me just wait on this subject.
What I really want to discuss is the hiring of Dennis Franchione as their HC. Now he has been here before when the school was knows as Southwest Texas State where he compiled a 13-9 record. Nothing special but not real bad either. He has coached some major programs along with small ones with varying levels of success. He really got on the radar with fair stints at both New Mexico and TCU (which were seen as collectively miraculous at the time) and that propelled him to the "big time" in D1 football. This is where things begin to go south. He left Alabama high and dry for Texas A&M which I have no problem with not being a Bama (or Aggie) fan particularly, but it was seen as playing dirty pool by a large segment of the college football watching population. The reasons given (by Francione) were that he was making a move "up" in the college football coaching world and some probation problems with the Tide. Texas A&M a step up from Tuscaloosa? Come on! I got the distinct impression at the time that he was running from his pending failure and taking his below par act to College Station. That proved to be exactly correct.
It did not take very long for the Aggies to realize that far from "taking the program to the next level" Franchione was ruining it. He was basically run out of town and rightfully so. Now I don't have much problem with a coach who has trouble winning but I certainly have a problem with lack of character. This Franchione seems to certainly fall short in the character dept.
What I really find hard to believe is that any major program (or minor for that matter) would consider hiring Franchione for anything more important that latrine duty but apparently he was a finalist at San Diego State and UNLV. It is good that they chose to pass him up. Why he was interviewed at all is a mystery.
Why the administrators at Texas State chose to give this guy another shot is beyond me. There are plenty of other good coaches from the college and even HS ranks who would be just as good if not better and would not bring the baggage to campus that comes with Dennis. Just take a look at UTSA which is getting their own program together. They hired non other than Larry Coker.
If I were looking to make a move up with my program I would certainly never consider Franchione.
The guy is destructive
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