From the ground up, Wilson readies Cowboys for odd spring season
Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, February 3, 2021
- Photo Credit
Jim Gazzolo, Special to the American Press
Frank Wilson doesn’t like the word rebuild. In fact he hates it.
He thinks it is defeatist, a losing state of mind.
“We are not rebuilding at McNeese.”
That was Wilson’s exact statement just after he was introduced as the school’s 17th head football coach. He wanted to put everyone on notice that there was no taking a year off.
Even talk of his historic hiring, being the first African-American to hold the position at McNeese, was only a side note.
“That’s an honor, but I am a football coach first and foremost,” Wilson said. “And we are here to win, build on the tradition and develop players who will make the community proud.”
While he didn’t want to talk about rebuilding the Cowboy program, he finds himself doing much more than that as McNeese gets ready to start the strangest season in its history.
Just months after talking over the Cowboys last January McNeese was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. If that wasn’t enough, not one but two hurricanes hit Lake Charles in the summer and early fall, leaving the football facilities and the rest of campus damaged. There were even questions about the future of the sport at McNeese.
Suddenly, the man who hated the word rebuild had become the ultimate rebuilder.
“That is pretty ironic, but yes, we are building this thing up from the ground,” he said.
Wilson could have taken his skills and resume and walked away from all the headaches, but that’s not his style.
“I believe that I am here for a reason and it is not just football,” Wilson said. “Football is what we do, but this, what happened here, it is much bigger than football.”
However, before being a rebuilder Wilson had to be the glue that kept things together. He had players all over looking for answers about their careers, their education, even where they would stay or eat.
“It was tough for a lot of guys,” said senior quarterback Cody Orgeron, who spent the time at home and working out at LSU, where his famous father is head coach.
“I was one of the lucky ones. We had a lot of guys who didn’t know where their next meals were going to come from or where they were going to sleep that night,” Orgeron said. “Coach Wilson was great with that. He kept us together, kept everybody positive. He has been the the key.
“I have known coach for a long time, he is like an uncle to me. But he was like that for all the guys, making sure we were taken care of and getting what they needed. He’s been our leader.”
Not everybody stayed. A total of 21 players have left since the pandemic, hurricanes and Wilson coming on board. Some went to play elsewhere, others hung up their cleats and called it a career.
“We move on,” said Wilson. “We wish them well and we work with the people that are here. We want kids here who want to be here, want to be a part of putting this back together.”
It is not an easy task.
There were no spring workouts, no fall either and no weight room. McNeese went 410 days between practices in pads, unheard of for a football player.
Playbooks and game plans were put aside.
Wilson credits his assistants for a lot of the work, calling it a team effort. But there is no question who is in charge.
“If I had to have a man take over in this set of circumstances, there is no better person to do that than Frank Wilson,” McNeese State President Dr. Daryl Burckel said. “He never felt sorry for himself, never played the victim. He has always been about our kids and his staff.”
After the storm Wilson drove to the football stadium and saw his field covered with water.
“That was tough,” he said. “You wondered how we would ever play. We honestly didn’t know if we could play there.”
But there was never a question the Cowboys would have a team in the spring.
“Frank is going to make sure we are not only going to have football but our team is going to be ready to play football,” said Athletic Director Heath Schroyer. “We are going to have football if there is football being played.”
We haven’t even mentioned yet that Wilson took the job knowing the program had a one-year playoff penalty to pay for academic issues dating back two head coaches.
“I am in awe of him,” said Schroyer. “He has been a rock. He has shown the greatest leadership in a time of need for all of us. He makes no excuses.
“I am a huge Frank Wilson fan.”
One thing that matters most is Wilson gives the program stability.
In the last two seasons McNeese has gone through a pair of coaching staffs. Lance Guidry lasted just three years and left the program in a bit of chaos and with academic troubles. In came Sterlin Gilbert, who helped start the academic rebuild but was never a good fit.
He left after one year of a three-year deal to be the offensive coordinator at Syracuse.
Enter Wilson, a no-nonsense man who has coached at the highest of levels and has ties to Louisiana and the Southland Conference. After four years at Texas-San Antonio Wilson was let go and McNeese quickly targeted him.
“Frank was the guy we wanted from the start,” said Burckel.
Little did McNeese know how badly they needed Wilson.
“I don’t think there is a coach in the country in any sport that has had to go through so much in such a short period of time,” said Schroyer. “I don’t know how he does it.”
In the case of rebuilding McNeese Wilson will do it the hard way, forced to do so from the ground up.
Kirk Meche / Special to the American Press
