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Mike Schultz -
Lamar football stadium
The Lamar University athletics department is once again in the spotlight. After winning just five games in three seasons, Blane Morgan was relieved of his duties as head football coach Nov. 21.
In a statement released by LU, the university reported “a national search for Morgan’s replacement will begin immediately. Parker Executive Search will aid the university in the process of identifying its next head coach.”
Marco Born, now long gone, made several bad decisions during his brief tenure as LU’s director of athletics. His first was firing head football coach Mike Schultz. Just one season removed from leading the Cardinals to the program’s first ever FCS playoff appearance, Schultz was let go after going 4-8 in his third year despite dealing with three major injuries to the starting quarterback position.
Schultz was brought in to fix the program in 2017 and he did just that after one season.
It was 2018 when Schultz and the Cardinals won six consecutive games to finish 7-4 and earn a playoff spot against Northern Iowa.
How was it done so quickly when others, such as Ray Woodard and Blane Morgan, couldn’t immolate success? For starters, Schultz is a work-a-holic. No coach, save maybe Nick Saban, put in the hours as he did. He also installed an intensive offseason program that included rigorous weight-lifting to get players much stronger. It obviously worked.
Schultz and his coaching staff also found the perfect formula for recruiting with JUCO transfers and high school players.
One star was defensive back Michael Lawson, a transfer from City College of San Francisco. Lawson was one of the top defensive secondary players in all of FCS. He quickly became one of the Southland Conference’s top stars. He led the team in tackles and interceptions and was one of the reasons for the team’s success in 2018.
Lawson left the university after Schultz was fired and transferred to Western Illinois, where he became an all-conference player in the Missouri Valley Conference. He was recently drafted by the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL.
Then there was Darrell Colbert Jr., a transfer quarterback from SMU. Once in Beaumont, Colbert was an all-conference player with 1,611 yards and 14 touchdowns through the air and he also added 597 yards on the ground.
How can we forget offensive lineman Bless Harris, who is now playing for Florida State?
Alongside players such as those, Schultz was able to find stars at the high school level such as running back Myles Wanza and receiver Kirkland Banks. Lamar football was fun again.
Schultz faced a major hurdle in his third year in 2019. With a 2-2 record in the conference, he had not one, not two, but three season-ending injuries to the quarterback position, which is something FBS schools can’t overcome. The Cardinals dropped their last five games of the season, and Born quickly pulled the switch on Schultz that ultimately proved to be a disastrous move. The Cardinal football program has yet to recover. Many believe that if Schultz were still the coach, the program would have already won a conference title, which are very rare to come by.
Early this year, Born eventually resigned and President Dr. Jaime Taylor announced the hiring of Jeff O’Malley, who came to Beaumont from Marshall University.
O’Malley now has the tall task of hiring a football coach. A few names have popped up including Art Briles (sigh) and Kevin Barbay. Briles needs no introduction. Hard pass.
Barbay was once a young assistant under Ray Woodard at Lamar. After several stops, he is now the offensive coordinator at Appalachian State, a team that is 6-5 this season, but does own a win over Texas A&M.
Can Briles or Barbay turn the Lamar program around? Who knows really, but Schultz can. Why? Because he’s already fixed it once. He knows what it takes for Lamar football to be a winner.
If I’m O’Malley, my first phone call would be to Schultz, who has some unfinished business in Beaumont.