Hog Calls

Coaching fraternity produces life brothers

Fayetteville head coach Bill Blankenship during a September game at Hornet Stadium in Bryant.
Fayetteville head coach Bill Blankenship during a September game at Hornet Stadium in Bryant.

— Life cast Bill Blankenship and Justin Fuente as football mentor and student, but from Day 1 Blankenship said it has sometimes worked somewhat opposite.

Blankenship is known in Arkansas as the first-year Fayetteville coach who guided the Bulldogs to the Class 7A state title two weeks ago.

Fuente coaches the Virginia Tech Hokies, who are awaiting the Arkansas Razorbacks in the Belk Bowl, Dec. 29 at Charlotte, N.C.

Blankenship, a former University of Tulsa quarterback (1976-1969) and head coach (2011-2014), instructed Fuente from 1992-1994 at Tulsa’s Union High School.

“In a weird sort of way Justin is probably responsible for me getting the (Union) job,” Blankenship said. “He was what shaped the search for them. They knew they had a freshman who was a pretty good quarterback, so they were looking for somebody who knew a little bit about the passing game. Back then there weren’t a lot of us throwing the football and I (coaching in Oklahoma at Spiro and Edmond Memorial) was one among a few. I wound up getting the job because it was speculated at quarterback that they had something special.”

They did.

Fuente, a 3-year starter, was the Oklahoma Player of the Year who quarterbacked Union to the 1994 state championship.

Fuente signed with and redshirted under Howard Schnellenberger at Oklahoma.

But when Schnellenberger was fired, Blankenship said Fuente endured a “rollercoaster,” two years under John Blake at OU before transferring and starring at Murray State under Denver Johnson, Blankenship’s old Tulsa teammate.

Fuente surprised Blankenship with his career choice.

“I knew he would be successful but I honestly didn’t think he would be a coach,” Blankenship said. “His dad had been a successful businessman and I just pictured him being a business CEO.”

Blankenship and Fuente kept in touch as Fuente climbed the coaching ladder, earning a national reputation as TCU Coach Gary Patterson’s offensive coordinator.

“He had one of those Cinderella years and went to the Rose Bowl,” Blankenship said of Fuente’s rise at TCU. “I can remember being at the Coaches Convention that January. He always had been networking through me and asking for advice. Well he’s the hottest thing going and I said, ‘Justin, you need to understand something, bud. You are through networking through me. I need to be networking through you.’ He’s so humble he just laughed, but it was really true.”

Blankenship was out at Tulsa after 2014 and Fuente was establishing himself as head coach at Memphis. He invited Blankenship to be an offensive consultant.

“It gave me a chance in person to see what he has become,” Blankenship said. “He is an amazing leader. He’s incredibly competitive but forever he has been this steady, never too high, never too low guy. You watch him coach and you would never know the difference whether a play goes really well or goes really bad. It’s one of the things that helps him in a leadership role.”

Fuente invited Blankenship to consult at Virginia Tech but Blankenship decided to stay in this region with his grandchildren nearby.

The Fayetteville job opened and so did a new chapter of Blankenship’s life.

“I have been blessed,” Blankenship said. “Fayetteville is what everybody told me it would be. People have been incredibly kind to us.”

He feels blessed but divided.

Living in Fayetteville he has a developing relationship with Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema, who is now pitted against Blankenship’s protege.

So Blankenship won’t go to Charlotte. And he didn’t take up Bielema’s invitation extended to watch Arkansas’ bowl practices when the Razorbacks were bowl bound but not yet bowl assigned.

“Coach Bielema has been so kind, but I think going to practice now would be awkward,” Blankenship said. “So I will wait until spring practice and I’ll watch the game on TV. I don’t want to make either coach feel uncomfortable.”

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