Clint Bowen is just three games into his eight-game tryout as interim head coach of a reeling Kansas football program, so plenty can happen to move the needle in either direction on his chances of landing the job. At this point, he would have to be considered the favorite, but there is no odds-on-favorite, a term that applies to a member of the field having a better than 50-percent chance of winning a competition.

Despite encouraging signs under Bowen — 3-0 vs. the spread, the flipping of an in-state recruit from Ohio State to Kansas — a search committee has been formed and athletic director Sheahon Zenger is keeping an open mind. So it’s worthwhile to look at candidates that make sense and look not only at obvious assistant coaches with KU ties, such as Ohio State’s Ed Warinner, one of the game’s better offensive minds, Texas A&M assistant David Beaty (strong Texas recruiting ties) and Nebraska’s Tim Beck (respected offensive coordinator), but also at those flying under the radar.

Since Willie Fritz’s team played on ESPNU on Thursday night, hammering Troy 42-10, let’s look at the candidacy of Georgia Southern first-year head coach Willie Fritz.

A Johnson County native, Fritz’s brother, Ed Fritz, is Blue Valley Northwest High’s hugely successful boys basketball coach. Ed’s wife, Ann, is girls basketball coach at Blue Valley North.
Willie played defensive back at Pittsburg State and coached there and at Coffeyville College as an assistant. As a head coach, Fritz turned a Blinn College program that had gone 5-24-1 in the previous season into a national powerhouse. In four seasons (1993-1996) under Fritz, Blinn, a Texas juco, went 39-5-1 and won two national titles.

Fritz then spent 13 seasons at Div. II Central Missouri, where he went 97-47 and took the Mules to heights it never had accomplished. Fritz then went 40-15 in four seasons at Sam Houston State and made it to the Football Championship Subdivision national-title game in 2011 and 2012.

Georgia Southern is in its first season in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Fritz’s Eagles (7-2) lead the Sun Belt Conference and their only nonconference losses were by one point at North Carolina State and by four points at Georgia Tech.

Fritz, 54, inherited a strong roster from Jeff Monken, who bolted to take the Army job a year after upsetting Florida.

Schools normally suffer in the transition year, but Georgia Southern has improved and ranks No. 1 in the nation in rushing yards (3,624), yards per carry (7.32) and rushing touchdowns (46).

Fritz had the guts to veer away from the “Ham Bone,” triple-option attack Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson brought to Georgia Southern 30 years ago when he was the offensive coordinator. Fritz uses a run-based spread offense, which shares some elements of his Georgia Southern predecessors’ offenses.

Fritz’s final Sam Houston State team ranked fourth in the FCS in scoring (41.1 points per game) and sixth in rushing. Almost all of the current Sam Houston State roster was recruited by Fritz and his staff, and 89 of the 96 players on it are from Texas.

Fritz earns a $400,000 annual salary at Georgia Southern, good enough for him to stay at the Ritz whenever he wants, but not comparable to what KU will pay its next coach.