The Southern Utah Thunderbirds kick off the 2022 football season on Thursday night, looking for a fresh start under a new coach and in a new conference.
Following a handful of unsuccessful seasons after winning the Big Sky title in 2017, SUU decided it was time to make a change.
After a nationwide search, the school hired DeLane Fitzgerald from Frostburg State (MD) in December 2021 as the new head football coach. His hire brought new energy to a struggling program that was preparing to make a move to the Western Athletic Conference.
With his first recruiting season and fall camp behind him, the T-birds kick off the 2022 season this week, looking to improve on just a single-win campaign a year ago.
The program builder
Coach Fitzgerald and his staff are known as being program builders and for good reason.
“I have a reputation as a program builder and we’re proud of that. That our coaching staff comes into programs that aren’t very good and we fix them,” he said.
Fitzgerald’s first head coaching stop was at Southern Virginia, where he led the Knights for five seasons. In his first season, the Knights finished just 3-8. By 2013 – his final season – SVU finished 8-2, ranked as the No.1 team in the USCAA Coaches Poll. Since he left the program, they have yet to record another winning record.
At Frostburg State, Fitzgerald led the Bobcats to unprecedented success. Arriving in 2014 after the team had won just 18 games in eight years, the team won four games in his first season at the helm.
By year two, Frostburg State won the New Jersey Athletic Conference title, compiling a 10-1 record while winning a Division III bowl game. By the time Fitzgerald departed the program, he had compiled a school-record 62 wins, winning two more conference titles and reaching the Division III playoffs twice while being named conference coach of the year on three occasions.
The next challenge
Now in his first year in Cedar City, he looks to make an impact and turn around a struggling program.
“I expect us to get one percent better each day as a coaching staff and as players. (Because) what happens is that if everyone gets one percent better at the end of the month, you’re a couple hundred percent better than you were at the beginning,” Fitzgerald said.
As for his overall goal during his T-birds tenure?
“My expectation is we make a slow gradual climb to where we’re competing for conference championships and playing in the playoffs,” he said. “Once we get in the playoffs, we’ll take it one week at a time and see if we can bring a national title to Cedar City. That is the ultimate goal…to win the last game of the season but you’ve got to win 8, 9, 10 out of the first 11 even to get that opportunity.”
Thunderbirds look to soar once again in the WAC
After a 10-year run in the Big Sky Conference – highlighted by a pair of conference titles and three FCS playoff berths – SUU begins a new journey as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.
And for head coach Delane Fitzgerald, it’s all about competing week in and week out for a team picked to finish fourth (of five) in the conference.
“My expectations are that we compete every single weekend, and I fully expect to compete,” he said. “(The expectation) is that this Thursday night and the next 10 Saturdays is that we’re prepared to play and our coaching staff has prepared our players to play and that we play hard for three straight hours.”
As for the expectations of WAC football?
“I have zero expectations, other than when you’re playing Division I schools from the state of Texas is that they’re going to be really, really good, (and) the athletes are going to be really good,” Fitzgerald said. “But I don’t have any expectations. We’re going to take this thing week by week and day by day and let’s just see if we can improve each day.”
Kicking off the season
For the first game under the new regime, SUU takes the field to face St. Thomas, a tall task to begin a new era.
Last year, St. Thomas finished 7-3 in its first season as a Division I program after transitioning from Division III.
“They’re very, very well coached and they’ve got a coach that’s won 76 percent of his games and been there for 16 years,” coach Fitzgerald said. “They’re well coached and they’re going to be well prepared. They’ve got big and strong Midwest kids and they’ve been in the weight room. They’re going to come in and try to outcoach us, try to play with more physicality than we do.”
So can the T-birds win the opener and kick off the new era with a bang? Can they accomplish the ultimate goal of winning a national title?
Only time will tell. But for now, coach Fitzgerald has the program heading in a positive direction as they look to return to contending for championships for years to come.
SUU kicks off the season at home on Thursday, September 1 against St. Thomas. The game begins at 6 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
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