Justin Fuente, former Memphis and Virginia Tech coach, joined Jason & John on Wednesday (Dec. 14) to discuss his new (for the time being) career calling some football games. Fuente has been assigned to cover the Memphis Tigers game against Utah State in First Responder Bowl on the campus of SMU on Dec. 27th. You can listen to Fuente's full interview here:
Fuente said he's at peace with how everything turned out and learned some things from his time at both Memphis and Virginia Tech. On Virginia Tech Fuente said, "I made some mistakes staffing-wise right from the start that I knew after a little bit that I needed to change, but I didn't. Then Covid hit."
Part of his challenge at Virginia Tech was taking over for the legendary Frank Beamer. But not because of Frank, his actual neighbor there. It was because fans are used to "how" things were done for so long. Fuente said, "It's not about the guy...it's the people around that have a hard time doing something a little differently."
Juxtapose that with Memphis, and it was a totally different situation for Coach Fuente. Coach Fuente told Jason & John, "When I took the Memphis job it was basically (people said) 'we have not been very good, tell us what you want'."
Fuente also talked about what it took to get the Memphis Football program going. He pointed to the momentum from the UCLA close loss on the road early on with Paxton Lynch and the Sam Craft commitment. Fuente added, "When Sam Craft decided to go to Memphis, that was a really big deal."
Coach Fuente will be on the radio call on Audacy for the Memphis Tigers game against the Utah State Aggies in the First Responders Bowl on Tuesday, December 27th, 2022.
