After 15 years away, Justin Fuente is back at TCU. He'll be wearing a headset, in the press box, using his expertise to interpret the action as best he can -- but he won't be coaching.
No, the former TCU offensive coordinator and Memphis and Virginia Tech head coach has taken a job as the color analyst on TCU's radio team.
Fuente spent 2007-11 with the Horned Frogs; his first two seasons were as the running backs coach, and in 2009 he moved to quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator. In the three seasons Fuente was TCU's co-OC, the club went 36-4, never lost a Mountain West game, booked back-to-back undefeated regular seasons, won the Rose Bowl and secured a No. 2 final AP ranking. In those days, an 11-2 mark and a No. 14 final AP ranking was a down year in Fort Worth.
That success led to head coaching jobs at Memphis and Virginia Tech, where he went 69-54, won a share of a conference and division championship, and qualified for six bowl games. But after a 5-6 2020 campaign was followed by a 5-5 start to the 2021 season, Virginia Tech parted ways with Fuente, and the 48-year-old has not taken a full-time coaching job in the four season since. In an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fuente did not sound like a man itching to have a closer association with college football than describing the action from high above the field.
“The current state of things I am not super interested (to coach) in,” Fuente told the paper. “It’s just such a big commitment with the players, and the basis of the relationship now is purely transactional.”
With three daughters between 12th and sixth grade, Fuente said he would never say never but also added he is not in a rush move out of the season of life he's been in since exiting Blacksburg. “It’s not 100 percent of it but I’d say it’s that and the other large part of it is where I am at with my family with our three girls,” he said. “I missed so many things over the years."