This is a letter written by a former teammate of Clint Dolezel in support of keeping the coach here at least one more season. The Lion Wire does not endorse the letter. It is simply a fan’s opinon.

Dear Lion Fans,

I played with Clint Dolezel for 2 seasons at East Texas State, and have known him since the fall of 1992. When he was hired as ET head coach in 2023, I was so happy for him, knowing that he had all the football smarts to take Lion football into the uncharted territory known as Division I football and had every tool as his disposal that he earned as a player and a coach to make it happen.

Let me start by saying this, Clint took this job with the full knowledge that he was walking into a very tough assignement. He knew what it was going to take, but just like when he walked onto the Memorial Stadium grass in 1992 as a JUCO transfer from a backwater West Texas town to battle against a Division I QB transfer from San Jose State, he took that job and led us to a top 15 ranking and by the time he left Commerce we expected to see him on Sundays taking snaps. We cheered when he signed with the Browns but also we knew that he had the makings of a head coach because he knew the playbook so well. Coach Eddie Vowell was a hard man to please when it came to the game plan, but he trusted Clint to run his offfense. Clint wasnt’ good. He was great. Just ask the coaches of the Lone Star Conference. He was Second Team All Conference twice and a feared passer who read defenses better than anyone I have ever seen.

As far as his resume in the pros, just look at wikipedia. The guy is a master tactician when it comes to offense and the numbers The Lion Wire put up show that. He is a football coach, and a true one. Just ask Gary Compton, the greatest Lion Wide Reciever in program history who said so on on a podcast episode. Clint has everything in his mind to take a college football program and make it elite.

What he does not have is the money, nor the support. He plays in an 80 year old stadium. He plays in front of a student body that does not go to the games. He plays with fewer and fewer Greek organizations. All I can say is thank goodness for the band. His team has no practice facility, his surface has not been redone since 2019, he barely has room for his assistants in his pressbox, and struggles with injuries because of the lack of having an adequate sports medicine department. (Greg Hulsey though does his best by himself, and we are lucky to have him). To top that off, there has not been a single word spoken about the desperate need for a new stadium. And you expect him to win and recruit like that?

Now, I am going to speak on a personal level, and these thoughts are mine and mine alone, because I have been behind some of those closed doors that many of you in the mob with your torches and pitchforks have never been in and will never be in. This whole move to Division I was the wrong move for our institution. If you knew what I knew, you would have all pulled out a big stop sign in 2021. It was foolhardy and impulse buy if there ever was one. I see all these people demanding Clint win 10 games but I never see those same fans willing to donate money for a new or improved stadium, or weight room, or anything else that is necessary, and I certainly don’t see any NIL money and anytime Clint or his assistants get a good player, he leaves via the portal because playing in a stadium that is almost 80 years old in a town that is small with a university administration that is cheaper than corner store wine. This obsessive desire to be on ESPN or be “known” shows who has been in our shoes and who hasn’t. If you feel like you have to blame someone, blame the decision makers that made this move in 2021.

I appreciate Brian Pate for letting me throw him under the bus for this example. Aside from him letting me write this letter, Brian and I spoke 2 years ago about how the move was to keep our athletic department above water by making a move to the Southland and he told me that everyone had told him that the Lone Star Conference is dying and so going DI might be the best way. The same schools that were there when we left are there now and are not going anywhere. Art Briles was just hired at Eastern New Mexico, and he could outcoach ANY coach in The Southland. Now I realize that was a cheap excuse to try to justify an impulsive decision that had no concrete plan, no fundraisers, no solid reason other than just wanting status. All it did was cost us our athletic program.

If you are going to hold Clint to such a high standard, then let’s look at the rest of the athletic department. Men’s Basketball has not had a winning record, nor has Women’s Basketball. Volleyball….the same. Soccer has been the outlier with 2 conference championship games played in two years, but routinely gets beaten badly by larger programs, and yet I hear crickets from fans. The entire athletic department is essentially in trouble.

When you are a football coach at this level, you need money for facilities, money for supplemental performance, the support of the town and the student body, and the support of the administration. Clint has very little of that and still has put a mostly competetive team on the field. A lesser coach would do far less, and as far as the players leaving because they don’t feel like competing, ill quote Coach Eddie Vowell. “I know where Los Angeles is. I’ll even give you a map.”

Give Clint his full contract and if he gets what others in the conference have, I guarantee you he will give us a winning record next year. At the very least.