New University of Memphis safeties coach Brent Guy understands how difficult it is to build a program from the ground up. He tried to do it at Utah State from 2005 to 2008, inheriting a program that had gone seven years without a winning season.
"I couldn't do it," Guy says. "I ran out of time."
That, in Guy's mind, is what makes the turnaround at Memphis so impressive. Coach Justin Fuente took a program that had won three games in two years and transformed it into a 10-win co-American Athletic Conference champion in just his third year.