Fred Akers
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| Fred Akers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Born | c. 1938 | |
| Place of birth |  Blytheville, AR |
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| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 108-75-3 (College) 26-12-1 (High school) |
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| Bowls | 2–8 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Playing career | ||
| 1958-1959 | Arkansas | |
| Position | HB / K / P | |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1963-1964 1965 1966-1974 1975-1976 1977-1986 1987-1990 |
Edinburg HS Lubbock HS Texas (Co-OC) Wyoming Texas Purdue |
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Fred Akers (born c. 1938) is a former American football coach. He served as head football coach of The University of Texas Longhorns from 1977 to 1986.
His notable accomplishments include a Heisman Trophy for Earl Campbell in the 1977 season and national title chances in the 1978 and 1984 Cotton Bowls. In both of those years Texas went undefeated in the regular season only to lose in their bowl game. Akers received criticism because he failed to live up to the standard set by previous head coach Darrell Royal. However, much of that was mitigated by a still-impressive overall record as well as the fact that he had a winning record against Barry Switzer of the Oklahoma Sooners, who was 3-0-1 against Texas before Akers came along. However, in Akers' last 5 years he struggled against OU (going 1-3-1) and against Texas A&M (losing his last 3 to the Aggies by an average margin of 23 points).
Akers drew ire from the Texas faithful for losing bowl games at the end of 4 consecutive seasons (1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985) and then missing a bowl entirely in 1986.
He left Texas to become the head football coach at Purdue University. He was rumored as a candidate for the Baylor University job in 1993 that ultimately went to Chuck Reedy.
He is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
[edit] Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming Cowboys (Western Athletic Conference) (1975 – 1976) | |||||||||
| 1975 | Wyoming | 2–9 | 1-6 | 7th | — | — | |||
| 1976 | Wyoming | 8–4 | 6-1 | T-1st | L Fiesta | — | — | ||
| Wyoming: | 10–13 | ||||||||
| Texas Longhorns (Southwest Conference) (1977 – 1986) | |||||||||
| 1977 | Texas | 11–1 | 8-0 | 1st | L Cotton | 5 | 4 | ||
| 1978 | Texas | 9–3 | 6-2 | T-2nd | W Sun | 9 | 9 | ||
| 1979 | Texas | 9–3 | 6-2 | 3rd | L Sun | 13 | 12 | ||
| 1980 | Texas | 7–5 | 4-4 | T-4th | L Bluebonnet | — | — | ||
| 1981 | Texas | 10–1–1 | 6-1-1 | 2nd | W Cotton | 4 | 2 | ||
| 1982 | Texas | 9–3 | 7-1 | 2nd | L Sun | 18 | 17 | ||
| 1983 | Texas | 11–1 | 8-0 | 1st | L Cotton | 5 | 5 | ||
| 1984 | Texas | 7–4–1 | 5-3 | T-3rd | L Freedom | — | — | ||
| 1985 | Texas | 8–4 | 6-2 | T-2nd | L Bluebonnet | — | — | ||
| 1986 | Texas | 5–6 | 4-4 | 6th | — | — | |||
| Texas: | 86–31–2 | ||||||||
| Purdue Boilermakers (Big Ten Conference) (1987 – 1990) | |||||||||
| 1987 | Purdue | 3–7–1 | 3-5 | T-6th | — | — | |||
| 1988 | Purdue | 4–7 | 3-5 | 6th | — | — | |||
| 1989 | Purdue | 3–8 | 2-6 | 8th | — | — | |||
| 1990 | Purdue | 2–9 | 1-7 | T-8th | — | — | |||
| Purdue: | 12–31–1 | ||||||||
| Total: | 108–75–3 | ||||||||
| National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title | |||||||||
| #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season. °Rankings from final AP Poll of the season. |
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[edit] External links
| Preceded by Darrell Royal |
Texas Longhorns Head Coach 1977–1986 |
Succeeded by David McWilliams |
| Preceded by Fritz Shurmur |
Wyoming Cowboys Football Coach 1975–1976 |
Succeeded by Bill Lewis |
| Preceded by Emory Bellard |
Texas Longhorns Offensive coordinator 1972–1974 |
Succeeded by Don Breaux |
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