DRC Fleil brothers face off when NT plays Akron

[OldTimer]

Brothers face off when UNT plays Akron

11:27 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 20, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

When Fred Bleil and his younger brother parted ways back in 1982, it only seemed natural they would cross paths at some point in their coaching careers.

The college football world is, after all, a small one.

That meeting will finally take place on Saturday when Fred coaches North Texas’ defense in its showdown with Akron and Bill Bleil, the Zips’ running backs coach.

“We are having fun with it,” Fred said. “We are going to go in and let the kids play football. It’s not about us; it’s about the players. I haven’t even told the players about it.”

The game is significant to the Bleil family, though. Several members of the clan are traveling to Akron to see the first meeting between the brothers.

Both have been in the coaching profession on the college level for more than 20 years, but haven’t been on the same field in a game since what became a turning point in both of their careers back in the late 1970s.

Fred was already well into his coaching career when he was named the head coach at New Mexico Highlands, a Division II school in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. One of his first hires was his brother, who was looking for a way to break into college coaching.

“In this business you need someone to help you along,” Bill said. “I was a graduate assistant for Fred, got my masters degree and stayed on. He gave me great advice. I looked up to him a great deal.”

It was those few years at Highlands that helped the Bleils develop a close relationship. Fred is 10 years older than Bill, so the brothers never bonded while growing up.

The time the Bleils shared at Highlands also allowed Fred to make sure his brother got off to a solid start in coaching. One of his first moves was to steer Bill toward coaching the offensive line.

Bill was a defensive player in college, but Fred knew that line coaches are always in demand.

“We first became close when we were at Highlands,” Bill said. “It’s as much a relationship of two friends as it is brothers and coaches. When we talk, we don’t even usually talk about football.”

As it turned out, the Bleils were a pretty effective coaching tandem. Highlands won the Rocky Mountain Conference title in 1981, when Fred was named the league’s coach of the year and earned an even bigger honor when the American Football Coaches Association named him the national Division II Coach of the Year.

Fred said that season is one of his fondest memories in coaching, both because of the success he enjoyed and the chance to work with his brother.

That success helped jump-start both brothers’ careers. Fred went on to become a defensive coordinator at Utah State, New Mexico and UNT. Bill has been just as successful as an assistant coach and also served as the head coach at Western Carolina for five years from 1997-2001.

Each brother developed contacts in opposite halves of the country, with Fred staying mostly in the West and Bill in the East.

Fred returned to UNT for a second stint as the defensive coordinator at UNT this season after spending eight seasons coaching the defensive backs at San Diego State. The early reviews of Fred’s performance have been favorable.

Fred moved the Mean Green into a 3-4 defense from the 4-3 and helped the Mean Green hold SMU to six points in a win over the Mustangs in one of the best defensive outings by UNT in several years earlier this season.

“Fred has done an outstanding job and has brought a renewed enthusiasm to our defense,” UNT head coach Darrell Dickey said of Fred, who also worked at UNT in the late 1990s. “We spent more time in the 3-4 last year because of the offenses we were seeing and felt like we needed someone to come in here who had experience with it. Brining Fred back was a no-brainer.”

Bill has been just as effective for Akron. Last season he coached second-team all MAC selection Brett Biggs, the Zips’ first 1,000-yard rusher since 2002.

This weekend’s game will give the brothers a chance to match wits for the first time.

The experience is one Dickey can relate to after splitting two games while coaching against his father, Jim Dickey, earlier in his career.

“It will be fun for Fred to coach against a family member,” Dickey said. “They will do the pleasantries before the game and then put it aside. After the game it will be back to being family again.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is