Tech great Carlos Francis passing on knowledge to next generation
There are a lot of names that come to mind when you think of the “prototypical Air-Raid receiver” from Tech’s storied offensive history over the years. Wes Welker, Michael Crabtree, Carlos Francis, Joel Filani, Jarrett Hicks, and many more immediately come to mind as players who dazzled under the Mike Leach-led offensive system.
Despite many receiving greats coming through Tech over the years, only one of them has been spending the past few seasons passing on his knowledge while trying to mold the next great Tech receiver.
Former receiving dynamo Carlos Francis is the current wide receiver coach at Arlington Oakridge where Tech’s lone wide receiver commit for 2017, Bronson Boyd, has been playing the past few seasons.
After receiving coaching from a “Who’s who” list of Texas Tech, college, and NFL greats which included Spike Dykes, Dick Winder, Mike Leach, Ruffin McNeil, Fred Biletnikoff, and many more, Francis always had a feeling that he wanted to eventually pass on the knowledge he had absorbed onto the next generation of receivers.
“I have just been around some guys who have not only taught me some important football lessons but some life lessons as well. I always knew that I had the potential to want to maybe [coach] one day. It had been something that had always kind of been on the back burner.”
After getting drafted in the fourth round by the Oakland Raiders in the 2004 draft, Francis spent the next four seasons with the NFL club from 2004 to 2007. Following his NFL career, an opportunity presented itself to coach at Arlington Oakridge a few years later, and he didn’t hesitate to take it.
In regards to Francis, there is seemingly no other coach who has probably been around and learned from the best of the best like Francis. Francis was at Tech when future NFL Hall of Famer Wes Welker was carving up defenses, and he was in Oakland when both Jerry Rice and Randy Moss played a few seasons in the Bay Area.
He knows his stuff.
And in regards to the players he is coaching, Texas Tech commit Bronson Boyd wants to know everything that Francis knows (which is a lot).
“I’ve played with some good guys, Jerry (Rice), (Randy) Moss, Wes (Welker), what were the things that set them apart and made them the best?” Francis said. “Bronson wants to know their knowledge. I think that’s some valuable information that I want to pass on to the next generation, especially him. You take guys who are average and make them better. You take guys with talent and you make them great. I think that’s what he has the potential of being.
“Let me just say this about him, his competitive nature is not compartmentalized just to football, it’s to life. He wants to be great at life. In light of that, the fact that he wants to be great at every single area, he does a good job of paying attention to detail. Especially in particular when we talk about on the football field. He wants to know all my secrets. I’m always like c’mon kid, I can’t tell you all my secrets.”
Boyd’s desire to be a good, complete receiver paid off in a big way during his junior season when he caught 60 balls for 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns. Francis, who has coached Boyd through multiple seasons and offseasons, didn’t shy away from comparing Boyd to one of the best receivers in Tech’s history.
“I hate to compare and contrast, but I think you’re getting Michael Crabtree 2.0,” Francis said. “I think he is a little faster than Crabtree, but he is a monster. This kid is a beast. You can look on the field and see that this kid is special. He is special. We can talk about footwork, hands, hand-eye coordination, or just his passion to win.
“I would like to try and back off (the Crabtree comparison) but I can’t because that is who he puts me in the mind of, is Mike (Crabtree).”
Despite playing with the best NFL receiver of all time when he was 42 years old, Francis said that he remembers Jerry Rice would go out there every day and catch 1,000 balls from the JUGS machine. Francis also claimed that Randy Moss was the smartest receiver he ever played with. The work ethic and the football IQ found in those athletes are all attributes that Boyd possesses, too, according to Francis.
“The art of being a receiver and the knowledge it takes to be a good receiver well before you touch a football or run a route. It’s that mind, that football IQ, that receiver IQ that you need to know. You need to have the same mind, the same thought process as the QB who is throwing to you and the DB you are facing. We talk a lot about football IQ.”
“When I’m walking out to my car after practice, and he is still out there practicing, it is obvious that he wants it. When the lights are off and nobody is around and you are still out there running routes, yeah they want it then.”
Francis, who is the eighth-ranked receiver in receptions (216), fifth-ranked receiver in yards (3,027), and the ninth-ranked receiver in touchdowns (21) at Tech, knows a thing or two about being a successful air-raid receiver and what it takes to excel in this type of offense. From his experience, Francis believes that Boyd possesses all the necessary tools to be a major contributor.
“I think one of the things that he has is consistent hands,” Francis said. “The air-raid offense relies on guys making the routine play all the time. That’s what Mike Leach used to teach us. If you get guys that aren’t making routine plays, or are at the wrong place at the wrong time, then it really gets you behind the sticks and in a bad place for your offense. One of the things with Bronson is that he understands space. He understands route combinations, concepts, route patterns, and schemes from the offensive coordinator.
“He was the man on our team, as a junior. We put a lot on him, and I think that pressure will benefit him well at Tech. He can handle pressure well. He doesn’t back down from it, he welcomes it. And the fact that he wants the ball every play will make him fit in really well with that offense.”
While Boyd was sidelined this year with a shoulder injury and is currently in the rehab process, Francis knows that while it will be an uphill battle to make the proper adjustments, Boyd is familiar with the no-huddle style and a lot of important receiving concepts. Boyd will also be in Lubbock in a month as he is graduating in December and will go through spring ball, something Francis says is an invaluable learning time for a receiver.
While Francis is very high on the 6-foot-1, 180-pound three-star receiver, he understands that there are still a lot of limitations to Boyd’s game that he will have to diligently work on when he gets to the next level. Francis said Boyd needs to get stronger, be more aggressive, and needs to fight through the pain. Also, Boyd needs to understand that he will have to bide his time and pay his dues just due to the depth that Tech currently has at receiver.
And while Francis mentioned multiple times that Boyd needs to get stronger, needs to get tougher, and needs to be more aggressive, these attributes are there for Boyd, you just have to bring them out of him.
“We were at practice one day, and I challenged the guys. One of the things we take pride in is blocking, and I know Tech does the same thing. I was challenging the guys that in order to block, they needed to be more physical. One by one -- I’m not completely out of shape or over the hill -- I was pressing them, they were playing receiver, and I was playing corner. I was challenging them to go harder, to block harder, and to use proper technique. I wanted them to find a way to start pancaking me. I’m doing the same thing to Bronson, and he is getting fired up because I am talking crazy to him. When I tell you he put me on my back, he put me on my back. He broke my phone and put me on my back. I don’t think anyone on planet earth has ever done that before. As long as I’ve been around.”
For Francis, he knows exactly what type of situation that he is sending Boyd to at Texas Tech. Not only has Francis “been there and done that,” he is also very familiar with head coach Kliff Kingsbury as he caught 141 passes for 1,854 yards and 12 touchdowns from the current head coach when they were playing with each other during the 2000-2002 seasons.
His interest in Tech was re-ignited when his former teammates, Kingsbury, Trey Haverty, Kevin Curtis, and Mike Smith took coaching gigs at Texas Tech, and Francis has been rooting very heavily for the Red Raiders ever since.
“Kliff, he did it, and he is making it happen. He has all that knowledge that he came by from all the coaches he has been around. By being around Belichick and being around (Tom) Brady and those guys. Shoot, it was only a matter of time before he became a head coach somewhere, so why not Texas Tech? The place where he still has records to this day.”
Texas Tech went 23-16 in the three overlapping seasons between Francis and Kingsbury. Francis was in the huddle with Kingsbury, was at practice day in and day out with Kingsbury, and had that special QB-WR bond that not a lot of other people got to experience with Kingsbury. While this past 5-7 season was tough on Francis and other Tech fans, he knows that there are brighter days ahead with Kingsbury at the helm.
“It’s a blessing and a curse of being Kliff, and for people that are motivated like him, he won’t quit,” Francis said. He just won’t quit. He won’t quit at anything. That’s a blessing, I think, but it could also be a curse at the same time. That’s just who he is, he is a competitor. He wants young men to be successful, not only on the field, but off the field as well. He won’t rest until the job is done. That’s why I have a peace in regards to where Tech is going because I know Kliff is right now doing something, the minor things, the little things, to try and find a way to make Tech better, and I think that’s what all the Red Raider fans can have hope in. We back him fully.”
In fact, Francis remembers vividly two instances in which Kingsbury’s “never quit” character shined through on the football field, experiences that only the 10 other men in the huddle will truly understand.
“When we beat Texas my junior year (in 2002), it was the first time to beat Texas in a while and we beat them in front of the home crowd. Kliff was having an amazing game (38/60 for 473 yards and six touchdowns). He came into the huddle when we had the lead with so much intensity, it wasn’t enough just to win. That says something about him. It’s the difference between – I believe – loving to win and hating to lose. I think Kliff hates to lose more than he loves to win. I know it’s kind of a thin line. People who love to win can sometimes get complacent, but if you hate to lose, you are never complacent.”
“This is the opposite end of it. At Oklahoma, the year they won the championship, they just had our number. They really did. They were giving it to us. This was a national championship team. In the fourth quarter, Leach wanted to put BJ (Symons) in the game and that did not make Kliff happy at all. It made him mad. That’s just his competitive nature. It doesn’t matter if some of the chips are down or all of the chips are down, he just wants to fight. I can respect that. I really can respect that.”
Francis has a deeper interest in Tech football with Kingsbury running the show and his former protégé just weeks away from entering into the college football realm. The former Tech receiver is very confident in what both of them can do and fully believes that they are both on track to doing big things for the scarlet and black.
The future is bright. Guns Up.