Guidry guides Blinn

to bowl game Saturday





By Don Wallace

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com



There’s one thing a coaches’ son likes to do, is coach another coaches’ son.

Brad Franchione is not only the head football coach at Blinn College in Brenham, but he’s also the son of Texas A&M; University head coach Dennis Franchione.

So the Blinn coach was eager to get a chance to coach Rusk’s Brad Guidry.

Guidry comes from a coaching family with not only his parents Thomas and Kathy being coaches/teachers in Rusk; his brother, Judd, is a coach in Jacksonville.

“I think coaches’ sons pick up the game quicker, they have been around it their whole life,” Franchione said. “That’s why I knew Brad could come in and here and help us at Blinn.”

Blinn College, undefeated with an 11-0 record, plays Pearl River (10-1) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Pilgrims Pride bowl from Mount Pleasant. The game will be broadcast on FOX sports.

Guidry, a 6-foot-6 sophomore quarterback has led the team all year. He has completed 128 of 179 passes for 1,471 yards and 16 touchdowns while throwing four interceptions. The 230-pound signal-caller is averaging 133.7 yards per game passing the ball.

Being a coaches’ kid has helped Guidry made decisions on the fly. He doesn’t mind changing the play sent in from the bench.

Franchione said, “Brad changes the plays all the time. He has done it 35-40 times this year and averages seven yards gained a play. He is a very intelligent player. We don’t mind if he changes the play, he can read the defense and see what he needs to do to be successful.”

Perhaps what Guidry does is not as important as what he doesn’t do, make mistakes. The coach calls it managing the game.

“Brad has only thrown four interceptions this year, two of those passes were tipped,” Franchione said. “He has an excellent completion percentage, over 70 percent. He puts the ball where it needs to be for us to be successful. If the other team gives us short passes, he throws short passes and we don’t try to force big plays.”

Franchione continued, “Brad is 6-foot-6 and he has a strong arm. He can see the field well, he puts the ball on the target. He protects the ball and realizes that we also have running threats. We don’t have to do everything through the air.”

Not only has Guidry taken care of his work on the field, but in the classroom as well. He has excelled at Blinn and those grades, combined with his football talent have opened doors for future enrollment and scholarships to four year schools.

Guidry has talked been contacted by SFA, SMU, Northwest La. and several other schools.

“Brad is a 3.6 student, that is his GPA,” Franchione said. “That means he has done his work and he should get a chance to continue his education and play football.”

When Guidry looks back at his two years at Blinn, he remembers his humble start. Back when he was doubtful he’d catch on to the college system.

“I played one game as a freshman and I didn’t do that well,” Guidry said. “I knew I had work to do, but the coaches had faith in the younger players. They worked with us. I finally adjusted to the speed of college football. That is the biggest difference from high school, things just come flying at you a lot faster in college.”

Now Guidry has gone from being a spot starter to the leader of an 11-0 team bound for a bowl game.

“We have a really good defense,” Guidry said. “That takes the pressure off the offense. We just have to score enough to win. We know our defense will hold most teams. We’re a well-rounded offense, I have thrown for over a 1,000 yards and we have a running back with more than 1,700 yards. So we have a balanced attack.”

Guidry said another big step from his freshman year to this year, was the team’s confidence.

“We know we can win,” Guidry said. “We don’t think that in a conceited way, we are just confident. We have lots of sophomores on the team we know that when we walk on the field we have a good chance of winning.”

While Blinn has been confident of the outcome, his parents were fortunate to make all the games and watch the undefeated season unfold.

“This has been a dream year and we were lucky enough to see it,” Thomas Guidry said. “We knew Brad had talent and you want you son to do well, but this has been a treat. The whole family has really enjoyed this season.”

“Brad has been around sports a lot because of our family,” Thomas Guidry said. “But he is a sharp person, he has learned a lot of it on his own. He’s got to see his old brothers Morgan and Judd play in college. He is getting his chance now. Win or lose in the bowl game on Saturday, we could not be more pleased. But of course, we’d always like to win.”

Spoken like a true coach.