Fayetteville High School Hires Former Tulsa Head Coach Bill Blankenship

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Fayetteville High School landed firmly on their feet on the sidelines with the announcement of Bill Blankenship as the new head coach of the Bulldogs on Wednesday.

Blankenship has over 20 years of high school head coaching experience starting with Spiro High School in Oklahoma (1986-89), then with Edmond Memorial (1990-91), and Union (1992-2005). During his 14 years with Tulsa Union, Blankenship led his team to the playoffs every season making seven appearances in the Oklahoma state title game bringing home a title in 2002, 2004, and 2005.

In 2007, Blankenship was hired as a wide receivers coach for his alma mater, with the Golden Hurricanes. Blankenship worked under then- head coach Todd Graham (Arizona State) until taking over as head coach once Graham left to become Pitt’s head coach for the 2011 season.

At the helm of the Golden Hurricanes, Blankenship hovered around .500 ending his four-year tenure 24-27 with a bowl win in 2012.

Blankenship was out of coaching in 2015 but took the Fayetteville job after the Bulldogs highly successful head coach resigned suddenly on May 12. Coach Daryl Patton was with Fayetteville High School since 2003 winning Arkansas 7A state titles in 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2015.

Patton cited “personal and family” reasons for his resignation but several reports have alleged sexual misconduct as the reason he resigned. Coach Patton was not out of coaching long, on May 26, just two weeks after resigning from Fayetteville High School, he was hired by Bauxite High School. Coach Patton had a mark of 116-43-2 during his tenure with the Bulldogs.

Bauxite is a much tougher draw having won 10 total games over the past six seasons.

Blankenship walks into a positive setting with the Bulldogs fresh off a state championship win in 2015. The Bulldogs have starting quarterback Taylor Powell and highly regarded defensive lineman Akial Byers coming back. The offensive line returns Ty Clary and Spencer Stone making the Bulldogs an early preseason pick as one of the top teams in the Natural State.

Photo credit: newson6.com; Bill Blankenship on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane sidelines.