Sahuaro football coach Al Alexander was somewhat bewildered by the workload of his new offensive coordinator Jackson Francois, the former Arizona basketball walk-on who is the son of Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois.
“I wish I was 21 again,” Alexander said, incredulously.
Francois embarked on his first football coaching experience at Sahuaro in January and got on the field after Arizona’s basketball season concluded in March. He worked with the Cougars during spring practice.
He was hired as Walden Grove’s boys basketball coach two weeks ago after earning a degree in Applied Humanities at Arizona.
The Red Wolves started practicing under Francois last week and began play Friday in their June AIA-sanctioned summer schedule at the Summer Sizzle at Pima Community College.
He helps coach Sahuaro’s football passing tournament team during the day this month and administers basketball practice at Walden Grove at night.
“I don’t have free time, so I work 15 hours a day,” Francois said. “It has worked out well. I’m able to give 100% to what I am doing.”
Francois coached the game at Pima College on Friday with a Red Bull energy drink on the ground under his seat. That comes into good use, but Francois exudes energy on his own.
The youngest high school head coach to be hired locally, on record, is Francois.
J.F. “Pop” McKale was 24 when Tucson High hired him in 1911 to be the football coach and athletic director. McKale became Arizona’s athletic director three years later and served in that capacity for 57 years.
Former Arizona quarterback Kris Heavner was 27 when Santa Rita hired him to coach its football program in 2012.
Francois ambitiously applied in January for the Santa Rita coaching vacancy, which was filled by alum Cam Gaddis. Francois was in communication at that time with Alexander, who was intrigued by Francois’ analytical mind with football. Francois never played the sport, but he mentioned he is a diligent student of the game.
“I have a huge interest in football, and I’ve always been around football programs; I almost worked in football instead (of playing basketball),” said Francois, noting his mom has worked at SEC schools Tennessee and Missouri and she oversaw day-to-day operations of Virginia Tech’s football program from 2014 to 2017.
At this time last year, Francois was in Nashville as an intern for Creative Artist Agency (CAA), working for renowned agent Jimmy Sexton, who specializes in getting his college football coaching clients hired.
Sexton led all representatives in the latest college football coaching hiring cycle, landing his clients four times more Power Four head coaching jobs than any other agent.
Sexton’s clients in the latest coaching carousel included Arkansas’ Ryan Silverfield, California’s Tosh Lupoi, Coastal Carolina’s Ryan Beard, James Madison’s Billy Napier, LSU’s Lane Kiffin, Memphis’ Charles Huff, Ole Miss’ Pete Golding, South Florida’s Brian Hartline, Southern Mississippi’s Blake Anderson, UAB’s Alex Mortensen, Virginia Tech’s James Franklin and Washington State’s Kirby Moore.
Francois spent most of his time as a CAA intern building Excel spreadsheets to track college coaches and their contracts. The research included when coaches’ deals expired, what they were paid, and what schools may be looking to hire new coaches.
“I also sat in on client calls, helped prepare materials for meetings, and learned how to verify information from news reports,” Francois mentioned in a Q&A with Arizona’s College of Humanities. “By the end, I was creating comparison charts for coaching opportunities and even presenting my research to the team.”
Francois’ work was beneficial to Sexton landing 12 college coaches new positions.
“Jackson did a great job for us,” Sexton told Yahoo Sports. “He was very inquisitive. … Everybody in the office loved him. Sometimes when you have parents in certain situations they try to live off that, but he didn’t do that at all. He was a very hard worker.”
Francois will add to his already busy load this upcoming school year by trying to enhance his resume to become an agent. He was accepted into Arizona’s one-year MBA program and will study in the Eller College of Business.
After the House vs. NCAA settlement was granted last June, giving college athletes the opportunity to have direct revenue-sharing payments, Francois became more intrigued with football representation.
“I interned on the football side at CAA, and I’ve been around some great coaches,” Francois said. “It’s something that piqued my interest, and that’s how I got started in football.”
He added that while attending Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, when his mom was athletic director at UNLV, he helped the traditional nationally-ranked football program there by serving as a spotter in the booth.
“It’s good to have a young coach as an offensive coordinator,” Alexander said. “It’s one of the things where he’ll be up there in the top (in the press box area). He’s really good with numbers, and he’s really good with the analytic part of it. As he has learned more of the game, I think his passion has become football.
“Some of the greatest football coaches never played the game.”
The list includes Mike Leach, Paul Johnson, and Todd Haley. Former Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, who is now at Washington, never played football.
Basketball is the sport he was directly involved with in college as a walk-on at Missouri and then Arizona, following his mom to both schools. He credits Missouri coach Dennis Gates for generating interest in coaching and for learning more about coaching personnel under Tommy Lloyd.
“Plus, I watch a lot of basketball and try to learn each time,” he said. “I also watch a lot of football.”
Walden Grove athletic director Corey Noble, also the Red Wolves’ football coach, said he was immediately impressed by Francois’ enthusiasm and his plan to make the basketball program competitive.
“I met with him a couple of times and knew he was the right person for the position,” Noble said. “Very organized. He knows what he’s doing. I got the sense he will definitely help develop our kids.”
Francois sounded like Lloyd when he mentioned that he will not “overcomplicate things” with his players.
“We’ve just got to keep stacking days and keep it simple,” he said. “Even at the U of A, we talked about playing off two feet. We’ll go from there and learn and grow.”
Francois wants an uptempo style in the same manner as Lloyd. He continually motioned for his team to push the pace in its game against CDO at Pima, especially with a lack of size on the frontcourt.
He offered encouragement to his players throughout the game with a positive and upbeat manner and did not waste energy on the refs.
“We haven’t introduced a lot of stuff, but I like how we look,” Francois said. “There’s some promise. I’m excited to be here. I’m excited for what we’re gonna be.
“We will have a program here that is based on family and based on our values. Walden Grove basketball can be good. Sahuarita is a good area. The school is really nice. The parents, boosters, and staff are great. This is where I wanted to be. I’m excited for it.”
He does not envision problems transitioning from Sahuaro’s football program to Walden Grove’s basketball team late in the fall when football is concluding and basketball practice is starting.
Alexander and Noble, who coach the rival football programs in the 4A Kino region, gave the green light for Francois to carry on both coaching responsibilities.
“I told Corey, ‘Hey, this is something I’m also committed to, and I will make it balance,'” Francois said. “I don’t really have free time, so I keep myself going. I love what we’re doing at Sahuaro, but more importantly, I love what we’re doing at Walden Grove, too.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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