Russ Huesman’s Uphill Battle

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WRITER: Joan garrett

Russ Huesman has mellowed. Before joining UTC earlier this year to revive its failing football program, the 49-year old head coach had a rough and tumble approach to players on the field.

“I used to be a yeller and a screamer,” he admits, reflecting on his 25 years of coaching, and speaking with disarmingly calm. “I came off the field every day with a headache. I was a nut, but I have kind of evolved from that.”

These days the former UTC star, who was a four-year starter from 1978–81 as a defensive back, comes off more like a salesman than a bully. Over the last few months he has spent nearly all his time glad-handing recruits, hoping a warmer persona can attract top-rate players from higher ranked schools with gruffer coaches. “I tell their parents we are going to care for their son, not chew them up and spit them out,” he says. “Kids are changing. I think this generation has been coddled. So you have to reach out to them in different ways.”

Huesman knows he is fighting an uphill battle, with six victories in eleven scheduled games required for a winning season. His return to his alma mater comes on the heels of several embarrassing football seasons at UTC. The last-and-only time the Mocs went to a playoff was in 1984. The team has had just six winning seasons since. Last year under former head coach Rodney Allison, UTC won only one game. Then in April, the NCAA banned UTC from the 2009 postseason and eliminated three football scholarships after the Mocs failed to meet multi-year Academic Progress Rate standards.

Meanwhile, lackluster performance has soured many Chattanooga fans. Last season, the UTC football team suffered the lowest average home game attendance in the Southern Conference. In the nearly 10 years since Finley Stadium opened, average attendance has dropped by more than half. “No one likes to watch people lose football games , ” notes Huesman. “But if you start winning, people will come to the games.”

With practices beginning the last day of this month, Huesman is tasked with the impossible. He must win games and fill the stadium. And he can feel the pressure. “I feel such a strong obligation to do well,” he says. “Do I wake up every morning a little nervous? Yes. I wish it was August so we could start.”

Huesman’s move to Chattanooga is the biggest of his career. The job is his first head coaching position, and follows a five-year tenure as a defensive coordinator at University of Richmond where he helped coach its NCAA team to a national championship. Under Huesman, Richmond’s defense ranked among the top 15 nationally during the past three seasons.

Beginning his career as a defensive line coach at College of William and Mary in 1984, Huesman’s teams included current NFL star Darren Sharper. Later, as the recruiting coordinator at the University of Memphis, Huesman’s 2002 class was ranked in the nation’s top 50, a first for the Tigers.

“Everyone in this profession dreams of being a head coach,” he says. “And to be the head coach at your alma mater is even more special. I’m going to buy a house here, coach here and retire in that house. That’s my game plan.”

If you ask Huesman why he loves football, he’ll shrug his shoulders and say he doesn’t really know but he has always wanted to coach. Before signing on to play football at UTC, he played for a powerhouse varsity team at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Gerry Faust, who went on to coach the University of Notre Dame, built the school’s program from scratch and led the prep team to two consecutive national championships, during Huesman’s junior and senior years. “I looked up to all my coaches,” says Huesman. “My experience was incredible.”

With a roster filled with promising players, Huesman says he is off to a good start. Quarterback B.J. Coleman, a former McCallie School star and University of Tennessee transfer, signed on with the Mocs in May. His return home has helped stir excitement among community boosters who believe Coleman could be the key to a winning season. “We want to bring players in, make them bigger, faster and stronger, but that takes time,” says Huesman. “I am not saying we are going to win six games, but we want to win every game, and that is what we are preparing for.”

Before the sweltering summer practices begin, Huesman is working to bring his wife, Amy, and his four home-schooled children to the city. He can’t wait to move out of his apartment in Red Bank and into a new house but also needs to find time to decorate his new office. Except for a popsicle stick framed photo of his children, the space is bare.

“It is hard for me to ever stop thinking about football,” he says. “Every night I think about football, about this program. You get eleven opportunities. You practice all summer, all season. The adrenaline for one of those chances...it’s phenomenal.” ◆