A little before midnight Friday, Richmond defensive coordinator Russ Huesman was still on the field at Finley Stadium being congratulated after winning a national championship. By 8 Saturday morning, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga graduate was interviewing for the Mocs’ coaching job.
“It’s kind of hard to digest everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours,” said Huesman, who played football and baseball at UTC and graduated in 1982. “From talking to the UTC people today and winning a national championship, it’s been pretty remarkable.”
Huesman was the third and final candidate to have an on-campus interview, and he got about as big a resume boost as anyone could get Friday night when his defense held Montana to a touchdown — more than 26 points below the Grizzlies’ average of 33.5 points per game — in Richmond’s 24-7 win in the Football Championship Subdivision title game.
By the time the game was over, Huesman’s voice was all but gone and he said he went to bed around 2 a.m. but didn’t get to sleep until about 4:30. Still, he said he was up and ready for the interview, which went past 5 p.m.
“It was a good day,” a weary-sounding Huesman said Saturday night. “I met with everyone, told them who I was, what I can do, and I know they’re going to hire the best coach they can find for their university.”
Nearly nine weeks after the Oct. 21 announcement that Rodney Allison would not be back as the Mocs’ head coach, athletic director Rick Hart has finally talked to everyone he wanted to. A decision is expected in the next 72 hours.
The decision will come down to three candidates: Huesman, the alum who has developed into one of the top defensive coordinators in the FCS but has never been a head coach; UT-Martin coach Jason Simpson, the Mocs’ 2003-05 offensive coordinator who is 21-14 in three seasons with the Skyhawks; and Lambuth University coach Hugh Freeze, who went 8-4 in his first season with the Eagles, reaching the NAIA playoffs, after being the Ole Miss recruiting coordinator for two seasons.
Huesman said he’s waiting to hear just like everyone else. In the meantime, he said he was having dinner with a college roommate Saturday night and afterward they were going to watch a recording of Friday night’s game.
“I know I’m going to enjoy that,” he said. “I don’t have a great memory, but I remember every play of that game.”
John Frierson is in his fifth year at the Times Free Press and fifth year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole ...
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