Mocs hire Jeff Durden as new OC

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team has a new offensive coordinator in Jeff Durden, who was in charge of the James Madison offense for the past nine seasons and was the Dukes’ assistant head coach.

Mocs coach Russ Huesman interviewed five candidates for the position, which came open when Marcus Satterfield left UTC after four seasons for a job at Temple. The position has been offered and accepted, but Durden’s hiring won’t be official until later this week, after it is approved by UTC.

“His philosophy is pretty similar to what we’ve done and I thought it would be a pretty smooth transition, not only with our staff but also with our offensive football team,” Huesman said. “Obviously the terminology will be different and how we do things, but I think the concepts of what they’ve done at James Madison for a while now kind of fits what we’re looking for."

Durden was fired in December following a 7-4 season in which James Madison failed to make the FCS playoffs for the third time in four years.

In 2004, Durden’s first season at JMU, the Dukes beat Montana at Finley Stadium to win the school’s first FCS (then I-AA) national championship. In 2008, James Madison won the Colonial Athletic Association and reached the semifinals of the playoffs.

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