University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman wasted no time in filling the void left by three assistant coaches who recently left for other jobs.
Former University of Tennessee fullback Shawn Bryson takes over for Sean Dawkins as running backs coach, and former Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Tony Brown, a Chattanooga native, will be an assistant defensive line coach. Rod West will assist with the defensive backs, helping replace departed secondary coaches Brandon Cooper and B.J. Hogan.
Cooper and Dawkins took assistants jobs at Murray State, and Hogan left shortly after the 2014 season to become the head coach at his high school alma mater in Pennsylvania.
"You hate to lose any coaches, but you want what's best for people," Huesman said. "Those guys did a great job in helping us achieve our goals, and we'll miss them. We added three quality coaches, kind of restructured the staff a little, and I'm excited with the additions because they're great people that will help us move forward."
Huesman added that replacing the outgoing coaches before signing day, in two weeks, was crucial for this year's recruiting class.
"Our administration knew how important it was for us to have people in place the weeks leading up to signing day," Huesman said. "Kids we were recruiting have questions about who was going to be coaching them, so it was huge to have these coaches on board."
Brown, a 1998 City High graduate, was an all-state lineman who became a three-year collegiate starter at Memphis and played for six years in the NFL, including four with the Titans.
Bryson, who played on the Volunteers' 1998 national championship team and had an eight-year NFL career with the Bills and Lions, coached last season at Florida A&M. West coached defensive backs the past two seasons at Morehead State.
"I'm very excited to have the chance to coach in my hometown," said Brown, whose only previous coaching experience was as an assistant at East Hamilton High and spent last year working with the UTC staff on his own. "Coach Huesman told me before last year if I was serious about wanting to be a coach at this level to prove it to him, so I would come by practice and watch film with the staff and really tried to learn as much as I could.
"I feel like I bring another experience to the staff as a former NFL player and someone who worked my way up through college. I noticed that it's a lot of long hours and hard work for coaches, but I'm ready to get going."
Tenth commitment
UTC got its 10th commitment for the 2015 recuiting class Tuesday afternoon when Macon Westside defensive end Khayyan Edwards (6-3, 220) chose the Mocs over Furman, Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Presbyterian and Charleston Southern.
"They're putting defensive line players into the combine, and that's big for me because I want to go as far as I can," Edwards said. "Plus they're winning a lot of games, and I want to be a part of that."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.