UTC head football coach Russ Huesman chats with attendees at a national signing day event at Finley Stadium on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Russ Huesman's morning started out interestingly enough.
The head coach arrived at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football offices, ready to receive the national letters of intent for 15 future Mocs.
He did that, but not without some speedbumps along the way.
First, there was the issue of the fax machine. The main one - the one the coaching staff had told the recruits to send their signed paperwork to - had a problem, so staff members were running around and trying to find different fax machines to receive the NLIs.
They got that issue fixed fairly quickly, but then there was a problem with Jalen Harvey's letter of intent.
The 6-foot-3, 315-pounder, whom the coaches were most worried about securing since he had made recent visits to FBS member Georgia Southern and Jacksonville State, signed his letter of intent early in the day. Only his parents, who were in Las Vegas on a mini-vacation, hadn't.
It took a couple of hours and a number of phone calls, but Harvey's dad finally was able to get his part done, which solidified the Mocs' class.
"You get those every year," Huesman said. "When I found out they were going to be in Vegas, I decided I was going to coordinate the thing and didn't think twice about it."
The UTC coaching staff was able to secure all of their commitments to this signing class despite losing recruiting coordinator Will Healy - who left to become Austin Peay's head coach - and defensive line coach Marcus West, who joined Healy at the Clarksville school as the co-defensive coordinator. The Mocs lost defensive end Cole Strange, who flipped to Air Force late in the process, but other than the Harvey mini-fiasco, Wednesday went off without a hitch, prompting some of the coaches to say it was as smooth of a signing day as they've been a part of.
"The last 72 hours before signing day are the hardest, because you can work on a kid and have him committed for nine months and it can all blow up in 72 hours," Huesman said. "I woke up this morning, and normally you know when you've got them. It's the Monday and Tuesday before that are the toughest to deal with."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.