Russ Huesman repeatedly tells his football players – and the parents of his players – not to cry on senior day.
This week, though, his own emotions might get the best of him.
Speaking after this past Saturday’s loss at Mercer about this Saturday’s senior day activities – when he will have to introduce nine University of Tennessee at Chattanooga players for their final regular-season game, and possibly their final time, on Davenport Field at Finley Stadium – he was hit with the realization that the career of his son, quarterback Jacob, is coming to an end.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Coach Huesman said, “I tell these guys, ‘Tell your parents not to cry.’ I tell them, ‘You don’t cry – you’ve had great careers,’ but I don’t know if I’ll cry or not as a parent. I tell them that all the time because you can get too emotional going into that game, and I don’t know how I’ll feel at that time – I really hadn’t thought about it – but it’ll be emotional for sure.
“I’m finally putting myself in this situation that I get nervous about with all the players and the parents going through this thing, but obviously there’s going to be a great group of seniors lined up out there. I’m going to be sad to see all of them go.”