UTC coach Russ Huesman lit a fuse under the defensive unit during practice Tuesday.About midway through Tuesday afternoon’s practice, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman had seen enough.
Fed up with what he felt was a lack of effort and enthusiasm from the defense, the old defensive coordinator took it upon himself to light that unit’s fuse.
After a touchdown pass on the third play of a team drill, Coach Huesman started from the offensive sideline and began walking across the field toward the defense, yelling at defenders with nearly every step. As he turned to walk back toward the middle of the field, Huesman stopped and yelled back at specific defenders for what he termed “not competing all camp!”
“Jacob [Huesman, the quarterback] overthrows two balls so our defense is like, ‘All right, we won two,’ but we didn’t do a thing to win them. And then they come out and pop that touchdown and everybody stares at it. That’s when I went off. It’s unacceptable. The defense thinks we’re winning 2-1 but I told them no, we’re losing 7-0, brother!
“They came out, the life, the excitement level was not there. I was more embarrassed by the lack of effort on that play: That’s what really got me going there.”