Wiedmer: No matter what he thinks, Huesman won't soon be forgotten

Russ Huesman talks to the media in Thursday at his last press conference Thursday at McKenzie Arena.
Russ Huesman talks to the media in Thursday at his last press conference Thursday at McKenzie Arena.
photo Mark Wiedmer

No college football coach ever has voluntarily exited one job for another with more grace, dignity and humility than departing University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman did Thursday on his way to taking over the Richmond Spiders.

Despite arguably being the most successful coach in UTC history, he even tried to make it sound as if the Mocs might be better off without him.

"I think I'll be forgotten pretty quick," he said when asked about his legacy. "Somebody else will come in here and take it to the next level. I guarantee it. They'll have a fantastic new coach and Chattanooga will be playing for a national championship."

Maybe. But it's doubtful any coach ever will do more to elevate this program than Huesman did in his eight seasons at the helm. Or doesn't anyone remember his first year in 2009, when the Mocs went from 1-11 overall and 0-8 in the Southern Conference the year before he arrived to 6-5 overall and 4-4 in league play?

Said a smiling Huesman of magically turning around his alma mater so quickly on his way to a career mark of 59-37: "It was easy (to be liked) here. Win your second game and everybody's telling you, 'Man, you're a genius.' If you take over a 1-11 team you can become a hero real fast."

But it was what he said concerning his reasons for leaving that make you understand how he succeeded so swiftly against all odds.

Despite Mocs fans telling him the past couple of weeks about how proud they were of UTC's 9-4 season, and its third straight FCS playoff appearance, and its third straight postseason exit by six points or less - and each of those losses preceded by a playoff win - Huesman felt otherwise.

"I was kind of disgusted with 9-4," he said. "I kept thinking, 'Man, you've underachieved.' I thought I'm not doing something right. I started thinking that I didn't want to become stale, that I didn't want my football team to become stale."

Even the best of coaches can stay too long. Or have their fan bases come to believe they have. Think of former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer. Or former Florida State legend Bobby Bowden.

Hard as it is to believe, there was even a time when more than a few Alabama fans thought the game might have passed Bear Bryant by. History shows that was right before the Bear switched to the wishbone, went 107-13 over the next 10 years and pretty much cemented his legacy as the greatest college coach ever, at least until the achievements of current Bama boss Nick Saban.

But Huesman wanted no part of repeating the Fulmer and Bowden departures with Mocs Nation. Best to leave while both parties were still in love with the other.

Especially since Richmond was giving him with a chance to return to the school he helped guide to the 2008 FCS title as a defensive coordinator - that championship ironically won at UTC's Finley Stadium.

"I could have coached here forever and given it my best every day I was here," Huesman said. "I never heard a negative thing. To be appreciated is really cool. But when this opportunity presented itself, there was something about a different challenge, a new lease on life. I feel energized."

He knows energizing Richmond will be tougher. Like the Mocs, the Spiders were also 9-4 and a playoff participant. They're used to winning. The postseason is the least you're expected to achieve at Richmond.

"There's not a grace period there," he said.

But there is a new challenge in an old stomping ground. There's also an annual six-figure pay hike, even if all who know Huesman also know that wasn't anything close to a deciding factor.

"When (Richmond president Dr. Ronald Crutcher) said, 'I really want you to be our fooball coach,' I think that's when I decided to take the job," Huesman said. "I told myself, 'This is a good man. I can work for this man.'"

That said, he quickly pointed out that the toughest part of leaving the Mocs was making a call to UTC chancellor Dr. Steven Angle around 10:30 Tuesday night.

"I thought I was going to throw up," Huesman said. "They (Angle and UTC athletic director David Blackburn) did everything humanly possible to keep me here. What they offered to keep me and my staff here was incredible. It was way more than I'm worth."

But it wasn't enough. And sounding much like Blackburn on the fundraising trail, Huesman said the Mocs will have a hard time enticing enough top athletic talent to reach the next level, whatever that is, until their boosters donate enough money to build a long-overdue athletic training facility.

"I wanted that building to be my legacy," he said. "If they want to be a top-five team every year, building that building is big."

Here's big: When asked if he might encourage some of his current UTC recruits to now sign with Richmond, Huesman said: "I've instructed every one of them, 'You're going to Chattanooga because it's a great place.' That's the only right thing to do."

If and when that athletic facility ever gets built, UTC should name it the Russell F. Huesman Athletic Center. That's the only right thing to do for an alum who brought Mocs football back from its gridiron graveyard.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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