UTC Coach Offered Richmond Job

[VolnJC]

Richmond: Tennessee Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman has been offered the Richmond head coaching position reports Paul Shahen, who adds that UTC has “made a lucrative counter offer.” Shahen reports that a decision is expected soon. We’ll keep you posted…

 

[05_never_again]

Looks like we'll have a former FB coach in the City of Richmond to go along with a former BB coach.

 

[butchna]

Is that a better job? :huh: Huesman has Chattanooga ties, so I'd think it would have to be.

 

[05_never_again]

Is that a better job? :huh: Huesman has Chattanooga ties, so I'd think it would have to be.

I think it would be. UTC's football program had been absolutely awful since about the late 70s/early 80s until Huseman showed up (no playoff appearances between 1984 and 2014). It has historically been a basketball school. It has no dedicated team facility for football but does play in a nice, large stadium downtown (not on campus) that used to host the FCS title game. By any account he's done an outstanding job at UTC but I wonder if the program (not him as a coach) has hit a ceiling and can't really go any further.

Richmond has been a much better football program in their history and also is offering to roughly double his pay. He's a UTC alum so it is not like it would be easy for him to go but I bet he will.

 

[tnburban]

The Colonial conference is pretty tough. Southern conference got a whole lot easier in the last 3 years with Appy St and Georgia Southern moving to D1. That's gotta factor into UTC's recent success, as Ga Southern and Appy State ruled that conference for a long time.

Going to the Colonial, he's got much tougher competition, but might have better facilities and other things to lure recruits. JMU and Villanova have been strong, plus Maine and Towson have been decent in past years.

I'd say it's like moving from the Big 12 to the SEC.

 

[maotai]

The Colonial conference is pretty tough. Southern conference got a whole lot easier in the last 3 years with Appy St and Georgia Southern moving to D1. That's gotta factor into UTC's recent success, as Ga Southern and Appy State ruled that conference for a long time.

Going to the Colonial, he's got much tougher competition, but might have better facilities and other things to lure recruits. JMU and Villanova have been strong, plus Maine and Towson have been decent in past years.

I'd say it's like moving from the Big 12 to the SEC.

One thing he will not have to deal with is the whole love/hate relationship UTC has going on with the city of Chattanooga and surrounding areas.

 

[05_never_again]

One thing he will not have to deal with is the whole love/hate relationship UTC has going on with the city of Chattanooga and surrounding areas.

Yeah. Chattanooga is at an SEC crossroads and is a basketball school. It is a Tennessee town but there are a lot of Georgia and Alabama fans here mixed in with some Auburn and Florida. On a college football Saturday, next to nobody cares about UTC here.

It is difficult for the city to care about UTC football even if they are doing really well. I am a UTC alum and couldn't care less about their football program. Honestly. I'm not even a huge college basketball fan but I care more about their basketball program than football.

 

[tnburban]

One thing he will not have to deal with is the whole love/hate relationship UTC has going on with the city of Chattanooga and surrounding areas.

Now that you bring that up, I can see why Richmond would be attractive. While I'm not a UTC or Chatt resident, I did live in Johnson City for awhile and got my undergrad from ETSU. I'm sure the sentiment is the same at UTC as it was at ETSU. Attendance was weak, local coverage was blah, student involvement was meh, just an overall "oh, there's a game today?" kinda attitude.

Didn't help matters at ETSU that the dome there was probably the worst place to watch a game ever in the history of football. I mean it was awful. The sight lines were horrible, you couldn't see the near sideline at all. The acoustics were terrible. Whoever designed that thing for football should have their architect license revoked.

Glad to see the current admin figured it out and the reboot program is playing outdoors.

 

[orangefreak21]

Richmond: Tennessee Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman has been offered the Richmond head coaching position reports Paul Shahen, who adds that UTC has “made a lucrative counter offer.” Shahen reports that a decision is expected soon. We’ll keep you posted…

Lol UTC counter was lucrative? It was ~300k

Richmond is offering 400k+

His current at UTC is just around 230k

 

[orangefreak21]

Is that a better job? :huh: Huesman has Chattanooga ties, so I'd think it would have to be.

UTC alma mater

Won a National championship with Richmond as Defensive Coordinator.

Richmond can almost double his current salary. We'll see.

I think Huesman can win at any of the FCS places. He's a good coach. I'm biased towards Chattanooga so I hesitate to say "better job" but Richmond for sure pays more.

 

[05_never_again]

Now that you bring that up, I can see why Richmond would be attractive. While I'm not a UTC or Chatt resident, I did live in Johnson City for awhile and got my undergrad from ETSU. I'm sure the sentiment is the same at UTC as it was at ETSU. Attendance was weak, local coverage was blah, student involvement was meh, just an overall "oh, there's a game today?" kinda attitude.

Didn't help matters at ETSU that the dome there was probably the worst place to watch a game ever in the history of football. I mean it was awful. The sight lines were horrible, you couldn't see the near sideline at all. The acoustics were terrible. Whoever designed that thing for football should have their architect license revoked.

Glad to see the current admin figured it out and the reboot program is playing outdoors.

Yep. UTC football will never be popular. Even if they made a run to the FCS Championship people wouldn't care. It is just dwarfed by Tennessee and the rest of the SEC schools.

UTC actually does have a nice stadium and attendance isn't that bad. It just looks bad because the stadium seats over 20k.

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

Lol UTC counter was lucrative? It was ~300k

Richmond is offering 400k+

His current at UTC is just around 230k

You can chop a good $20k off the Richmond offer due to VA state income tax. Also, Chattanooga cost of living rates about 88% of US average while Richmond is at 98%.

 

[orangefreak21]

Huesman taking the Richmond job.

 

[maotai]

Now that you bring that up, I can see why Richmond would be attractive. While I'm not a UTC or Chatt resident, I did live in Johnson City for awhile and got my undergrad from ETSU. I'm sure the sentiment is the same at UTC as it was at ETSU. Attendance was weak, local coverage was blah, student involvement was meh, just an overall "oh, there's a game today?" kinda attitude.

Didn't help matters at ETSU that the dome there was probably the worst place to watch a game ever in the history of football. I mean it was awful. The sight lines were horrible, you couldn't see the near sideline at all. The acoustics were terrible. Whoever designed that thing for football should have their architect license revoked.

Glad to see the current admin figured it out and the reboot program is playing outdoors.

It was very similar to that when I was going to UTC. It has changed in recent years due to the team winning and the administration pulling the whole university out of the dump. But it is still no where near what it could be with a city the size of Chattanooga. Huesman has made comments over the years about how disappointed he has been with attendance,especially at the home playoff games.

 

[05_never_again]

It was very similar to that when I was going to UTC. It has changed in recent years due to the team winning and the administration pulling the whole university out of the dump. But it is still no where near what it could be with a city the size of Chattanooga. Huesman has made comments over the years about how disappointed he has been with attendance,especially at the home playoff games.

And I understand his frustration, but I don't really think he helped his case when he complained about that. He has complained about attendance generally as well, which I think he is a little out of pocket about doing because UTC's attendance is actually pretty good relative to other schools in the conference. It's just that Finley Stadium seats 20k and if the stadium is 40-50% full (which it usually is) it looks like nobody is there.

The home playoff game is in a tough spot because I believe it always ended up falling on Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of people are out of town (especially in a city like Chattanooga), it was cold and rainy, and it is rivalry weekend in FBS. Way too easy to just stay at home or have an excuse not to go. Only the die hards went to the playoff games.

Chattanooga is also not a college town. It is not a big city and UTC is a moderate sized college, but the city has never revolved around the university.