Chattanooga coach knows all about dynasties

You want to talk dynasty? Talk to Russ Huesman, head football coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Huesman played at a bona fide dynasty program in high school. This week he’s been preparing the Mocs for a game against top-ranked Alabama, which is in the midst of its own dynasty run.

Huesman, who played as a defensive back at UTC in college, was at Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller High School in the late 1970s under Gerry Faust, who went on to become head coach at Notre Dame. Huesman played on teams that went 43-0-1, winning a pair of state championships in his time.

“I was right in the middle of the heyday,” he said. “It’s one of those things as a player where you were confident you were going to win each and every week. I remember thinking I want to do everything possible, this is as good as it gets and I want to do my part not to let the program down.

“It’s probably very similar to Alabama right now. At Moeller they were demanding: They weren’t going to let you slide or overlook anybody.”

That’s how Huesman knows that the Crimson Tide isn’t going to look ahead to next weekend’s game against Auburn, even though Chattanooga plays at the Football Championship Subdivision, a level below UA.

“I’m not even sure if they’ve got to focus a whole lot this week,” he said, “but they will. Auburn’s got different players running around than we do, obviously, and Alabama does, too. But they’ll be excited to play, I know that. They want to play up to Alabama standards.”

Faust coached seven undefeated teams at Moeller and five that lost just one game. He never won more than seven games in five seasons at Notre Dame, but Huesman believes his approach was similar to that of Alabama’s Nick Saban in building a prep dynasty.

“We were winning big and winning mythical national championships at the time, and had great players,” Huesman said. “If you look back at that time and Gerry Faust, he was way ahead of his time as far as the organizational aspect. I think Nick Saban is a lot like that, too.

“That’s where Alabama is in keeping the thing going, year-in and year-out. There are some similarities with what Alabama is doing.”

Chattanooga is ranked No. 11 in the FCS coaches poll, but Alabama is No. 1 and in search of another national championship. Huesman admires how UA maintains its level of play.

“You have to guard against that complacency,” he said. “I guess there are a lot of teams throughout the country that have to battle that. Not only Alabama – they’re playing for national championships – but there’s teams playing for conference championships. There’s a lot of coaches that preach that, but I’m not sure anybody preaches it as well as Nick Saban.”