AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Learning Curve

North Alabama’s Mark Hudspeth Has His Own Philosophy That Seems to Always Lead to the Same Thing: Success
by: David Purdum
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

Mark Hudspeth has not wasted any time traveling down his career path. Yet, at each stop along the way – some more rocky than others – he has made sure to slow down, take his time and learn.

“I think it’s very important to focus on the job at hand,” says Hudspeth, now in his third year as head coach at Division II North Alabama. “Concentrate on where you are at and where you are working. Sometimes guys are too busy looking for the next big opportunity, instead of concentrating on where they are at and what they are doing.”

During his 12-year career journey, Coach Hud, who turns 36 in November, has been a strength and conditioning coordinator, a quarterback coach and a wide receiver coach. He’s coached the tight ends and the running backs. He’s won a high school state championship as a head coach at Winston Academy (Miss.) and a Division II National Championship as an offensive coordinator at his alma mater Delta State University. Last season, only his second as a collegiate head coach, he led North Alabama to a Gulf Coast Conference Championship and a school record 11 regular season wins.

But every stop along the way has not been as successful. One year before arriving at UNA, he made his Division I-A debut as offensive coordinator at the Naval Academy. Hudspeth’s one-year stint in Annapolis was possibly the rockiest of his stops. Navy head coach Charlie Weatherbie was let go six games into the season, and the Midshipmen finished at 0-11.

Even though his first Division I-A job was not as successful as he would have liked, what Hudspeth took away from it may turn out to pay bigger dividends. Something like a second Division II national title, this time as a head coach.

“It was an unbelievable experience there at the Naval Academy. I learned an awful lot,” he said. “I’ve really got a lot of respect for the Naval Academy, and the young men and women there.

“To be honest, I really developed a lot of my philosophies from my time there at the Naval Academy, such as the way that we expect our players to go to class. Some schools allow players two or three cuts before they receive punishment or extra running. Here at UNA, we don’t miss class. Missing class is not an option.

“We treat going to class like a job. These guys are on scholarship, and they have a job to do. Their job is to go to class and go to practice. Not only is skipping out on math unacceptable, players must sit in the first two rows of the classroom. The Lions also will be seen opening doors for ladies and professors across campus, as a part of the ‘Gentleman Rule.’

“We’re trying to teach our young men skills and responsibilities that will carry over into their lives after they are finished with college and football,” he said.

“We want to be professional in everything we do, in our appearance and our body language. Your body language tells so much about you, from the way you walk across the street, to the way you sit in class, to the way your teacher perceives you. We always strive to have great body language.”

In Hudspeth’s first season, the Lions suffered through their fourth consecutive losing season, finishing at 4-7. Some tough losses to some good teams, though, had the young coach believing he was on the right track. A tweak here or there was all that was needed to restore a program that owned three national titles and had been the winningest school in the state of Alabama in the 1980 and 90s.

Hudspeth began by changing the Lions’ daily routine. Instead of the usual nighttime study periods, the players now would start their day off by hitting the books at 7:30 a.m. Freshmen and players not on the traveling squad were to lift three days a week at 6 a.m., followed by study sessions.

“In the evenings, we could see our guys getting tired, struggling to stay awake. After you’ve gone a full day, and you finally get a free hour or two, the last thing you want to do is spend it in study hall. We feel like the players are fresher in the mornings. In the mornings, you’re either sleeping or not doing anything, so let’s get up and get the day started right. Now the kids are up, they’re going to be on time for breakfast. It’s just been a great way for us to get our day started.”

Being on time, Hudspeth says, is also a priority. “Our No. 1 motto is ‘to be early is to be on time’; to be on time is to be late and to be late is to be forgotten.” The discipline, which he credits to his one year at Navy, paid off in his second year, on the field and in the classroom.

Led by Harlon Hill Trophy (Division II Player of the Year) winner quarterback Will Hall, the Lions broke 37 school records, three Gulf South Conference records and two Division II national records en route to advancing to the semifinals of the Division II playoffs. Then in the spring, the Lions finished with the highest team G.P.A. in school history.

“We’re pretty excited about that. We have set a goal to break it again this fall,” Hudspeth says. “And we as a coaching staff are going to do everything we can for our young men to make sure we accomplish that.”

Much like his rapid rise through the coaching ranks, Hudspeth’s practices are intense and short, never lasting more than an hour and a half. But in those 90 minutes, a lot gets done. “Our coaching staff works very hard during practice, pushing players in drill transition and between plays. We’re only going to be out there for a little while so we’re going to work at an extremely high pace during that time. Our players know what we expect out of them, and they know we’re not going to be out there long, but we’re going to work hard while we’re out there.”

The Lions run an up-tempo, spread attack, and Hudspeth says practicing the fast-paced offense also serves as conditioning. “We averaged around 90 snaps last year, and we run back to the line of scrimmage after every play, even in practice. We feel like we’re going to be a fresher football team in the fourth quarter, are legs are going to be underneath us.”

Hudspeth also focuses in on ball security. Time is taken out of each practice to work on protecting the football. “It’s one of our top priorities,” Hudspeth said. “A guy will fumble and a coach will get onto him about it or will constantly remind a player to protect the ball, but not really show them how to secure it. We take time out to show them how to secure the football, how to avoid losing it, how to carry it, the pressure points. We even teach how to fall correctly.”

Hands-on coaching is Hudspeth’s preference. He says as a coach he learns better from “on the grass demonstrations” than in a classroom. While he admits, diagraming plays on the chalkboard can be effective, he prefers to show players and coaches what he’s looking for. “I like for a coach to take me out on the grass and show me, teach me like I’m a player. A lot of times a coach will bring you in and draw it up on the chalkboard, but I love going out on the grass with other coaches and actually demonstrating, or letting me do the demonstrations; I can act like I’m the player. It’s a lot easier to transfer information once you have actually done it.”

A four-year letterman at Delta State from 1987-91, Hudspeth led the Statesmen in interceptions as a junior safety. Then in his senior year he was moved to quarterback, more out of necessity rather than talent.

“I was always a team player, whatever it took to help the team. That’s one concept I truly believe in,” he said. “I would never ask a player to do something that I would not be willing to do myself.

“I was on the scout team for two years. I had moved positions four or five times. It helped me understand what players are going through once you bring them into your office to discuss a position change or role change.”

Honesty is the key, Hudspeth says, when it comes to moving a player to another position or relegating them to the scout team.”Kids just want to be told the truth. We’re very honest with our young men, and I think kids can handle the truth.

“Whether it be putting them on the scout team or just moving them to another position, we’re doing it for a reason. We’re doing it to help our football team.” Having played only skilled positions, Hudspeth said the hardest position to learn to coach was the offensive line. He coached wide receivers and quarterbacks as a graduate assistant at Central Arkansas (1992-93). He added to his resume by coaching the running backs at Nicholls State in 1994-95. But when he took over as head coach at Winston Academy, he had to learn how to coach the offensive line.

“Being a skilled player, often times that’s the one position that unless you’ve played it, you’re probably not going to feel as comfortable coaching,” he said. “When I became head coach at Winston Academy, I had to coach the offensive line. I probably learned more those two years coaching the offensive line than at any other time. And we had some very good offensive lines.”

Hudspeth said the best way to learn how to coach a new position or one that he is less familiar with, is get in there and actually perform the task you’re asking the player to perform. “Maybe a guy gets moved from coaching the wide receivers or running backs to the offensive line. The best thing for this, a lot of times, is actually doing that. As a coach you can learn easier with a hands on approach.”

Whatever he did worked, as Winston Academy never lost a regular season game in Hudspeth’s two years there, winning the state championship in 1997.






NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved