Football: Hudspeth elated he stayed with UL – Hudspeth says he turned down offer from Tulane

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, October 6, 2012

He had a chance to coach Tulane, the Conference USA team his own from the Sun Belt will play today.

But UL Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth decided to turn down a contract offer from the Green Wave late last year, he said this week, partly because of how strongly he feels about the possibilities at UL.

Not-yet-revealed plans for Cajun Field stadium-expansion and UL football facility-improvement plans also played a role.

"To be honest with you," said Hudspeth, who hadn’t previously publicly acknowledged the Tulane offer, "it was a couple things.

"One is the family really loves this community, and that’s the truth. "» Secondly, I just think this university is going places."

Last November, late in a 2011 regular season that led to a New Orleans Bowl bid for a Cajun club that hadn’t been to a postseason game since 1970, Hudspeth’s name surfaced with regard to the Ole Miss job that ultimately went to ex-Arkansas State coach Hugh Freeze.

Hudspeth pulled his name from consideration for the Rebel vacancy in late November, shortly after word leaked that he had met with one or more Ole Miss search committee members.

Around the same time, Hudspeth emerged as top candidate for the Tulane job in New Orleans that ultimately went to Curtis Johnson, the New Orleans Saints’ wide receivers coach from 2006-11.

Rather than accept Tulane’s offer, however, Hudspeth wound up signing a renegotiated five-year, $3.75 million contract designed to keep him at UL through at least 2016.

That agreement was reached, the Cajun coach said, after he "sat down" with UL president Joseph Savoie and athletic director Scott Farmer.

"They convinced me that our place, our university, our athletic department, is just going places," said Hudspeth, who left his position as Mississippi State’s passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach to succeed the fired Rickey Bustle as UL’s coach in December 2010.

"And I really feel like that we have a direction, we have a future, with a masterplan now that’s fixing to be unveiled.

"Now, with success we’re having football-wise, you know, I feel like we’ve started something," added Hudspeth, whose Cajuns are 3-1 this season and finished 9-4 in 2011 with a New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State. "I always like to finish what I started. And I would like to sort of build my own program."

Hudspeth, whose Cajuns put their seven-game home win streak under him on the line today against 0-4 Tulane, also liked the idea of staying in a conference whose teams finished 5-3 vs. Conference USA members in 2011.

Sun Belt teams have are 8-18 against teams from other FBS conferences in 2012, including wins by UL Monroe over Arkansas of the SEC (the Sun Belt’s first-ever win against a Top Ten opponent), by Western Kentucky over Kentucky of the SEC and by Middle Tennessee over Georgia Tech of the ACC.

That also includes a 5-1 record against Conference USA teams so far this season.

The Sun Belt, which is adding Georgia State and Texas State as football-playing members in 2013, will lose Florida International and North Texas to Conference USA after the season.

Conference USA, meanwhile, will be soon be losing Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and SMU to the Big East, and also will add Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio next football season, Charlotte for football in 2014 and Old Dominion for football in 2015.

The head-to-head records and all the movement has Hudspeth convinced he made the right decision by turning down Tulane.

"Now," he said this week, "it’s looking like the Sun Belt is a way-better conference than Conference USA."

All that leaves Hudspeth, who has been a head coach or assistant at five different college programs now, without a shadow of a doubt that he made the correct call.

"We are 100 percent so-tickled-to-death we decided to stay," he said. "We’ve got so many friends here, and we just enjoy the quality of life here, and the fan support.

"It was the right move for us."

Or, in this case, the right non-move.

"I’ve never been more content," Hudspeth said, "about being in a place in my life."

Hudspeth says he turned down offer from Tulane

He had a chance to coach Tulane, the Conference USA team his own from the Sun Belt will play Saturday.

But Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth decided to turn down a contract offer from the Green Wave late last year, he said this week, partly because of how strongly he feels about the possibilities at UL.

Not-yet-revealed plans for Cajun Field stadium-expansion and UL football facility-improvement plans also played a role.

“To be honest with you,” said Hudspeth, who hadn’t previously publicly acknowledged the Tulane offer, “it was a couple things.

“One is the family really loves this community, and that’s the truth. … Secondly, I just think this university is going places.”