Princeton names Hughes new football coach

After an off year in Old Nassau, the Tigers named Dartmouth offensive coordinator Roger Hughes their coach. PRINCETON, N.J. -- Steve Tosches made the holiday season hectic for athletic officials at Princeton. After 13 years at the helm of Tigers football, Tosches resigned the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and set an aggressive holiday-season search process into motion. That process culminated last Thursday in the naming of Roger Hughes, formerly the offensive coordinator at Dartmouth, as the 21st coach in the program's history. Princeton Athletic Director Gary Walters, who made the announcement before reporters in the press box at Princeton Stadium, seemed relieved to bring the selection process to a close and spoke glowingly of Hughes. "In the eyes of the alumni, the deans, the faculty and the administrators, coach Hughes has outstanding credentials and qualities and impressive academic achievement that reflects his commitment to education and serves as an example for our student-athletes," Walters said. Hughes had been the Big Green's offensive coordinator since 1992, helping Dartmouth to win Ivy championships in 1992 and 1996. He coached players who set 14 of the school's 15 single-game passing and total yardage records. He has never, however, been a head coach at any level. "It's just a little bit overwhelming since I've never been a head coach before," Hughes said. "I think that I've studied the game enough and am ready." Hughes, 40, has an infectious excitement about taking the reins at Old Nassau. Even though his appointment comes at an odd time of the year, Princeton players appear pleased with the decision to go with the soft-spoken native of Crawford, Neb. "He seems like a very social guy. He wants to be there for us as players as well as people," said Michael Higgins, next year's Princeton captain. "That's a quality you want to have." Although Hughes fits right into the Ivy League atmosphere, he claims that "quite frankly, I never dreamed that I'd be an Ivy League assistant." Hughes' background fits very well with the unique blend of academics and athletics that any Ancient Eight team desires to strike. He has a varied and illustrious career on the playing field and sidelines, as well as a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Nebraska. A football coach with a doctorate is an oddity, but surprisingly enough, Hughes got part of his inspiration for the advanced degree from another overqualified head man. "I got the Ph.D. because I'm a driven person and because I want to be the best. At one time in my life I was interested in medicine, and exercise physiology goes together with that," Hughes said. "The other influence was [former Cornhusker football coach] Tom Osborne. He has his doctorate and, certainly with the faculty at Nebraska, that gave him instant credibility." On the football side of things, Hughes got started with a stellar playing career at tight end for Doane College in Crete, Neb., where he also played golf before graduating in 1982. From Doane, Hughes went on to Nebraska as a graduate assistant, earning his doctorate and leading the Cornhuskers to the 1984 Sugar Bowl and 1985 Fiesta Bowl. After a subsequent stint at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Hughes spent three years as offensive coordinator at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. He then left the West for the permafrost of New Hampshire and John Lyons' staff at Dartmouth. Hughes feels indebted to his boss in Hanover. "He taught me how to relate to people and how to put things together," Hughes said. "He told me not to turn into a jerk head coach. [He said,] 'I'm going to be at the Ivy League meetings with you, and I want to have fun.'" Watch for Hughes to continue much of the offensive work that he spearheaded at Dartmouth. Under Hughes, the Big Green saw both fantastic success in the Jay Fiedler glory years and as recently as 1996, as well as terrible frustration last season, when Dartmouth was dead last in the Ivies in total offense with an average of 267.90 total yards per game. "I want to try to continue some of the things we did at Dartmouth because I think they're hard to defend," Hughes said. "First of all, I believe in a lot of formations and motion. I also believe in creating mismatches and leverage problems." Hughes is not yet decided on how he will go about filling the Princeton coaching staff. He will first interview all of the remaining assistants and then make decisions from there. He is, as yet, unsure whether he will serve as his own offensive coordinator. Though the makeup of his staff is still in question, Hughes is certain that he's intrigued about being in close proximity to Philadelphia and a rivalry that may play out at with the Quakers. "I think both of us compete for similar kids and have similar recruiting areas," Hughes said. "Al Bagnoli's done a great job at Penn. I'm looking forward to that rivalry, because Dartmouth doesn't have a close rival other than Harvard." The folks at Old Nassau hope that Hughes' enthusiasm will translate into an improvement over the Tigers' unimpressive 3-7 1999 campaign.

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