Princeton names Hughes head football coach
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Roger Hughes responds to questions at a January 14 press conference. (Photo by Mike Zulla) |
He holds the title Charles W. Caldwell Jr. Head Coach of Football.
At Dartmouth Hughes helped the Big Green to Ivy League championships in 1992 and 1996 and coached players who set 14 of the top 15 school single-game passing and total yardage records, as well as four of the top five single-season totals. The 1996 team went 10-0, one of three teams in league history to do so.
"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 reflect his commitment to education and serves as an example for our student-athletes," said Gary Walters, director of athletics. "He has tremendously relevant Ivy League experience as a coordinator and quarterbacks coach, as well as important leadership and communication skills that will enable him to recruit effectively and promote the intergration of the football program within the athletic department and the University as a whole."
Hughes, who grew up in Crawford, Neb., attended Doane College, where he played football as a tight end and graduated in 1982. The following year he began his coaching career at Doane while beginning graduate work at the University of Nebraska. He moved to Lincoln as a graduate assistant, helping the Cornhuskers to the 1984 Sugar Bowl and the 1985 Fiesta Bowl, and earning his PhD in exercise physiology in 1987.
His career then took him to the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater as running backs coach and Cameron University in Lawton, Okla., where he was offensive coordinator and strength and conditioning coach before going to Dartmouth in 1992.
At Princeton, says Hughes, "I sense a hunger for commitment, a hunger for excellence. I'm really excited about the attitude of the team and where we can go."
"The Princeton Football Association is 150 percent behind the selection of Coach Hughes," says PFA president and former All-American Stas Maliszewski '66. "He is an excellent choice, and we're very excited about it."
Hughes's wife Laura is a certified public accountant; they have a four-year-old daughter Maddison.
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