Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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80 MARCH 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI F ollowing the second comple- tion of a four-year run — lit- erally and figuratively — at Notre Dame, running backs coach Autry Denson began the next chapter in his football life when he was introduced Jan. 17 as the head coach at Football Championship Sub- division school Charleston Southern. "It's a God thing," the 42-year-old Denson said of the next phase of his career. "There's no fancy answer that I can tell you why I am here. It's God's purpose for my life. I am so ex- cited to be able to have this opportu- nity to put my stamp on something. "My 'why' has always been to go where God sent me. When you un- derstand my why, you can under- stand why I am able to leave Notre Dame for this unbelievable opportu- nity at Charleston Southern." Prior to his 2015-18 stint at Notre Dame, Denson had coached at South Florida, Bethune-Cookman and Mi- ami (Ohio). Charleston Southern competes in the Big South Conference, which it joined in 2002, and Denson is the football team's fifth head coach. The Buccaneers became a full Division I member in 1993. They won the Big South Conference in both 2015 and 2016, advancing to the FCS playoffs for the first time. They lost in the quarterfinals in 2015 and in the first round in 2016. Last October, the NCAA an- nounced that the Buccaneers will be placed on two years probation when an investigation revealed that the school improperly certified 55 student-athletes in 12 different sports over a six-year period. The penalty also included the loss of six scholar- ships for the football team over the next two seasons, although it is still eligible for postseason play through the probationary period. D e n s o n ' s p re d e c e s s o r, M a r k Tucker, resigned in December after a two-year record of 11-11. He had been with the program for six years. Charleston Southern director of athletics Jeff Barber said that the wait for Denson following Notre Dame's College Football Playoff loss to Clem- son Dec. 29 was worth it. "There was a lot of work involved and we had some natural delays with the holidays and the bowl season," Barber said. "At the end of the day, I do believe that any of the three can- didates that we interviewed on cam- pus would have been really good football coaches here. "Autry has something about him. What you see with Autry is real. I talked with Lou Holtz, Steve Spur- rier, Urban Meyer and, of course, Brian Kelly and everyone said the same thing. He's one of the best peo- ple you will ever meet. He is real and he's exactly what you see." Still the all-time leading rusher for the Fighting Irish during his playing career from 1995-98 with 4,318 yards — not including three bowl games, which weren't included back then — Denson joined head coach Brian Kel- ly's staff in 2015 after 2009-14 Irish assistant Tony Alford accepted a post at Ohio State. While at his alma ma- ter, Denson maximized the skills of numerous Notre Dame ball carriers: • Following an injury to starter Tarean Folston on his third carry to open the 2015 season, senior and former safety and wide receiver C.J. Prosise finished with 1,032 yards on the ground for the 10-3 team to become a third-round selection in the NFL. That same year, freshman Josh Adams romped for 835 rush- ing yards, the most ever by a Notre Dame rookie. • During the 2017 campaign in which Notre Dame's 269.5 yards rushing per game were the highest at the school in 21 years, Adams' 1,430 yards on the ground were the fourth most (when including bowl games for all) in school history, leading to him turning pro early and rushing for more than 500 yards this season as a rookie for the Philadelphia Ea- gles. The 6.3 yards per carry Denson's running backs averaged in 2017 not only shattered the modern-day school record of 5.63 set in his first season (2015), but it also broke the all-time school standard of 6.2 set way back in 1921. • This past season, senior Dexter Williams — who totaled only 641 rushing yards through his first three seasons — racked up 995 rushing yards despite missing the first four games because of a suspension. He averaged 6.3 yards per carry to go with 12 touchdowns. Especially amazing is in each of the last two years a Notre Dame running back has not lost a fumble. Denson is the fifth Irish assistant under Kelly to be named a head coach. The others were Charley Molnar (Massachusetts in 2012-13), Bob Diaco (Connecticut in 2014-16), Chuck Martin, who is still at Miami (Ohio) after taking the post in 2014, and Mike Sanford, who was at West- ern Kentucky from 2016-17 before getting fired and taking a post as of- fensive coordinator at Utah State. ✦ A NEW RUNNING START Autry Denson is named the head coach at Charleston Southern Denson is the fifth Notre Dame assistant under Brian Kelly to be named a head coach. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL