GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- When Mark Hudsepth accepted the head
football job at North Alabama last year, he knew he was expected to
win.
"UNA fans have been spoiled," Hudsepth said. "Any time you
win three straight national championships, people get used to
winning. They have high expectations here."
Hudsepth is two victories away from meeting those expectations.
The second-year coach is the catalyst in UNA's biggest
turnaround in school history. After a 4-7 record last year,
Hudsepth has led the Lions to a 13-0 record entering Saturday's
NCAA Division II semifinal playoff game against the University of
North Dakota.
A win Saturday would advance UNA into next week's Division II
championship game in Florence, Ala., the Lions' home.
UNA was the king of Division II football in the mid-1990s. The
Lions won national titles in 1993, 1994 and 1995. UNA qualified for
the playoffs again in 1997 but did not reach the postseason until
this year.
In football-rich Alabama, that's too long of a wait -- especially
for a program that had the state's best collegiate winning
percentage (70.1) during the 1980s and 1990s.
The Lions were 3-7 and 4-7 in the two seasons prior to
Hudsepth's arrival. But things began to change for the better last
season.
"Last year, we were really close," Hudsepth said of his team's
performance. "We took a Division I-AA team (Samford) into
overtime. We didn't win. If we had won that game, maybe we would
have had more confidence to do better the rest of the season."
UNA's turnaround this season centers on the program's first
recruiting class.
"We signed 30 players in our first class," Hudsepth said.
"And we started four true freshmen on both sides of the ball last
year. Now, they have 24 games under their belts."
UNA's resurgence has been led by senior quarterback Will Hall, a
Harlon Hill Award finalist as the top player in Division II.
It's also been helped by sophomore running back DeMarcus Blount,
who has rushed 153 times for 855 yards and 16 touchdowns, sophomore
receiver Marcus Lewis , with 33 catches for 548 yards, and
sophomore linebacker Donald Tharpe, the team's leading tackler with
73.
"The one thing we tried to recruit was speed," Hudsepth said
of his first class. We didn't feel we had a lot of speed when we
got here."
UNA's speed is complemented by the play of Hall, a 5-foot-8,
184-pound senior.
He leads the country in passing efficiency, after completing 237
of 330 passes (71.8 percent) for 3,194 yards and 28 touchdowns
against seven interceptions. In his two seasons at UNA, the junior
college transfer has thrown for 5,829 yards, a school record.
The Lions run a spread offense, one that uses the controlled
passing game.
"We run out of the shotgun about 80 percent of the time,"
Hudsepth said. "And we'll utilize four receivers most of the time.
But we try to be as balanced as we can We feel like we have two
very good running backs (Blount and Randy Vickers). We want the
ball in their hands."
Defensively, UNA runs a three-man front, backed by small, quick
linebackers. Tharpe is 5-10, and weighs 205 pounds. Courtney
Wright, another 205-pound sophomore linebacker, has made 59
tackles.
UNA's season hit high gear after it upset No. 1 Valdosta (Ga.)
State on Nov. 1. The 17-10 road victory served notice that the
Lions were back in the national picture.
After that win, UNA has averaged 45.3 points per game, which
includes last week's 41-9 quarterfinal playoff win against
perennial Division II power Carson-Newman.
Hudsepth was the offensive coordinator at Delta State when the
Statesmen won the 2000 national title, which included a playoff win
against North Dakota State.
From there, he served as Navy's offensive coordinator for one
year before taking the UNA job.
"You never set an exact timetable for success," Hudsepth said
of his UNA expectations. "But we wanted to get to the playoffs as
fast as we could."