Healy headed to Chattanooga with former D-coordinator

Former senior football captain Will Healy will be named Friday as either the tight end or running back coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he confirmed in an e-mail to The Collegian.

He is following former University of Richmond defensive coordinator Russ Huesman, who accepted the head coaching position at Chattanooga -- his alma mater -- just days after Richmond won its first NCAA national championship there by beating the University of Montana 24-7 on Dec. 19.

The announcement will be made at a 1 p.m. press conference on Friday.

"I am excited to have this opportunity and to be able to stay in my hometown," Healy, a Chattanooga, Tenn., native, wrote in the e-mail early Friday morning. "I feel very confident that coach Huesman will try to use the same things that coach [Mike] London has used to make Richmond so successful."

Healy, who graduated Dec. 10, said he was looking forward to keeping up with the Spiders and called London "the ideal guy to work and play for."

He wrote in a Dec. 22 blog post that he eventually wanted to return to Richmond to coach the team to another national title, repeating those intentions in the e-mail.

Healy, one of four captains, entered the national championship game as quarterback on the final two plays, kneeling on both to solidify the Spiders' victory in front of his hometown fans.

"It was unreal to be in my hometown and to win a national championship with those group of guys and coaches," he wrote. "It's the best group of guys in the nation."

Contact staff writer Dan Petty at dan.petty@richmond.edu