Mike Houston's Road To Glory
JMU coach Mike Houston is drenched with Gatorade following his team's win in the FCS championship game last week at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
Associated Press
Greg Madia
Publisher
HARRISONBURG — He didn’t enter the profession to win championships.
Mike Houston had other motivations.
“When I was coaching at T.C. Roberson High School, I thought it was the best job in the world,” James Madison’s first-year coach said just a few days removed from hoisting the FCS national championship trophy.
His Dukes knocked off Youngstown State 28-14 on Saturday at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, to win the second national title in school history.
It’s the first national championship Houston has won in his career — one that began as an assistant at Forbush High School in East Bend, N.C., after his college playing days at Mars Hill University were over.
T.C. Roberson High School in Asheville, N.C., gave him his first opportunity to be a head coach after spending five seasons as the high school’s defensive coordinator.
From there, he climbed the ladder and got to the college level. He worked at Brevard College and Lenoir-Rhyne as an assistant before L-R promoted him to head coach. Then it was a two-year stint at The Citadel before getting the JMU job.
“Winning a championship is probably second or third on the agenda for me,” Houston said. “But the number one thing is the relationship you have with the kids. It’s the ability to have a guy that comes in and maybe doesn’t come from a great background or doesn’t have the brightest future if it weren’t for football, and to see that young man graduate from college.
“That’s the biggest thing. It’s the development of the kids.”
And that’s where Houston got it right.
He took a group of players that had seen a fair share of changes in their college careers and built trust with them in order to win a national championship.
Ex-JMU coach Mickey Matthews recruited most of the fourth- and fifth-year players on the roster. Those players had to adapt when Everett Withers, who now is at Texas State, held the head gig at Madison in 2014 and 2015. Countless assistant coaches rolled through Harrisonburg, too.
In less than a year, Houston and his staff created an effective connection to their players.
“When I first came in under Coach Matthews, I learned that I had to take care of myself. Then, with Coach Withers, I learned how to survive because he had us go through some hard times,” JMU senior receiver Brandon Ravenel said in late November. “And then when Coach Houston and his staff came in, Coach Houston taught me how to be a man and that’ll be something I take with me for the rest of my life.”
Houston walks JMU's practice field on the first day of August training camp.
Nikki Fox/DN-R
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said he was surprised at just how fast Houston garnered trust from the team.
“It says a lot about Mike’s personality because it’s difficult to rally young people together, especially when they’ve been through change,” Bourne said. “It was an incredible sense of synergy and bonding that went on and I give the staff a tremendous amount of credit in instilling that in this year’s squad.”
It of course helped that Houston and his staff knew what they were doing.
Houston leaned on offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick to blend a hodgepodge of philosophies to create a single identity. Kirkpatrick incorporated some his schemes from his time working in the air-raid offense at East Carolina along with run-game coordinator Bryan Stinespring’s experience with the run-pass option while all along never forgetting Houston’s desire to keep the foundation of a tough, run-first offense.
On defense, Houston and coordinator Bob Trott led the turnaround for a unit that showed its dominance in the postseason.
Houston said one of the biggest adjustments the defense made was moving to man coverage in the secondary later in the year.
“You look at the Sam Houston State game — we played man and man-free virtually the whole game. That’s why they couldn’t throw the ball,” Houston said. “We had the ability to match up four corners on the field with their receivers, which no one all year had done with them. But I think we were playing more tight coverage late in the year than early in the year, but also primarily I think players had the trust and belief in the scheme.”
His emphasis for strong special teams paid dividends, too. Madison scored three special teams touchdowns in four postseason games.
“I first met Mike back when I was coaching at North Carolina in the early to mid-2000s. I recruited his area,” Pittsburgh special teams coordinator Andre Powell said in December. “I always thought his teams were well coached. He used to come over and work our camp, too.
“I’ve known him for a long time and Mike is a good football coach.”
Houston said all of JMU’s special teams systems stem from his time as a high school coach and learning from his conversations with Powell.
“Him being a defensive guy and me being an offensive guy, I’d like to pick his brain and he’d like to pick mine,” Powell said. “He knew I coached special teams, too, and it was just one of those discussions that led to more and more discussion.”
Houston has come far since being the high school coach that college coaches visited when they wanted a tip on a prospect.
The Dukes coach said his championship victory is still starting to sink in.
“That’s the true blessing of my career,” he said. “Every job that I’ve had has been the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve had no desire to be anywhere else other than where I’m at, at that moment. That’s something some coaches struggle with and I’m blessed to have that opinion and connection of everything because I think it brings happiness.”
He added that he could see parallels between his championship club at JMU to the successful high school teams he led at T. C. Roberson.
Houston molded both groups of players — albeit at much different levels — into winners.
“T. C. Roberson was a place that had never had a whole lot of success in football, but you had a really good community that supported the program and you knew you had a bunch of kids that were excited about being good and worked hard at it,” he said.
“And I think there are parallels in that the players were hungry to be good. The players at JMU were hungry to be good. The players at T. C. Robertson were hungry to be good. You had great support from the administration and the fans at both places. I think those parallels are important and have been a key to it all.”
His players, like sophomore cornerback Jimmy Moreland, who earned a second chance at football from Houston, would tell you the key was the effort Houston made to forge strong relationships with each individual.
“After the game, Coach Houston came up to me and told me how proud he was of me. It made everything worthwhile,” Moreland said.
JMU coach Mike Houston is drenched with Gatorade following his team's win in the FCS championship game last week at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
Associated Press
Greg Madia
Publisher
HARRISONBURG — He didn’t enter the profession to win championships.
Mike Houston had other motivations.
“When I was coaching at T.C. Roberson High School, I thought it was the best job in the world,” James Madison’s first-year coach said just a few days removed from hoisting the FCS national championship trophy.
His Dukes knocked off Youngstown State 28-14 on Saturday at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, to win the second national title in school history.
It’s the first national championship Houston has won in his career — one that began as an assistant at Forbush High School in East Bend, N.C., after his college playing days at Mars Hill University were over.
T.C. Roberson High School in Asheville, N.C., gave him his first opportunity to be a head coach after spending five seasons as the high school’s defensive coordinator.
From there, he climbed the ladder and got to the college level. He worked at Brevard College and Lenoir-Rhyne as an assistant before L-R promoted him to head coach. Then it was a two-year stint at The Citadel before getting the JMU job.
“Winning a championship is probably second or third on the agenda for me,” Houston said. “But the number one thing is the relationship you have with the kids. It’s the ability to have a guy that comes in and maybe doesn’t come from a great background or doesn’t have the brightest future if it weren’t for football, and to see that young man graduate from college.
“That’s the biggest thing. It’s the development of the kids.”
And that’s where Houston got it right.
He took a group of players that had seen a fair share of changes in their college careers and built trust with them in order to win a national championship.
Ex-JMU coach Mickey Matthews recruited most of the fourth- and fifth-year players on the roster. Those players had to adapt when Everett Withers, who now is at Texas State, held the head gig at Madison in 2014 and 2015. Countless assistant coaches rolled through Harrisonburg, too.
In less than a year, Houston and his staff created an effective connection to their players.
“When I first came in under Coach Matthews, I learned that I had to take care of myself. Then, with Coach Withers, I learned how to survive because he had us go through some hard times,” JMU senior receiver Brandon Ravenel said in late November. “And then when Coach Houston and his staff came in, Coach Houston taught me how to be a man and that’ll be something I take with me for the rest of my life.”
Houston walks JMU's practice field on the first day of August training camp.
Nikki Fox/DN-R
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said he was surprised at just how fast Houston garnered trust from the team.
“It says a lot about Mike’s personality because it’s difficult to rally young people together, especially when they’ve been through change,” Bourne said. “It was an incredible sense of synergy and bonding that went on and I give the staff a tremendous amount of credit in instilling that in this year’s squad.”
It of course helped that Houston and his staff knew what they were doing.
Houston leaned on offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick to blend a hodgepodge of philosophies to create a single identity. Kirkpatrick incorporated some his schemes from his time working in the air-raid offense at East Carolina along with run-game coordinator Bryan Stinespring’s experience with the run-pass option while all along never forgetting Houston’s desire to keep the foundation of a tough, run-first offense.
On defense, Houston and coordinator Bob Trott led the turnaround for a unit that showed its dominance in the postseason.
Houston said one of the biggest adjustments the defense made was moving to man coverage in the secondary later in the year.
“You look at the Sam Houston State game — we played man and man-free virtually the whole game. That’s why they couldn’t throw the ball,” Houston said. “We had the ability to match up four corners on the field with their receivers, which no one all year had done with them. But I think we were playing more tight coverage late in the year than early in the year, but also primarily I think players had the trust and belief in the scheme.”
His emphasis for strong special teams paid dividends, too. Madison scored three special teams touchdowns in four postseason games.
“I first met Mike back when I was coaching at North Carolina in the early to mid-2000s. I recruited his area,” Pittsburgh special teams coordinator Andre Powell said in December. “I always thought his teams were well coached. He used to come over and work our camp, too.
“I’ve known him for a long time and Mike is a good football coach.”
Houston said all of JMU’s special teams systems stem from his time as a high school coach and learning from his conversations with Powell.
“Him being a defensive guy and me being an offensive guy, I’d like to pick his brain and he’d like to pick mine,” Powell said. “He knew I coached special teams, too, and it was just one of those discussions that led to more and more discussion.”
Houston has come far since being the high school coach that college coaches visited when they wanted a tip on a prospect.
The Dukes coach said his championship victory is still starting to sink in.
“That’s the true blessing of my career,” he said. “Every job that I’ve had has been the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve had no desire to be anywhere else other than where I’m at, at that moment. That’s something some coaches struggle with and I’m blessed to have that opinion and connection of everything because I think it brings happiness.”
He added that he could see parallels between his championship club at JMU to the successful high school teams he led at T. C. Roberson.
Houston molded both groups of players — albeit at much different levels — into winners.
“T. C. Roberson was a place that had never had a whole lot of success in football, but you had a really good community that supported the program and you knew you had a bunch of kids that were excited about being good and worked hard at it,” he said.
“And I think there are parallels in that the players were hungry to be good. The players at JMU were hungry to be good. The players at T. C. Robertson were hungry to be good. You had great support from the administration and the fans at both places. I think those parallels are important and have been a key to it all.”
His players, like sophomore cornerback Jimmy Moreland, who earned a second chance at football from Houston, would tell you the key was the effort Houston made to forge strong relationships with each individual.
“After the game, Coach Houston came up to me and told me how proud he was of me. It made everything worthwhile,” Moreland said.
