List of Richmond Spiders head football coaches

The Richmond Spiders college football team represents the University of Richmond in the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference (CAAFC), as part of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The program has had 36 head coaches and one interim head coach since it began play during the 1881 season. Since December 2016, Russ Huesman has served as head coach at Richmond.^[1]

Seven coaches have led Richmond in postseason playoff or bowl games: Frank Jones, Dal Shealy, Jim Reid, Dave Clawson, Mike London, Danny Rocco, and Huesman. Eleven coaches have won conference championships: Fred Vail won one and Frank Dobson won three as a member of the Eastern Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Dobson won two and Glenn Thistlethwaite won one as a member of the Virginia Conference; Jones won three and Jim Tait won one as a member of the Southern Conference; Shealy won one as a member of the Yankee Conference; Reid won two and Clawson won one as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference; Clawson and London each won one and Rocco won two as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association; and Huesman won one as a member of the CAAFC. London also won an NCAA Division I Football Championship in 2008.

Dobson is the leader in seasons coached, with 20 years as head coach and in games coached (175) and won (79). M. C. Taylor has the highest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game at 1.000. C. T. Taylor has the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with 0.000.

Key to symbols in coaches list
General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 1]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 2]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 3]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 4]}

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards^{[A 5]}
No.	Name	Season(s)^{[A 6]}	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	DC	CC	NC	Awards
1	M. C. Taylor	1881	2	2	0	0	1.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
2	C. M. Hazen	1882 1885–1886 1888	8	4	4	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
3	H. R. Hundley	1887	2	1	1	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
4	Frank Johnson	1889	3	1	2	0	0.333	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
5	C. T. Taylor	1890	3	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
6	Dana Rucker	1891 1893–1895	19	3	13	3	0.237	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
7	Penwick Shelton	1892	5	2	3	0	0.400	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
8	Bill Wertenbaker	1897	8	3	5	0	0.375	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
9	Oscar Lee Owens	1898	7	3	3	1	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
10	Julien Hill	1899	4	2	2	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
11	Ed Kenna	1900	7	3	4	0	0.429	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
12	Garnett Nelson	1901	8	1	7	0	0.125	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
13	Graham Hobson	1902	6	3	3	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0	—
14	Fred Vail	1903	10	6	3	1	0.650	3	0	0	1.000	—	—	—	—	1	0	—
15	Harry Wall	1904	6	1	5	0	0.167	0	2	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
16	E. A. Dunlap	1905–1909 1912	57	19	33	5	0.377	11	12	2	0.480	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
17	E. V. Long	1910	8	1	6	1	0.188	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
18	Sam Honaker	1911	8	0	6	2	0.125	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
19	Frank Dobson	1913–1917 1919–1933	175	79	78	18	0.503	17	12	7	0.569	—	—	—	—	5	0	—
20	Robert C. Marshall	1918	5	3	1	1	0.700	1	0	0	1.000	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
21	Glenn Thistlethwaite	1934–1941	76	41	26	9	0.599	15	19	3	0.446	—	—	—	—	1	0	—
22	John Fenlon	1942 1946–1947	30	12	15	3	0.450	5	12	2	0.316	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
23	Malcolm Pitt	1943–1944	15	8	7	0	0.533	1	5	0	0.167	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
24	George Hope	1945	8	2	6	0	0.250	0	4	0	.000	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
25	Karl Esleeck	1948–1950	30	10	18	2	0.367	6	17	1	0.271	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
26	Ed Merrick	1951–1965	146	53	87	6	0.384	33	52	5	0.394	—	—	—	—	0	0	—
27	Frank Jones	1966–1973	82	44	38	0	0.537	36	13	0	0.735	1	1	0	—	3	0	—
28	Jim Tait	1974–1979	65	21	44	0	0.323	8	4	0	0.667	0	0	0	—	1	0	—
29	Dal Shealy	1980–1988	100	43	57	0	0.430	11	11	0	0.500	1	2	0	—	1	0	—
30	Jim Marshall	1989–1994	66	19	47	0	0.288	12	36	0	0.250	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
31	Jim Reid	1995–2003	102	48	53	1	0.475	35	40	0	0.467	1	2	0	2	2	0	Yankee Coach of Year (1995) A-10 Coach of Year (1998, 2000)
32	Dave Clawson	2004–2007	49	29	20	—	0.592	18	14	—	0.563	3	2	—	2	2	0	I-AA.org National Coach of the Year (2005)
33	Mike London	2008–2009	29	24	5	—	0.828	13	3	—	0.813	5	1	—	1	1	1 – 2008	AFCA FCS Coach of the Year (2008) BCA National Coach of the Year (2008)
34	Latrell Scott	2010	11	6	5	—	0.545	4	4	—	0.500	0	0	—	—	0	0	—
Int	Wayne Lineburg ^{[A 7]}	2011	11	3	8	—	0.273	0	8	—	.000	0	0	—	—	0	0	—
35	Danny Rocco	2012–2016	65	43	22	—	0.662	26	14	—	0.650	5	3	—	—	2	0	CAA Coach of the Year (2015)
36	Russ Huesman	2017–present	100	59	41	—	0.590	41	26	—	0.612	2	3	—	—	2	0	—

v t e Richmond Spiders football
Venues	Tate Field (1891–1893, 1925–1928) West-End Park (1894) Broad Street Park (1897–1916) Boulevard Field (1917–1920) Stadium Field (1921–1924) City Stadium (1929–2009) E. Claiborne Robins Stadium (2010–present)
Bowls & rivalries	1968 Tangerine Bowl 1971 Tangerine Bowl James Madison VMI William & Mary
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
National championship seasons in bold

List of Richmond Spiders head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

Related Articles