David Blackburn has received considerable acclaim for his coaching hires during his last three years-plus as athletic director at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
This past week, in what very well could be one of the last official acts for Blackburn before he himself is hired away, he may have made the best hire of all.
Recently named Division III Football Coach of the Year, Tom Arth, 35, met the Chattanooga media as he was introduced as the 10th head coach for the school since it joined the University of Tennessee system in 1969. He replaces UTC graduate and former player Russ Huesman, who left for the University of Richmond after eight successful seasons at the helm.
The importance of getting this choice right was not lost on either Arth, who himself left his alma mater, John Carroll University, or on Blackburn, who is on the short list to become the athletic director at his former home, the University of Tennessee.
The “fact” that Arth is not a bigger name is pretty much in the eye of the beholder.
But because Arth – who for three seasons was Peyton Manning’s backup quarterback with the Indianapolis Colts – was not on the radar of anyone in the local media, some fans gave the university some negative feedback when he was first named.
“It’s outside of my control,” Arth says. “People are going to judge and say what they’re going to say, but the only people who matter are in our building; the players, the coaches, our support staff, our administration.”
From them, it’s been unanimous: Arth will be a welcome addition to the school and the community.
“We’re grateful he’s here. We’re grateful he took the job,” Blackburn says. “You’ll find out he’s a leader with dignity, with class and character. He and his staff are going to focus on our student-athletes, and how they’ll attain success. He will show them what good looks like.”
His record at John Carroll, his first head coaching job, is impressive enough. But it runs even deeper than his 40-8 record would indicate.
After returning to the Cleveland, Ohio university in 2010 and after a pilgrimage through every level of pro football, he at various times wore the hats of Director of Football Operations, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and assistant recruiting coordinator. But during that time, the Blue Streaks failed to make the Division III playoffs, and had not since Arth quarterbacked the team.
Taking over in 2013, John Carroll was 9-2 overall, 8-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, and a first-round loser in the D-III playoffs. The Blue Streak reached the quarterfinals the following year as the team put up an 11-2 overall record. The only year the Blue Streak failed to reach the tournament under Arth was 2015, but they were still 8-2 overall and tied for second in the OAC. His crowning achievement, however, was 2016.
In addition to going 12-2 and reaching the semifinals of the Division III tournament, John Carroll ended the long unbeaten streak of conference rival Mount Union. That 31-28 win ended Mount Union’s 112-game regular season winning streak. Under Arth’s steady hand, the Blue Streaks offense averaged over 38 points per game and over 428 yards per game.
Both John Carroll losses came to Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 33-14 in the team’s season opener and 10-3 in the D-III semifinals.
“Everybody you play against is a little bit different, and if you don’t have versatility in your game plan, teams are going to be able to attack you,” Arth explains of his offensive philosophy. “To be versatile is really a great advantage of ours, but even more so is being able to play a lot of people. We are able to take players and give them a very defined role.
“They might not be an every down player, but they may do something better than anyone else we have, or have a specific role they can perform at a high level. We have the versatility where we can put them out there on offensive and defense and have them be impact players.”
Interestingly, Arth’s offensive coordinator at John Carroll, Tim Zetts, is the only full-time coach not joining Arth in Chattanooga, That job is going to Tennessee Tech offensive coordinator Justin Rascati. Just as Arth was John Carroll’s quarterback during past glory days, Rascati quarterbacked James Madison University the year it won the 1-AA national title.
Blue Streaks assistants who are making the move to Chattanooga with Arth include defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, offensive line coach Nick Hennessey, and linebackers coach Matt Feeney. A wholesale turnover was going to be required, because Huesman had already let it be known that several Mocs assistants were going to Richmond because the school pays some of the highest salaries to assistant in all of the FCS.
Staley’s defense ranked in the top 15 of Division III schools in six major categories – a trend that has been obvious since he became Arth’s DC.
“From a philosophical viewpoint, we don’t change. But in terms of how we do things, it’s very dependent on the players,” Arth explains. “What can they do well? What do they understand? What can they be successful doing? There’s a lot of versatility built in our (defensive) scheme. We’re not making changes one week to the next.”
Outgoing offensive coordinator Jeff Durden, who interviewed for the Mocs head job, defensive coordinator Adam Braithwaite, offensive line coach Adam Ross, defensive line coach Carey Bailey and cornerbacks coach and recruiting coordinator Rod West are headed for Richmond. Additionally, linebackers coach Rusty Wright is moving up to do the same job for Georgia State.
As Arth looks to fill out his staff, he admits he’s given himself some pretty specific guidelines.
“I want somebody you’d want your players around if you were a father or a mother,” he says. “If you’re going to turn your son over to somebody, you want that person to be a reflection of you – somebody you can have faith in, someone who has your best interests at heart no matter what. That’s the most important thing to me.”
Brian Cochran, who was also Arth’s recruiting coordinator, might have a bit of a battle on his hands keeping the Mocs’ 10 commitments (to date) in line. Social media was reporting that Richmond was offering a scholarship to one of Huesman’s UTC recruits even though he’d pledged to leave the UTC recruits alone.
Recruiting was in a dead period so it appears that was a piece of fake news. What actually seems to be the case is that the player in question reopened his recruiting unilaterally. It is likely that the player will commit to Richmond sometime in the future.
John Carroll athletic director Laurie Massa was taken by surprise as to how quickly the process unfolded, but considering the money involved, no one should be surprised that Arth would leave his alma mater.
While no actual figure has been disclosed since John Carroll is a private school, several knowledgeable estimates have Arth’s John Carroll salary at $75,000. Huesman’s salary at UTC this past season has widely been reported as being in the $230,000 range annually. The Richmond offer just missed doubling that at around $400,000 per year.
UTC’s attempt to match or nearly match that sum to keep Huesman only came to around $325,000. That amount (or close to it) is speculated to have been offered to Arth.
In the rapid-fire process that hired Arth, it apparently did not come up that he spent three seasons backing up future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, who has a home in the Chattanooga area.
That connection quickly became apparent.
“I am very happy for Tom Arth,” Manning said in a statement at the time of the announcement. “You could tell then that he was very cerebral and had the qualities to be a great coach. I have stayed in touch with him and he worked our Manning Passing Academy. He did a great job at John Carroll and I wish him well.”
“I have a notebook full of written notes on what I learned from Peyton either in the quarterbacks meetings, at practices or in the game,” Arth says. “Peyton was the same focused guy whether it was in a walk-through the day before a game or during the game itself. He was the same in every situation.”
Arth was the Colts’ backup signal-caller from 2003-2005.
One point of pride that Arth’s old school points to is that seven members of the New England Patriots organization attended John Carroll.
David Jenkins is a Chattanooga-based freelance writer.