Why Memphis' Charles Huff hire matters beyond the field: 'I bear that cross'

MEMPHIS, TN – His chair scraping across a concrete floor and piercing the soft murmur of noise inside this Memphis barbecue staple, Charles Huff gathers himself.

Scoots back, leans forward.

On the job little more than 100 days as Memphis Tigers football coach, Huff measures his message.

He is the only Black head coach from the 2025-26 college football coaching carousel to carry an elevation in role, spending a year at Southern Miss and landing a fringe Power conference-type job at Memphis, an American Conference resident with P-4 ambitions.

EXCLUSIVE: Pat Fitzgerald was vilified, then vindicated. His truth comes out at last

Huff embraces he is coaching for more than just his Memphis program, players and staff.

“I carry that, I bear that cross,” Huff told USA TODAY Sports. “But I know, for years, when I was a young coach at Tennessee State coming up in the profession, I would go to AFCA conventions, and back then they had a thing called the BCA (Black Coaches Association). And we would meet on Sunday night. It would be the last meeting of the night.

“And there were hundreds of African-American minority coaches in a room, and there were head coaches that sat on the panel. I remember Tyrone Willingham was there one time. Charlie Strong was there. And I just remember it being such a gripe session. ‘We don't get our opportunities. We got to get more opportunities.’ I just remember, James Franklin said, ‘Guys, we come in here every year and we complain. And yes, we need to, you know, get more opportunities. But when we do get opportunities, we gotta win.’”

Athletic Director Ed Scott, Charles Huff and President Bill Hardgrave hold up a Memphis football jersey with Huff's name on it before Huff gives his introductory speech as the head coach for the University of Memphis football team during a news conference at Billy J. Murphy Athletic Complex in Memphis, Tenn., on December 10, 2025.

Huff is the first minority head football coach at Memphis in 15 years; he reports to Dr. Ed Scott, the school’s first Black athletic director.

Across the major-college sports landscape, Virginia has a minority head coach and athletic director; Syracuse will this summer, when Bryan Blair takes the top athletics chair and has football coach Fran Brown.

That’s it. That’s the list.

Scott recalls the tough questions he asked of Memphis leaders and community members once Scott identified Huff as his No. 1 target to replace Ryan Silverfield, who left for the Arkansas job.

“The first thing I'll say to you is I'm the first African-American AD in the history of Memphis, right?,” Scott told USA TODAY Sports. “And, (Memphis President) Bill Hardgrave, well, a Caucasian, a white man, took a chance on me. And I think, by all feedback I've got from Dr. Hardgrave, he's been really happy and pleased with his decision.

“And when I was going into this search, I reached out to some prominent people around here and said, ‘Look, you know, if we go in the direction of a Black head coach, a minority head coach, how's that gonna be perceived?’ So, I wanted to know, but I will tell you this. When you work for Carla Williams (University of Virginia athletic director), which I am grateful to have the privilege to have done, and you work for the first Black woman, African-American woman, to run a P-4 (department), you hire the best person for the job. And my value is I wanted the best person for the job.”

Temperatures push into the 80s on the first day of April, the sixth day of Memphis’ spring football camp and the day Scott also introduces his new women’s basketball coach, Hana Haden.

Now, Scott surveys the fields of the Tigers’ sprawling football practice complex, which features an 120-yard heated and cooled indoor field as well as three full-size playing surfaces outside.

A receiver makes a corner-end zone touchdown catch and Scott is the first to congratulate, quick with a pat on the helmet and an exclamatory expletive.

“At the end of the search process, Charles Huff was the best person for the job,” said Scott, a former college baseball player who previously served as athletic director for HBCU school Morgan State. “I take pride in this, in that I found what I believe is the best person for the job, who happens to be Black. And in addition to that, if you look at the minority coaches that were hired this cycle, he's the only one who moved up. (James) Franklin, right, was the only other one who was hired again in the cycle.

“There were a lot of coaches hired, but none of them looked like me or Charles Huff. And so to be able to give him this opportunity because he earned it, not because he was Black, I take pride in that.”

In five previous seasons as head coach, Huff has five bowl berths, a Sun Belt Conference championship and one of the sport’s signature upsets this decade when his Marshall won at Notre Dame in 2022.

He is a protégé of both Franklin and Nick Saban, serving as Saban’s associate head coach at Alabama in 2019-20 before landing his first head coaching post at Marshall.

He wins. Huff wants to win more. For everyone.

“The only way for me to effectively move the needle is to win,” Huff said. “And not only winning on the field, but winning off the field, making the right decisions, I still, to this day, if I drive, I won't even have one drink. You know, I'm making sure that my off-the-field alignment goes with winning, because I know me having success will create opportunities for others. Is it gonna happen overnight? No. But I think over time, you know, guys like James Franklin, he's won at a high clip. Tony Elliott now is winning at a high clip. The more we win, the more opportunities come.

“So, the weight I carry is the best thing I can do is win.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At Memphis, a rare college football reality: Black head coach, Black AD