This should be considered a secondary choice behind Paul Johnson. Johnson is my first choice by far.
Head Coach Chris Hatcher
Seventh Year
Valdosta State (1995)
Entering his seventh year as head coach of the Valdosta State Blazer football program, Chris Hatcher has spent little time in etching his name among the top in the collegiate football coaching ranks.
For those who saw Hatcher play quarterback for the Blazers from 1991 to 1994, when he rewrote the Valdosta State record book in nearly every signal caller category, the success on the sideline comes of little surprise. For from his beginnings as a prep star in Macon to his current position, Hatcher has always been a winner.
Hatcher became the university's winningest football coach when he won his 41st game during the 2003 season. His six-year record of 68-10 is a remarkable .870 winning percentage, the highest in the nation at any level. His second and third teams posted back-to-back undefeated regular seasons, a winning streak that reached 35 in a row, a Gulf South Conference record, before being broken during the 2003 season. Hatcher has received numerous coach-of-the-year honors at conference, regional and national levels, and his teams have won numerous national statistical awards.
Great stuff. And, despite reaching the ultimate goal of a national championship in 2004, Hatcher always takes himself, his staff and his players back to square one when summer camp gets under way in August. The goal is always be to play 11 regular season and four or five playoff games each year. The ultimate goal will always be to win the national title.
"The goals don't change," Hatcher said. "We want to win one game a week, win the conference championship, get in the playoffs, play on Thanksgiving and play in December. If you can get to December, anything can happen."
Hatcher led his Blazer squad to the ultimate goal in 2004 when Valdosta State completed a 14-1 season with a 36-31 victory over Pittsburgh State in the Division II national title game. The season saw the Blazers win their fourth Gulf South Conference title in five years, with the only blemish on the year being a 24-22 defeat at the hands of Albany State in the season opener.
Hatcher was up to his old tricks in 2005, directing the program to four straight weeks at No. 1 to start the season while compiling a 9-3 mark and an appearance in the school's sixth straight NCAA postseason tournament. The team finished 7-2 in the GSC and tied for second in the standings, marking the sixth time in as many tries that the Blazers had finished among the top two in the league under Hatcher.
The 33-year old Hatcher immediately made his mark on the VSU campus when he assumed the head coaching role in 2000 as he inherited a team that finished 4-7 in 1999 and directed it to a 10-2 record and a trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs. His first squad was 8-1 in GSC play, winning the school's second conference championship.
Hatcher and Valdosta State went from best to perfect in the GSC over the course of the next two seasons, winning all 18 conference games, while tallying a 12-1 record in 2001 and a 14-1 mark in 2002, which included the school's first ever appearance in the Division II national championship game. The 2003 season again saw Valdosta State advance to the Division II playoffs, finishing the year 10-2 and second in the GSC with an 8-1 mark. The 2003 team also achieved the school's first-ever national No. 1 ranking in the second week of the year.
The personable Hatcher, a Macon native who was a standout in football and baseball at Mt. de Sales Academy, returned "home" following one year at Central Florida (where he coached Minnesota Viking quarterback Daunte Culpepper) and three years at Kentucky (where he coached both former Cleveland Brown quarterback Tim Couch and former VSU QB Dusty Bonner).
At Kentucky Hatcher worked for former VSU coach Hal Mumme (currently the head coach at New Mexico State), who won 40 games in five seasons at VSU and in whose offense he flourished as a player from 1992-94. It was from Mumme he adopted and adapted his potent Air Raid offensive attack. Mumme was also one of the first to predict Hatcher's coaching success, citing his leadership skills and teaching ability and labeling him "a wonderful football coach".
Hatcher was also a wonderful football quarterback at VSU. He completed 1,047 of 1,529 passes for 11,363 yards and 121 touchdowns, setting 29 school passing and total offense records along the way (14 of which still stand). More would still be on the books if he hadn't had Bonner running his offense during his first two years in Valdosta.
Hatcher started 41 consecutive games (29-10-2) at Valdosta State and still holds 13 Gulf South Conference and 17 Division II national records in addition to his 14 school marks. In his senior season of 1994, he led the Blazers to their first playoff appearance, reaching the quarterfinals before losing in double overtime to eventual national champion and conference rival North Alabama. Among his more impressive national records are his 68.5 career completion percentage and his 20 straight completions against New Haven.
Hatcher was a two-time all-America (1993 and 1994) and a two-time winner of the GSC's Commissioner's Trophy, which goes to the league's most outstanding overall student-athlete. He capped his brilliant senior campaign by winning numerous national honors, including the prestigious NCAA Top Eight Award, the GTE Academic All-America National Player of the Year and an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation.
In addition, he won the 1994 Harlon Hill Trophy, which goes annually to Division II's best player, by the second largest vote margin in the award's 20-year history.
Hatcher followed his father Edgar into coaching, beginning as a student assistant at Valdosta State in 1995 and working with his quarterback successor Lance Funderburk, also an all-America who finished second in the 1996 Harlon Hill race. The coaching road then led to Central Florida in 1996 and on to Kentucky when Mumme was named head coach in 1997.
And now he's come full circle ... back to Valdosta State where the journey began as a walk-on fifth string quarterback in the fall of 1991. After winning 68 of 78 games, four conference titles and one national championship in his first six seasons, Hatcher has not wavered from his initial perception of the job.
"We really expected to win, and we expected to win immediately," he said. "I left a great place at Kentucky to come to a place that has always been special to me. We're raising a family here, and hopefully we're raising the bar as to what is expected year-in and year-out from Blazer football. We want to be the best."
Hatcher and his wife Lori are both Valdosta State graduates, Chris in kinesiology and physical education and Lori in early childhood education. The couple's first child, Tyler Christopher, turned six in June.
Head Coach Chris Hatcher
Seventh Year
Valdosta State (1995)
Entering his seventh year as head coach of the Valdosta State Blazer football program, Chris Hatcher has spent little time in etching his name among the top in the collegiate football coaching ranks.
For those who saw Hatcher play quarterback for the Blazers from 1991 to 1994, when he rewrote the Valdosta State record book in nearly every signal caller category, the success on the sideline comes of little surprise. For from his beginnings as a prep star in Macon to his current position, Hatcher has always been a winner.
Hatcher became the university's winningest football coach when he won his 41st game during the 2003 season. His six-year record of 68-10 is a remarkable .870 winning percentage, the highest in the nation at any level. His second and third teams posted back-to-back undefeated regular seasons, a winning streak that reached 35 in a row, a Gulf South Conference record, before being broken during the 2003 season. Hatcher has received numerous coach-of-the-year honors at conference, regional and national levels, and his teams have won numerous national statistical awards.
Great stuff. And, despite reaching the ultimate goal of a national championship in 2004, Hatcher always takes himself, his staff and his players back to square one when summer camp gets under way in August. The goal is always be to play 11 regular season and four or five playoff games each year. The ultimate goal will always be to win the national title.
"The goals don't change," Hatcher said. "We want to win one game a week, win the conference championship, get in the playoffs, play on Thanksgiving and play in December. If you can get to December, anything can happen."
Hatcher led his Blazer squad to the ultimate goal in 2004 when Valdosta State completed a 14-1 season with a 36-31 victory over Pittsburgh State in the Division II national title game. The season saw the Blazers win their fourth Gulf South Conference title in five years, with the only blemish on the year being a 24-22 defeat at the hands of Albany State in the season opener.
Hatcher was up to his old tricks in 2005, directing the program to four straight weeks at No. 1 to start the season while compiling a 9-3 mark and an appearance in the school's sixth straight NCAA postseason tournament. The team finished 7-2 in the GSC and tied for second in the standings, marking the sixth time in as many tries that the Blazers had finished among the top two in the league under Hatcher.
The 33-year old Hatcher immediately made his mark on the VSU campus when he assumed the head coaching role in 2000 as he inherited a team that finished 4-7 in 1999 and directed it to a 10-2 record and a trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs. His first squad was 8-1 in GSC play, winning the school's second conference championship.
Hatcher and Valdosta State went from best to perfect in the GSC over the course of the next two seasons, winning all 18 conference games, while tallying a 12-1 record in 2001 and a 14-1 mark in 2002, which included the school's first ever appearance in the Division II national championship game. The 2003 season again saw Valdosta State advance to the Division II playoffs, finishing the year 10-2 and second in the GSC with an 8-1 mark. The 2003 team also achieved the school's first-ever national No. 1 ranking in the second week of the year.
The personable Hatcher, a Macon native who was a standout in football and baseball at Mt. de Sales Academy, returned "home" following one year at Central Florida (where he coached Minnesota Viking quarterback Daunte Culpepper) and three years at Kentucky (where he coached both former Cleveland Brown quarterback Tim Couch and former VSU QB Dusty Bonner).
At Kentucky Hatcher worked for former VSU coach Hal Mumme (currently the head coach at New Mexico State), who won 40 games in five seasons at VSU and in whose offense he flourished as a player from 1992-94. It was from Mumme he adopted and adapted his potent Air Raid offensive attack. Mumme was also one of the first to predict Hatcher's coaching success, citing his leadership skills and teaching ability and labeling him "a wonderful football coach".
Hatcher was also a wonderful football quarterback at VSU. He completed 1,047 of 1,529 passes for 11,363 yards and 121 touchdowns, setting 29 school passing and total offense records along the way (14 of which still stand). More would still be on the books if he hadn't had Bonner running his offense during his first two years in Valdosta.
Hatcher started 41 consecutive games (29-10-2) at Valdosta State and still holds 13 Gulf South Conference and 17 Division II national records in addition to his 14 school marks. In his senior season of 1994, he led the Blazers to their first playoff appearance, reaching the quarterfinals before losing in double overtime to eventual national champion and conference rival North Alabama. Among his more impressive national records are his 68.5 career completion percentage and his 20 straight completions against New Haven.
Hatcher was a two-time all-America (1993 and 1994) and a two-time winner of the GSC's Commissioner's Trophy, which goes to the league's most outstanding overall student-athlete. He capped his brilliant senior campaign by winning numerous national honors, including the prestigious NCAA Top Eight Award, the GTE Academic All-America National Player of the Year and an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation.
In addition, he won the 1994 Harlon Hill Trophy, which goes annually to Division II's best player, by the second largest vote margin in the award's 20-year history.
Hatcher followed his father Edgar into coaching, beginning as a student assistant at Valdosta State in 1995 and working with his quarterback successor Lance Funderburk, also an all-America who finished second in the 1996 Harlon Hill race. The coaching road then led to Central Florida in 1996 and on to Kentucky when Mumme was named head coach in 1997.
And now he's come full circle ... back to Valdosta State where the journey began as a walk-on fifth string quarterback in the fall of 1991. After winning 68 of 78 games, four conference titles and one national championship in his first six seasons, Hatcher has not wavered from his initial perception of the job.
"We really expected to win, and we expected to win immediately," he said. "I left a great place at Kentucky to come to a place that has always been special to me. We're raising a family here, and hopefully we're raising the bar as to what is expected year-in and year-out from Blazer football. We want to be the best."
Hatcher and his wife Lori are both Valdosta State graduates, Chris in kinesiology and physical education and Lori in early childhood education. The couple's first child, Tyler Christopher, turned six in June.
