Mike Hodges (born November 14, 1945) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

from 1992 to 1997, compiling a record of 35–30.

Coaching career

Hodges served as an assistant coach and a

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

at UMass for 14 years, under three different head coaches. Following the 1991 season he was named the school's head coach after

Jim Reid James McLeish Reid (born 29 December 1961) is a Scottish singer/songwriter and the lead singer for the alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain, which he formed with his elder brother and guitarist William Reid in 1983. Career The Jes ...

resigned following budget disagreements with administration. As head coach, Hodges compiled a 35–30 overall record with four winning seasons. His 35 wins were the fifth most in UMass history at the time, and he still ranks 7th on the UMass all-time win list. During his head coaching tenure, Hodges coached eight All-Americans and 39 All-Conference selections (Yankee Conference, Atlantic 10), including Walter Payton Award finalist and current ESPN analyst Rene Ingoglia. Hodges resigned after a 2–9 season in 1997. After resigning as head coach, Hodges served as the Director of Football Operations for UMass until his retirement in 2011. Although Hodges did not make the postseason as head coach of the Minutemen, many fans of the school appreciated his contributions to the program. Hodges kept the Minutemen competitive at a time when huge budget cuts ravaged the Athletic Department. Also, many of his recruits were prominent members of the 1998 UMass team that won the Division 1AA National Championship.

Head coaching record

References

1945 births Living people Maine Black Bears football players UMass Minutemen football coaches {{1990s-collegefootball-coach-stub