Stetson University Athletics

In his ninth year leading the Stetson Football program back from a 57-year hiatus, head coach Roger Hughes continues to work tirelessly to build the program from the ground up. The spring 2021 season marked the Hatters eighth season of competition on the field.

During his 10 years in DeLand, the Stetson football program has gone from little more than a dream and a blueprint to a program that is looking to build on a breakthrough seasons in 2018 and 2019 when the Hatters won more games (15) than any program in the Pioneer Football League outside of 7-time league champion San Diego.

During that 2018 season, the Hatters posted their first winning season (8-2) since the 1951 team went 8-1-2, including a Tangerine Bowl victory over Arkansas State. That was followed by a 7-4 record in 2019, giving the Stetson program back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1950-51.

The Hatters completely rewrote the offensive record book in 2018, setting new program records for team passing yards and touchdowns, completion percentage, pass efficiency, average yards per pass, average yards per completion, passing yards per game, total offense, total touchdowns, total offense per game as well as all-purpose yards and all-purpose yards per game. The Hatters scored 95 more points than in any previous season while playing two fewer games than the previous record season. 

In addition to the team records, running back Jareem Westcott set the mark for rushing touchdowns in a season, average yards per carry and average yards rushing per game. Senior quarterback Colin McGovern set season records for passing yards and touchdowns, pass efficiency, average per pass attempt and passing yards per game. Senior tight end Donald Parham led all of college football (FBS/FCS) in receiving yards per game and receptions per game while setting program records for receptions, yards and TD reception.

For his efforts, Parham became the Hatters' second consensus All-American in just the last three seasons, joining with Donald Payne.

Stetson followed that stellar 2018 campaign with a 7-4 mark in 2019 and were poised for even more success in 2020 before the Covid pandemic forced the cancelation of the season.

In 2019, the Hatters used a powerful ground attack to pile up almost 2,500 rushing yards in 11 games while averaging 32 points per game. Stetson also had its third player earn Player of the Year honors from th PFL when linebacker Colby Duncan was selected as the league's Defensive Player of the Year.

Hughes came to Stetson after 10 seasons as head coach at Princeton, where he won the 2006 Ivy League championship and was the only coach in the history of Ivy League football to improve his team’s win total by two games in three consecutive seasons.

He is one of only five men to have served as head coach of Princeton football for at least a decade. That list includes a trio of College Football Hall of Famers: Bill Roper (1910-11, 1919-30), Charlie Caldwell (1945-56) and Dick Colman (1957-68).

Hughes was an Eddie Robinson Award finalist for Coach of the Year honors in 2006, after leading a Princeton squad that was picked to finish sixth in the preseason media poll to a 9-1 record and the Ivy League title. The nine wins were the most at Princeton since the Colman-led 1964 team and the Ivy League title was the first for the Tigers in more than a decade.

Even with an entirely new offensive line, his offense finished first in the Ivy League in both passing yards and total yards in 2006, and his senior quarterback, Jeff Terrell, became Princeton’s first Bushnell Cup winner (Ivy League Player of the Year) since 1995, when current Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett won the award.

The 2006 Ivy League title followed a brilliant 2005 season, when the Tigers earned their first seven-win campaign since 1995. 

Hughes also had significant success helping his players move to the next level. In 2006 alone, four Tigers signed with NFL teams.

At Princeton, Hughes worked with the quarterbacks, as he does at Stetson, and his success is evident in the Tigers record books. Under his tutelage, three quarterbacks placed in the top six in all-time passing at Princeton. 

Hughes was named head coach at Princeton in January, 2000. He took a team starting 10 freshmen and sophomores to a 3-7 record in his first season. Along the way Princeton improved its Ivy League record by two games, to 3-4, and defeated a pair of 7-3 teams, Brown and Yale. 

Hughes coached 74 All-Ivy League players, including 24 first-team selections, and several All-America selections. He also coached nine District II Academic All-Americas, three Roper Trophy winners for the top senior male athlete at Princeton and two of the four winners of the 2000 National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award. During the 2002 season, running back Cameron Atkinson was one of 14 overall winners of the National Scholar-Athlete Scholarship, and he was the lone winner from the Ivy League.

Hughes arrived at Princeton after eight years as offensive coordinator at Dartmouth, where he led an offense that propelled the Big Green to a 22-game winning streak and two Ivy League championships. While at Dartmouth, he helped develop Jay Fiedler into an NFL quarterback.

Hughes helped the Big Green to Ivy League championships in 1992 and 1996. He coached players who set 14 of the top 15 school single-game passing and total yardage records, as well as four of the top five single-season totals. The 1996 team went 10-0, one of four teams in league history to do so.

Born in Crawford, Nebraska, on September 4, 1960, Hughes played football (tight end) and golf at Doane College, graduating in 1982. He moved on to the University of Nebraska as a graduate assistant, helping coach the Cornhuskers to the 1984 Sugar Bowl and 1985 Fiesta Bowl while earning his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology in 1987.

His career then took him to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where as running backs coach he helped his team to a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals. His next stop was Cameron University in Lawton, Okla., where he spent three years as offensive coordinator and strength and conditioning coach. While at Cameron he also worked with the quarterbacks and the offensive line before leaving in 1992 to join John Lyons’ staff at Dartmouth.

Hughes and his wife Laura have one daughter, Maddison, who is also a graduate of Doane University.

Roger Hughes Year-By-Year