Richmond football coach Russ Huesman offered a blunt response when asked about DeSean Jackson’s approach to wrapping up his workday just after lunch.
“Man, I don’t care what he says,” Huesman said. “Go ahead and figure it out. Go home at 2 o’clock. You’re not winning. You may win a game, but no way, no way. Don’t win.”
Huesman’s comments came in response to Jackson, the second-year Delaware State coach and former NFL wide receiver, saying his typical day begins at 6:30 a.m. and ends around 2 p.m.
“I get in at 6:30 [a.m.], and I leave at 2 [p.m.],” Jackson said during an appearance on the Da Get Got Pod with former NFL players Mike Robinson and Marshawn Lynch.
Jackson’s point was not simply about shortening the workday. He argued that coaches can spend long hours in the building and still be outworked or out-schemed on game day, putting greater value on preparation and efficiency than on a traditional all-day coaching schedule.
Huesman, who entered the 2026 season in his 10th year as Richmond’s head coach and 18th as a Division I head coach, took the opposite view. For the veteran Spiders coach, the demands of building a winning program do not end after morning meetings and practice preparation.
College football head coach out of the office by 2 p.m.? @DelSt_Football‘s DeSean Jackson says that’s his routine. @URSpidersFB‘s Russ Huesman counters, ‘No way.’ pic.twitter.com/JRnPL5TmWo
— John O’Connor (@RTDjohnoconnor) September 23, 2026
A college head coach’s work extends from recruiting and roster management to game planning, film study, player development, staff oversight and the day-to-day administration of a program. Huesman’s answer suggests that, in his view, those responsibilities make a regular 2 p.m. exit incompatible with sustained success.
The debate comes as Jackson’s early tenure at Delaware State has attracted attention. The Hornets had gone 2–21 across the two seasons before Jackson took over, but finished 8–4 in his first season, giving some force to the new coach’s unconventional, results-over-hours argument.
Delaware State is currently 2-2 on the season — still more wins than the Hornets won combined in 2023 and 2024.
Still, Huesman was unequivocal about where he stands.
“Go home at 2 o’clock,” he said. “You’re not winning.”
