JMU’s Mike Houston says he’s been offered, has interest in Charlotte 49ers football coaching job

The Charlotte 49ers’ search for a football coach took an odd twist Wednesday when James Madison coach Mike Houston told the Harrisonburg (Va.) Daily News-Record he had been offered the 49ers job but did not say whether he had accepted it.

The newspaper reported Houston read a statement saying he was interested in the 49ers offer, but that his focus was on JMU’s second-round NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoff game Saturday against Colgate.

Earlier Wednesday, college football writer Bruce Feldman of The Athletic cited a source saying Houston is expected to be the 49ers’ next coach, replacing Brad Lambert, who was fired Nov. 18.

Houston, who is from the N.C. mountain town of Franklin and coached JMU to the 2016 NCAA Football Championship Subdivision championship, said he spoke with 49ers athletics director Mike Hill on Sunday and again on Tuesday.

“I’m not coming here to talk to anyone about speculation or rumors; I will talk to you about facts,” Houston told the newspaper. “(Hill and I) had a great conversation. I listened to him. I told him I was interested in the job. The facts are I’ve been offered a job. That’s it. It is 2½ hours from my parents and my family. There are personal reasons why that’s important to me.

“At the same time, this (James Madison team) is very important to me.

“I hate the timing of everything has sped up so (that) this is something people are talking about and people shouldn’t be talking about it. I try to do things right, treat people with respect and the group that’s most important to me is this group of players.”

A 49ers athletics spokesman said Wednesday that Hill wouldn’t comment on specific candidates during the coaching search.

The JMU athletics department released this statement to the Harrisonburg newspaper:

“We are aware that Mike Houston has been offered the head coaching job at Charlotte and that he addressed the offer with local media after Wednesday’s practice. At this point he has not accepted the offer. We expect Mike to coach JMU on Saturday at Colgate.”

Houston, 47, has career record of 80-24 at Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel and James Madison.

Houston is 37-5 in his three seasons at JMU. In addition to winning the 2016 national championship, the Dukes advanced to the FCS title game in 2017. JMU (9-3) is currently in the second round of this season’s playoffs with a game scheduled at Colgate on Saturday.

Houston started his head coaching career at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory. He went 29-8 in three seasons with the Bears, including an appearance in the 2013 national championship game.

Houston left for The Citadel in 2014, where he led the Bulldogs to the FCS playoffs in 2015. Houston’s Bulldogs beat Charlotte 56-53 in double overtime in 2014.

Houston played collegiately at Mars Hill. He spent time as a high school coach at Forbush and Asheville Roberson, where he was head coach for five seasons. He was defensive coordinator at Brevard and Lenoir-Rhyne before taking over the head job with the Bears in 2011.

Houston signed a 10-year contract extension with JMU in 2017.

This story was originally published November 28, 2018 at 7:47 PM.