University of North Carolina Athletics
Luke Huard Continues Family's Football Success
October 27, 1999 | Football
Oct. 27, 1999
By Ryan McDonough
Athletic Media Relations Student Assistant
Luke Huard was about as successful as a high school quarterback could be. He led his team to a number one ranking in the state of Washington and won the state's Gatorade Player of the Year award during his senior year at Puyallup High. He could have played football for almost any college in the country. In the Huard family, however, this was nothing new.
His father, Mike, had a successful career at Central Washington University, playing both halfback and tight end. When his playing days were over, he wasted little time moving into the coaching ranks. The day after he graduated from college, he was hired to coach at a small high school on an Indian reservation in Yakima, Wash. The Huard family eventually moved to Puyallup, Wash., where Mike taught physical education and coached his three sons, Damon, Brock, and Luke.
Damon was the first of the Huard brothers to play in a Division I program. He was a three-year starter at Washington who established school records for total yards and passing yards in a season. He was named ABC Sports' Player of the Game when he led the Huskies to a 38-20 victory over Miami on Sept. 24, 1994, ending the Hurricanes 58-game home winning streak. Undrafted out of college, he spent training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1996 but was released in the preseason.
After a year out of football, Damon made the Miami Dolphins practice squad and was designated as the third-string quarterback for the final 15 games of the 1997 season. He played in two games as a reserve in 1998 and this season is starting for the AFC East-leading Dolphins.
Brock was the next member of the Huard family to quarterback his father's high school team. He followed Damon to Washington, where he broke most of the school's offensive records, including passing yards in a season, attempts without an interception, total yards per game, 300-yard games and touchdown passes in a career. He decided to forgo his senior season and enter the 1999 NFL Draft, in which the Seattle Seahawks selected him in the third round.
Luke continued the family's success at Puyallup High, leading his team to a national ranking while earning honorable mention All-America honors from USA Today. Many people in his home state expected Luke to follow his brothers' lead and attend the University of Washington, but he had other ideas. "I had been around the Washington program for seven years and I wanted to try something different," he says.
Luke eventually chose the University of North Carolina over such successful football programs as Tennessee, Texas, Arizona State, and, of course, Washington. The competition is one factor that made UNC the choice for Huard, who especially likes being able to play against top Atlantic Coast Conference teams like Virginia and Florida State each year.
Unfortunately for Huard, the competition also helped draw high school football and basketball standout Ronald Curry to Carolina. Huard had already made his commitment to attend UNC when Curry, also a quarterback, made his choice. Although he knew it would be tough to beat out Curry for the starting job, Huard never questioned his decision. "I faced it more as a challenge than anything else," he says. "Wherever you go, especially if it is a good football school, you will face competition. We just happened to be in the same class." After redshirting in 1998, Huard prepared himself as the backup this season, but was thrust into action when Curry tore his Achilles tendon against Georgia Tech on Oct. 9. Huard got his first collegiate start the following week against Houston and also started on Oct. 23 at Maryland.
Huard says that the Carolina coaching staff prepared him well to step into action. "The coaches shared (repetitions) well with the first and second strings," he says. "The starters and backups attend all the same meetings." He studies opposing defenses each week, regardless of whether he is the starter or the backup.
Luke's playing style is common to all three Huard brothers. "We all like to drop back most of the time." Luke says. "We're pocket passers." Damon is perhaps the quickest of the three and has led the Dolphins to three straight wins with his combination of rushing and passing ability. Brock is said to have the quickest release, while Luke describes himself as a good leader and a fairly accurate thrower ... with room for improvement. "A quarterback can improve every area," he says. "I need to work on my mechanics and overall quickness." Luke feels that improved quickness will help him avoid the constant pressure that is so prevalent in Saturday's game.
Like any successful quarterback, Huard has set goals that he wants to achieve while at Carolina. "Individually, I would like to be an all-conference quarterback," he says, but quickly notes that individual goals don't matter to him unless his team is successful. "Our goal as a team is to win the ACC title, every year," he says. "If you do that you have a chance at the national title."
With all the football success the Huard family has achieved, it would be understandable to find that Luke isn't looking beyond the sport for a post-collegiate career. This, however, is not the case. "I've thought about becoming a teacher and a coach, like my father," he says. "But I've also thought about being a politician or doing some type of public service. I have had thoughts of joining the ministry, too."
Luke was raised not to view football as his only option. "I was never pressured to play," he says. In high school, he also played basketball, competed in track & field and led his school's Bible study. Yet, football was his focus.
He admits that having his father as his coach was tough at times. "The coaching didn't always end on the practice field," Luke says. Many nights after practice, Luke and his father would find themselves talking football long after they had gone home. Overall, however, the positives far outweighed the negatives. "To have a successful high school career and to share it with your father makes it that much more incredible," Luke says.
He also got to share one high school season with his brother Damon, whom Luke names- along with Barry Sanders and John Elway-as one of his favorite professional athletes. In 1996, the year he spent out of football, Damon assisted his father in coaching the Puyallup High team. "Damon's had a long road," Luke says. "That year will always be close to my heart."
Luke says trying to keep up with his brothers is something that has always pushed him and raised his level of play. "Of course we competed, " he says. "We all tried to be as good as we possibly could be. But it was always helpful." When asked if there was too much pressure on him to succeed or to follow in his brothers footsteps, especially playing on a team that his father coached, Luke simply smiles and shakes his head. "No," he says. "I wouldn't change a thing about the experience."
Mike decided that Luke's last year of high school would also be his, and he retired from coaching in 1997. He remains a busy man, teaching driver's education at Puyallup High during the week and devoting much of his weekend time to watching his sons play football. Throughout the fall and into the winter, Luke generally plays on Saturday and Damon and Brock play on Sundays. All that football might become old to some people, Mike looks forward to each weekend.
After all, any coach hopes to see his former players succeed. Any father roots for his sons to succeed. When your former players are also your sons, then you have all the more reason to be proud. Just ask Mike Huard.
