Charlie Stubbs resigned as Nicholls State University’s head football coach on Sunday, citing major health concerns.

Stubbs’s resignation came a day after the Colonels lost to the Henderson State University Reddies. It was Henderson State’s, a Division II university, and the Henderson State’s conference’s, the Great American Conference, first win over a Division I opponent. With the loss, Stubbs finished his tenure at Nicholls with a 10-38 record in just over four years in charge.

“For more than four years, I have given my best effort to create the climate of change needed to support a winning football program here at Nicholls,” Stubbs said in a press release by the university. “During the past year, I have been diagnosed with major health issues, and I know that now is the time to step aside and focus my efforts on my health.”

Numerous attempts to reach Stubbs this week were unsuccessful.

Stubbs took over as Nicholls’ football coach following the firing of Jay Thomas in 2010. Thomas had a record of 27-35 in his six seasons as head coach and led the Colonels to the then-Division I-AA playoffs in 2005.

Those around the Nicholls football program expressed shock at Stubbs’ abrupt departure from the program. However, athletic director Robert Bernardi believed that Stubbs brought positive change off the field to the program, despite a poor record on the field.

“I think anytime someone resigns like that, it comes as a surprise,” Bernardi said. “Coach Stubbs has brought a lot to the program. He has improved the academic performance of our students. He’s brought accountability, discipline and structure to a program that I think, previous to him, may not have had. Coach Stubbs is an excellent football coach. The wins and losses notwithstanding, I think there are a lot of things about the program that he advanced.”
When Stubbs became the Colonels’ head coach, the team was in risk of sanctions from the National Collegiate Athletic Association because of a low Academic Progress Rate. For the 2012-13 year, Nicholls football had an APR of 946, up 137 points from the 809 APR the team posted in 2004-05 that resulted in the loss of six scholarships.

Senior linebacker Davin Bovie said the team had heard about Stubbs’s resignation through a leak of the news Sunday morning, but there was still a somber mood during the team meeting where Stubbs told the team he would be stepping down.

“Before he announced it officially, we’d had seen it reported, but of course we felt sadness because he was our leader. Unfortunately, he had to step down for health reasons, and you never want to see anyone step down for that,” Bovie said. “I respect him away from football. Of course, this is a situation you don’t want anyone to be put in. It shows you have to cherish the moments. It’s bigger than football.”

Associate head coach Chuck Hepola, who served as an assistant under Stubbs at Nicholls and for two seasons at the University Tulsa, said he has great respect for Stubbs.

“I consider him a mentor, an example of a coach and a friend. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, and I can’t say anything but great things about him from my time with him at two different institutions. I’m just thankful for the time I spent working for him.”

Bernardi said that the university tries to chart a coach’s progress over five years to decide if the coach is moving an athletics program forward. He specifically used the Colonels women’s basketball, soccer and baseball programs as programs, which have shown improvement in the five years under their current head coaches.

“All three of those coaches are now beyond their fifth-year but at their fifth year had built and developed a program and then began having success. I think that’s exactly what we expect in all our sports. For someone to roll in here year one and all of sudden be National Champions, that’s not really realistic,” Bernardi said. “But I think we expect that over a reasonable amount of time that each year they will begin to improve. We understand that early on there will be some struggles, but if we can see that you develop the program and we can see it moving forward at some point, I think the wins on the field come.”

However, Bernardi did not comment on the status of Stubbs’s job as he was in his fifth season as the football team’s head coach.

“I can’t predict the future. There’s nine games left on the schedule. I don’t think it would be appropriate to comment on that when dealing with what has occurred. He’s resigned, and we have to move forward,” Bernardi said.

Colonels fans were also shocked that Stubbs made the decision to resign. Michael Gros, a 1998 Nicholls graduate and native of Thibodaux, said he was surprised Stubbs resigned but not aware of any health concerns. Gros also acknowledged the good that Stubbs brought to the program.

“Although he hadn’t won many games, the fan support is there. They are just ready for a winner. There are more people than ever tailgating. The team just has to win, and then everything will take care of itself. I think we’ll get a great coach. Coach Stubbs was a great coach. I just hope we get a guy that wins and gets the community to stay with the involvement the community has now,” Gros said.

Nicholls announced on Tuesday that Steve Axman would serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2014 season. Axman will oversee the quarterbacks and help direct the offense.

Axman began his coaching career at East Stroudsburg State before holding positions at the University of Illinois, the United States Military Academy at West Point, Alabany State University, the University of Arizona, the Denver Gold of the United States Football League, Stanford University and the University of California-Los Angeles.

Axman’s first head coaching job was at Northern Arizona University. He went on to hold positions at the University of Minnesota, the University of Washington and the University of Idaho, where he last coached in 2011.