He's an old head. Youngins are really starting to get on my damn nerves. He's a professor of nonsense. He's a total high school protein job influencer. His favorite Bible verse is... Jesus Wept. He's the man of Protestant sorrow. Chris, bam! Yeah. Alright, welcome to episode six. Today we have Andy Scott. He is a 28-year vet in the state of Georgia. A good friend of mine. I've known Andy for almost 20 years. Andy has been an assistant coach. Been a head coach for a long time.
A lot of good places. And one of the best things about Andy Scott is he's a true gentleman. In the game, we don't have too many of those anymore. And I've enjoyed watching Andy pay it forward and give back to us with... I don't know if they're TikTok coach or Facebook reels or whatever they are. The little video shorts you've been doing, they've really been a blessing to me to watch those. But everybody, I hope you enjoy the next hour or so with Coach Scott. Thanks for coming on with us.
I sure do appreciate you. Heck yeah, I appreciate you having me on. I kind of got into that, just telling stories and enjoying doing it. It seems like all the older coaches, we spend more time calling each other or texting each other and just sharing stories. I think you've given light to all the things that we as coaches do. You were talking about the DT or David Perrower calling and talking to him. He and I probably the shortest conversation we've ever had is 20 minutes.
Sometimes they were long back in the day as far as that. But us older coaches, we love to tell stories. There's no question about it. Well, I don't think the average everyday person realizes how... I was at the recruiting fair and there were some younger college coaches there. I met up with Steve Robinson that was with us at Temple and we told a story. He was like, I haven't been able to tell that story in 15 years because everybody thinks I'm lying when I tell it.
Because they don't believe some of the stuff we talk about. They just can't believe that, no, that really happened. But you came to Georgia from Tennessee after playing at Middle Tennessee. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes, I tell everybody I was a backup offensive lineman and a long snapper. So I was that kid. I was the Johnny Trial Hard. I was just happy to be a part of the team. I was fortunate enough to letter my senior year at Middle Tennessee.
Went and worked in my hometown for a year as the Special Teams Coordinator and Assistant Offensive Line Coach. And then went back to Middle as a GA. And I'll never forget this, my wife and I were married. It was kind of wild. I finished playing coach the year. And we got married in December. I became a GA in January. So she doesn't know for the most part any life other than coaching. And, you know, one year came in and two, we were broke. We were living in married housing.
She was going to school. She was working. I was being a GA and I needed a job. And, you know, I'd interviewed with a bunch of different college coaches and just couldn't find a job. And then Rob Riding's called Boots Donnelly. Rob's a former Middle Tennessee grade. And I'll never forget the conversation. I'm down in the GA's office and he hollers my name and I come running. And he says, have you ever thought about moving to Georgia? And I said, no, sir.
And so he hands me the phone and probably two, three weeks later my wife and I were packed up and we were moving to La Grange, Georgia. So that was back in 1996. And I'll tell you, you know, it was kind of funny. We moved into April. I started, you know, obviously that little, what do you call it, limited contract. And I was really spoiled. I mean, I had PE, you know, had dudes and we had a principal.
And some of the stories that I'm going to tell, I hope we're past the statute of limitations so nobody gets in trouble because I think when you go back to the way I was, you know, raised and coaching, you know, those days are gone. So, you know, let's just, you know, you made you made a little repaying forward. I've been very fortunate to have worked for some really, really good coaches and been trained by some really good old school type coaches.
And, you know, the one thing they kind of taught me from day one is, you know, it's all about how you treat people and how you leave places. And I've been a lot of different places and I've always tried to do the right thing, be the right thing. Sometimes things don't work out at different schools, regardless of, you know, how hard you work. But I've always tried to be a good person and things like that.
And I think, you know, some of the stories I'm going to tell about troop and coffee would make you make some of the people who are administrators today like this flinch. I think, you know, David Throelick and Tiz told you many of the stories, but probably the best one is my very first day at troop. I had outside duty and the principal comes up and he said, listen, you, the most important thing is make sure they all get inside.
He said, but there's a handful of kids that go to the alternative school. And he said, do not let them go in. And I said, yes, sir, I didn't have any idea. And those kids were obviously on day one. So some kid comes to be popping off the bus, goes in, gets his breakfast, he's eating outside the principal sees it. And I've never seen anything like this in my life.
And the principal comes up and puts his elbow right in the kid's throat and like threatens to like just wearing out right there and told him, you know, do not ever step in step foot in my school. And the kids like shake the drops in breakfast and whatnot. And the bus gets there for the alternative school. And principal looks at me because that's how we do things around here. And I'm like, holy cow, you know, those days are all hands on kids and things like that.
But the type of school that he ran obviously had some issues later in his life as a superintendent. But he was an incredible principal. And he used to go down to the weight room and as you know, in a shirt and tie and bench press with the kids. He was kind of a jab joker and he enjoyed it. But you look back on those times and you just think, wow, I can't believe that happened in a school setting.
But everybody feared, you know, and sometimes in today's world, it's hard for kids to kind of fear a thing. Fear authority. Well, they don't like it. No, not at all. But you know, DT Hotel one that the principal did one time with him. And I went in that lucky now. So I started off in PE and then got shipped to social studies because I got a minor in history. And but there were times where, you know, they cut on the intercom.
And they'd say, you know, coach, or coach, you guys in the weight room, they like, yes, sir. And then 30 minutes later, they'd say, guys, if you don't mind, please come up to the office. I need you to sign your evaluation. You know, they do teacher evaluations of your intercoms, of course, of course, with teams now, you know, that probably kind of show them. The good old days. Yeah, yeah, those were the good old days. Who was on that staff when you were at true?
Man, I'm telling you, that was an all star staff. If you look back, you had, you know, of course, Rob has been everywhere at the Grange Griffin, you know, just one guy, maybe his fifth state championship as a coordinator. And I joke with him all the time. He played for one at Thompson as a head coach. But here's the guy who has won, I think, three state championships as an offensive coordinator. And maybe two or three as a defensive coordinator. But Rob was the head coach.
Bubba Jeter was a defensive coordinator. Finley, Richard Finley, coach D-Line. I got way too many stories to tell you about Rich. But Finley was a D-Line guy. He coached outside line markers. I coached D-Line. I think Gary Ward, who was a long time basketball coach there, he coached secondary. You had Chris Till, who was a great player at West Georgia. I think he's a head coach out in Louisiana now. Ken Aldridge, who became a head coach later in life. I think he was at Central Burnett.
He's since retired. You had Mike Wagner, Bucky's boy, who was our OC. I mean, it was just, it was an unbelievable staff of guys. But, you know, I tell you, Rich Finley and I, we kind of hit it off. You know, he had just graduated from West Georgia. He and Chris Till. I think Chris Till was probably the first of the 26-year-old, you know, sinkers in college. He may not have been that old. Till would get frustrated at the quarterbacks and then start throwing peremptors.
And he's staying right behind the quarterback and saying, look, look, look, can't you see that? Can't you see this? But Finley was in the weight room one day and I'd come down from there. And, you know, he's a weight room guy. You know, he just shot his Vette Basquiat's and Vette Bench video. Yeah, that was great. And it was, it was. And Rich ain't ever changed now. Rich has been like this since the day I met him. And so we're in there and he's working out.
And I'm in khakis and a collared shirt because I just came out of the classroom and kids are in there power cleaning. And Rich had just got to play and I'm probably what, four years away from having ever stepped on the field. And so I could go over in my khakis and I power cleaned 225 and Rich goes up there. Oh, okay, okay. I'll get this. And he did. And he goes on about a three week cycle of whatever, you know, he could take and he comes in, you know, about 34 weeks later.
He's power cleaning 275 just mad as all get out at me. And it was funny because he started talking jump. He's like, Hey, let's go watch wrestling because, you know, we had a really good wrestling and and they told the story about, you know, our wrestling team and how good it was and things like that. But we're in there and Rich is like, did you ever wrestle in high school? And I'm like, shoot, I didn't wrestle in high school.
He's like, well, I didn't either. And so we, you know, two guys pull a test, I just got through, you know, in the weight room and he literally tens me in 30 seconds. He starts laughing. I like what was the crash? What's the deal man? He's like, I was a two time state state tournament wrestler back in high school. And I'm like, come on. I can't believe it. WWE in the weight room.
He gets me in a hole man and I feel like I'm a pretty big guy, you know, and I'm like tapping the tapping the mat trying to get out from under. And it was he didn't play fair. I tell you that. But I'll tell you now, one of the best stories I can tell you too is, you know, I got there in PE and Rob needed to hire some coaches. And so that second year, I moved to social studies, which I shouldn't have ever done.
I should have held on to that piece by being a young guy, you know, thinking I'm helping the program. And I needed a job somewhere, you know, one year turned into two, two was about to turn into three. And even though I applied for a provisional, I never was never planning on taking any tests to get certified. And I never forget we're up in that office at truth and DT says, you know, have you taught anybody? I said, like, DT, I don't know anybody. He's like, where do you want to coach?
And I said, well, you know, where's the the best place in the state of Georgia to coach football? He said, well, you need to he said, you need to at least experience South Georgia. He said, buddy, mine just got to call for a job and he pulls out. No joke. If your grandmother or anybody in your family, you know, in their 70s or 80s has an address book, DT pulled out a book that looks just like it looks like it's 100 years old. And it is phone numbers.
It's like a roll of decks, but it's a it's like a notebook, you know, the old address notebooks. And he goes through and he finds Kevin's number. And of course, you know, we kind of connect there and was lucky enough to go and work for Coach Giddens at Colfrey for 30 years. And I'm going to tell you, there's not a better offensive line coach and a better guy than Kevin. I know Kevin's, you know, trying to retire again, you know, from the GHSA and he's done a tremendous job.
I saw him up at the state championships. You know, I enjoyed every minute of that. What was the story of Troop about Wagner taking your clothes? Oh, man, I'll tell you funny. So, you know, Mike's high strong. He knows Mike Wagner and he will throw down in a minute. But we had like a Google office, you know, everybody in the same coach's office, everybody had a desk. And I'm very anal intended. I'm like really OCD.
And so every day, you know, every week, really, I would bring clothes for practice. And I had shorts, I had socks, I had, you know, shirts, I had sweatshirt. I like I had a whole wardrobe clothes that I bring each week. Well, why ended up people take my clothes, you know, and I'd be like, okay, if he took one or two. But all of a sudden, after, you know, a couple months, I come I come up there, you know, for practice and I ain't got nothing to wear. And I get in and boy, he and I got into it.
I found some stuff and we got through practice. And for some reason, my wife was coming over there. I think we were going to go out to eat or whatever. So me and Wade, we get to jog jacking with each other. And I'm like, I need my freaking clothes, man. And so I flip his desk and about that time, we're about to go to blows and all of a sudden my wife, you know, kind of is there and he turns around goes, I caught it. And like the, the, the, the thing, you know, it just completely de-escalated.
Yeah, I bet it did. And I was like, because, you know, every man, every man's like, man, I could beat that sucker up. And I'm looking at my way and I'm going to go, he's been in so many fights in, in, uh, Statesboro, Georgia. Yeah, I don't know part of that. I probably wouldn't have came out of that real well. Yeah. I work with wags. I work with wags. It lit the, it's my boy. That joke was crazy. It is crazy. I love my, I've talked to him a couple of weeks ago. He's enjoying being retired.
I know that. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Being a granddaddy. I know he's liking that. So I went down to coffee with tiny. And how was that some about Milton Clements, foreign parents? Yeah, I'll tell you this. So, um, you know, I'm the king of severing contracts, which is not, not financially sound by any stretch of imagination. But when I left a troop, my wife is pregnant. I left her in the brains, which wasn't very smart.
And so I moved to coffee, um, around mid April in order to get ready for spring practice. And it was really one of those cool situations where it's me, Kevin, uh, and Scott Ryder, the defensive coordinator and a local guy. I don't even remember what Milton did to be honest with you, but he had a, it seemed like him and, and, uh, bond will roll. And there was a few other guys that we enjoyed some fellowship with that all had pond houses.
And if anybody's from South Georgia or country, you know, it's just a shed. It's a, it's a mini put together house, you know, on a pond, a fishing pond. And I swear for two months that I'm down there until my wife gets down there. We are fishing every day. I mean, it's like low country bulls. I mean, it is the most awesome setup in the world. And I'll never forget, and I feel like being from Tennessee, I'm through the country.
And, uh, about four or five o'clock in the morning, that first day I just hear, I jump up. I'm scared to death. I'm like, is there a rattlesnake in here? Like what's going on? And, you know, I hear it again. It's like, and so I come, you know, I'm, I'm in their little loft area and I come, you know, be bopping downstairs and getting this is like, what's wrong with you? I'm like, did you hear that noise? And all of a sudden here it goes again. He just starts laughing.
He said, coach, that's, uh, that's deer feeder. He said, they're spraying corn. I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, he explains the whole concept to me, you know, it being a little hunt club. And I, you know, I've been hunting like when I was a kid in Tennessee, but I don't remember ever doing that. I was like, that's cheating. They're like, yeah, it is. Them yellow acorns. You got to put them yellow acorns out there. That's exactly what I'm going to tell you. And this is again another story.
You know, my first two jobs in Georgia, I thought it was like this forever, which it's not. But, um, of course, Kevin hires me. We stay there and whatnot. And, uh, so the very first day of school, you know, I show up and, uh, have to do some things. But then I'm in my, one of my first classes. And so, um, I'm in a health class and I'm introducing myself to the kids. This is, I'm like, I'm in the school. I have signed the contract. I've done to my friend.
I've, I mean, I am signed seal and delivered and I'm at the first day of the school. And, uh, this way he comes knocking on the door and she comes and introduces herself. You know, Joanne Bannam, a, you know, nice to meet you or whatever. And, uh, she leaves and I look at the kids and I said, who is that like, and she goes to the coach. That's the principal. And I went, what? You know, and I'm thinking in my mind and I didn't really put it put it all together because I was young.
Didn't really understand much. Like I'm hired and I'm working at the school and I've never met a freshman. Yeah. But you think, you think in today's world, you know, that's just, you can't, there's no way that those things go on. Uh, in today's world. You know, there was a guy, Jardine, who's, who's dad, Walter Jardine, who's dad's the stadium stadium's name back. And he kind of took in a, took a liking to him and was really good to him.
And so that first couple of weeks of school we go, there's a, there, I think it's, I think it's closed now, but it's right down off of Walker Street in Douglas. It was a place called Scampi's and it was all you can eat. They got a little bar too. We never went there. We just go to the restaurant. And, uh, it was all you can eat wings. And so we're in there and he and I are eating and this dude, we're just having a big time. And there's an older gentleman and he's just having a blast.
He's drinking. He's walking around shaking hands, kissing babies and stuff. He comes up and gives me a big hug and says, Hey, you know, coach, welcome, welcome to Douglas. We're glad to have you. Blah, blah, blah. I said, you know, you need anything. Walter's got my number. You know, we'd be glad to take care of you. You know, ask me about my wife and whatnot. And, uh, he walked away and I look at Jordan and said, who's that? He's like, that's the mayor of Douglas.
And I'm thinking in my head, I've done moved to heaven. This is, this is unbelievable. I get a job. Don't know the principle. I'm out to eat and the mayor of the town, you know, having a blast coming up and talking to me. And I just thought, man, you know, society is crazy. But, you know, but I tell you, you know, another one down there, my, you know, my son was born in Douglas and some of my wife, my wife stays there. She had gotten her, her certification was going to get to be a teacher.
You know, of course we, we don't know any better. She starts applying and she interviews at a couple of places and we had a superintendent who was really, really involved and he comes over to practice one day and he's asking how Claudia is doing if she's had any luck finding the job. And I said, no, sir, and this was on a Tuesday. Okay. This is Tuesday in May. We're in the spring practice or whatnot. And I said, no, sir, she hadn't found anything yet. She's interviewed blah, blah, blah.
He says, okay, I'll take care of it. So about nine o'clock that night, I get a call and it was him and he said, you know, it's Claudia there. And I was like, yes, sir, hold on to a second and tells her that she needs to report to a certain school. And so the next day I go to school or, you know, to talk and interview. Well, the next day I go to school and getting this comes to me and goes, holy cow.
He said, last night the superintendent stopped the board meeting because they had a board meeting that night. He says, I am not signing off on any agenda item until Claudia Scott gets a job in Coffee County. He says, what do we have open and where is it? And in today's, you know, hierarchy of needs, there are certain places that do that. And that's why I was so excited. You know, Steve White, who's still down there, I guess he's been doing it for 40 years.
You know, then went in the state championship and just seeing the excitement in that community. That place is always, always from, from the time I was down there, has always been hungry. And Coach Cole and those guys, you know, they did an amazing job. They were physical. They were very Michigan like. Yeah, it was fun to watch them finally win one because they've, they've always been, you know, real into it. I mean, even their baseball programs always been just athletes in general.
I mean, they, they, they get it. I mean, they know it's another avenue for kids to, to feed and be successful and having opportunities that they wouldn't get elsewhere. Oh no, no. You know, I joke. We, we had better equipment. We had a better practice facility, a better weight room, coffee, then probably 90% of the division two schools in the country. Like when we were, we were out there practice, I go so long, we had more toys than you could, could ever think of.
We had pads we can never even use. We had a big old, big old, you know, shed. Wasn't really a shed. It was almost like a warehouse to keep the equipment. And I was the equipment guy. I mean, it was amazing the amount of funds and support we had. We could just, we could never really get it going. We made the playoffs once kind of got a kind of back door in because Bainbridge played an ineligible player, but you know, we were in a region and people talk about regions being tough.
We had, you know, Val Dosta, Lowns, Cawquit, Tifton, as back when Ware County was part of that region. Bainbridge, I mean, you can be good and finish fourth or fifth. And that's kind of where we were every single year. Just right in the mix. We were a really good football team. We could never crack the, crack the playoffs. You know, and I was down there 98, 99 and 2000 in 98.
But I also won the state championship in our region and in 99 Lowns wanted and 99 was the year we made the playoffs and played Brunswick and got absolutely shambuzel. We scored on the first drive, ran trap and we had a full back. Jake Olson, it looked like Joel McEvick and from Nebraska, he pops one on Brunswick and probably 20, 30 yard touchdown and we thought, man, we're up in this thing.
And all of a sudden they start tossing it to, I don't want to say his name was Aunt Lee because I think that was a kid that played at Florida State. But they had a kid that ended up going to middle Tennessee and it was toss right, toss left and it was touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. I think it's final score, maybe in 42 to 7. But they ended up losing the Lowns in the state championship game.
Yeah, I was out there game on the sideline watching Coach Miller and, you know, because I lived with Matt, his son at Georgia Southern and Coach Miller's always looked after me. So I went to that game and that was the year that they beat Northside in the, in the Dome came back and 28 to three down at halftime. Yeah, that wasn't for them. It wasn't Wigord wheel, but it was more of a zone wheel that they ran. And when we played Lowns, we scored on that play.
And Steve White, who was our OC, of course, it's like one o'clock in the morning. You can follow, you know, we're watching GP TV and the phone rings and Steve's like, did you see that? That's our play. They stole it. That's our play. Yeah, the who can lie. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, yeah, yeah, that's exactly what, you know, but of course they did. You know, what was the defensive coordinator that was there all those years, Clay Hill?
Randy Hill. Randy Hill, Randy Hill. I'll never forget, you know, I'm a young wicker snapper and I'm ready to be a defensive coordinator. And I, you know, I'm trying to learn and they were wide tackle six or after at worth. And when he first went to Lowns, they were wide tackle six and then they, you know, migrated to the four three. And that's what they were running when they did that.
But, you know, I was a wide tackle six guy from middle Tennessee to L'Grange to, you know, what I was planning on and then run my first few years at Perry. And I met with him and I said, so what do you do? You know, I understand a normal two back offense, but everybody's getting into this spread stuff. You know, what kind of coverage is the play against, you know, two by two. He's like, cover three. I said, what if they go trips cover three?
Well, what if they, what if they get into some form of, you know, tight end triple or just a nub tight end and trips on the cover three? What about empty five? Why is cover three? I'm like, well, what else do you play? Cover one. Okay. So, you know, people nowadays are playing two, four, six, eight, you know, all these different variations of mod and match and brittle is and all that like you can win a bunch of games just being sound and having those guys.
Yes. Yes. You know, people talk about it all the time. And, you know, I don't know what it is that. And I'm still the same way after all these years, I don't cheer for teams. I cheer for coaches, you know, and, and, you know, I used to be that guy and I'm still this way when I go places, I want to know what's the history of the coaches. You know, when I first got to Perry, after my first years as a head coach, I realized, you know, I was an idiot.
And, you know, I was able to sit down with guys like Robert Davis and Louis DeWales and Conrad Nix and Larry Campbell, Dan Piz. You know, just, just try to hear those guys and hear guys like Randy and hear guys, you know, like Milton Miller and, and, and, you know, I just don't think in today's coaching that enough of the young coaches have a respect of the coaches that came before. You know, I just think, I just think that's one thing that, and I think that's society.
I don't think it's just necessarily young coaches, but there's a lot of, you know, older coaches that really admire guys that have gone before, you know, and I think the older I get, the more I appreciate the opportunity to like share stories like this with you.
But, you know, I've been very fortunate to have a lot of really young coaches that have taken, and, you know, I've been a head coach 14 out of 28 years, and the amount of guys who've worked for me that have gone on to be head coaches, I take a lot of pride in you.
Because, you know, you have to charge your own course, but at the end of the day, if you don't have a vision and you don't have somebody that you can call and get advice, and I still do that today, you know, when I was, when I was learning the 33 and migrating from the White Tag 6, you know, I'd call Donnie Branch of the branch and I said,
What do you do about this? You know, what do you call that? Or how do you adjust to that? And then, you know, spending those years with Fabrizio at Leake, or that year, Fabrizio at Leake County, and seeing how he does things. And even today, you know, calling him saying, have you guys changed anything? What are your adjustments? Or can you share, you know, your tackling video, your practice video?
And, you know, every coach is different. I think, you know, the one comment my wife made to me that I'll tell everybody, you know, when I got the period job, she said, you know, she gave me some of the best advice ever. She said, whatever happens, do it your way. She said, eventually you're going to get fired anyway. So let's just enjoy the vacations. Do it your way. Do it the best you can.
And so that if when, and if you do get fired, you'll look back and go, I did it my way. And I think that's, you know, you can't be somebody you're not. And I think there's a lot of coaches who try to be the next, you know, Davos Winger, the next Nick Saban. Just be Chris Lam, just be Annie Scott, just be whoever you are. Because, you know, Bubba Jeter told me a long time ago, the kids can tell the difference between crap, you know, they know who the coaches that are genuine.
And when it all boils down to the kids and how hard they play for you, you know, John Bubbo told me a long time ago. And I've seen a lot of coaches that I know that have shared it in the past. You know, he used to say that there's a lot better coaches than there are good jobs. And he said, don't ever look, because he and I used to talk and I'd say, Coach, I want to coach in college. I want to someday coach in NFL.
He just laughed. He goes, Why do you think that's any different than coaching in high school? He said, when you watch teams play, are they fundamentally sound? Do they line up correctly on both sides of the ball? And, you know, you've been a part of good teams and a part of bad teams. There's times when you turn on that family boy, we look good until the ball's just out.
Right? You know what I mean? Like, God, we were lined up, right? We didn't touch our soul, you know. But watch teams, are they fundamentally sound? Do the kids play hard? And are they physical?
From that point on, it's a Jimmy's and Joe's show, you know, and the best players normally win. But when you have two teams that are both really, really good, and one is fundamentally sound, and they're very physical, and they play hard, and they play together, that's the team that wins state championships.
Those teams that are really, really athletic, yeah, they're going to make the playoffs. But then they're going to meet a team, you know, I joke and people don't want to hear this. When I moved, when I moved to the Metro Atlanta area in 2012, you know, I'd spent 17 years south of me. And during those 17 years, we played against like 14 state championship teams from 2012 until, gosh, 18. There wasn't a team in our region that won one up here. And Marietta won it finally.
But you, people don't have any respect for how good a Hawkinsville was, how good Peach County is and was, how good, you know, teams like Wilcox County was, and Gartie, and K-Row, and, you know, Cawquick County, and Val Dosta, you know, when Val Dosta won it in 98, they didn't have any kids that went to college.
You know, I'll never forget, we'd sit in, you know, staff meetings at Cawfee and I'd be like, oh, that's the high school, 23 state championships, six national championships, and they ain't very good. But when that ball was snapped, they had 11 kids on defense, they had a nose guard that's probably 5'10", 175 pounds, that was absolutely unblockable. They had two 6'390 pound outside linebackers that were unblockable. And you're like, okay, well, we're not beating them suckers.
You're like, oh, I get it now. Yeah. And, you know, you talked about in your hot hotness about Tifton, you know, I'm there forgetting, broding those guys, you know, there were a lot of those guys that work for them that were about to retire. They just went down and coached middle school football. And people don't understand in the Metro, South Georgia has a bunch of coaches that still love to coach. But they don't mind doing middle school weight training and middle school football.
And those kids are getting so much better coaching. You know, the days when Thomas County Central ran the veer forever, you know, they were running the veer from the 6th, 7th, 8th grade. You know, those kids coming out the shoes, you know, every single day for those three, four years leading up to the day they ever stepped on campus at Thomas County Central High School.
And I think, you know, those places down there are legitimate football factories. I think teams now feel like, you know, it's the transfer portal kind of thing. Let's just get us a bunch of dudes and let's just line up and play, you know, cover two and man under two deep and let's just ball out, throw it all over the place. And then they line up in the playoffs and get Molly walked by teams from South Georgia, you know. Your first day coaching job was a period, wasn't it?
It was. Yeah, 2000. I was a head coach in a day 2005 to I guess, 9 or 10. Something like that. And like I said, you know, I had no idea what I was doing. I was very fortunate to get that job. And we made the playoffs and made it to the quarterfinals and, you know, Texas Kevin when they won it this year just excited for that community. There's kids on that staff that played for us that were on our team.
You know, a lot of people that are still there. I was, you know, on the sideline with Casey Hayward, Torrin Smith and a lot of kids that played for Sydney Swan. And I'm telling you, it's that's another place that could just never get over the hump. You know, when we were there, you know, it was always Northside and Warner Robbins and Housen County wasn't very good and veteran wasn't what didn't exist.
But it was always, I'll never forget, I was at the bank of the Perry bank there and I was getting some money on a Friday and the ladies like, who are you for tonight? And I'm like, I'm for Perry. And she goes, no, no, I'm talking about Warner Robbins Northside. I'm like, lady, I don't care about that game. You know, she had no idea who I was. But you know, that's that whole Housen County was built around them and for the success that Northside had.
And then all of a sudden the success that Warner Robbins has had, you know, that place is hungry for football. I was happy for those folks in Perry and Kevin and that whole staff being able to do that. Cody Mahler and Justin Ryder and all those guys that played for us. Tyler Rogers and Justin Rogers. You coached Casey Hayward. Get off the field. Yeah, yeah, that was funny now. It wasn't funny at the time, but you know, we used to do this little prayer announcement kind of thing before practice.
In case it is when he was a sophomore, he was kind of talking and I kind of jumped on him and he backed off me. And I led into him hard and he kind of, I mean, you know how kids are. I think the older you get, the more you can get on a kid but don't back a kid in a corner, right? I kind of back kid in a corner and I kicked him off the field. And as he's walking, I've got an assistant coach right beside me. Do not let him leave. And I'm screaming at the top of the list. Get you off this field.
And I'm looking at the assistant. Don't you let him leave. And I turn, you know, I scream something to Casey and I scream something to him. James Moore, James Moore, I was like, hey man, do not let him leave this field. Do not let him. And he walked over there and he got him corralled. But Casey was an unbelievable player. You know, he was in all state defensive back and of course had a great career of Vandy and then with the Chargers and then Green Bay and just got hurt.
I think still on the roster for the Falcons by the Indian Reserve. But, you know, he was our quarterback. He probably played 15 snaps a game at DB. His senior year intercepted seven passes and took all seven back for touchdowns. And probably the biggest one was against Pitch County when we beat him in 2007 for the first time in 28 years, beat him 48-28. That was a huge, huge win. But Casey was definitely a difference maker. You said something about going deep sea fishing with Kaiser.
Oh, shoot, Jeff Kaiser just retired from Statesboro. Now he was our OC and he used to tell stories. He and his dad were legendary for doing some crazy stuff. And Jeff was kind of the guy for those people that know Jeff Kaiser. Jeff's a big, you know, flamboyant, just great storyteller, whatnot. You know, the way the offices were set up there over in the auxiliary gym, he would kind of sit on his desk.
There was nowhere to sit, so all the coaches would kind of sit out in the hallway, sit on the floor. And it was like he's up there. We're all down here. And he's telling stories about he and his dad, you know, deep sea fishing and whatnot. And we're like, dude, you know, what were you talking about? And he starts talking about these fish and that was around the time that Google, you can look up Google on your phone. And so I'm Googling the fish he's talking about.
And so I start going along with him and I'm like, so what color is this fish? And he's like, it's kind of a blueish, you know, color and like, how big is it? And then I start passing my phone to another coach and then another coach and then another coach. Sean Masters finally hands the phone to Jeff. He goes, y'all, y'all son guns, y'all didn't have any idea what I was talking about. If y'all would have never looked at it, so I'd have been fine. You know, so we like calling them in a lot.
But you know, you wonder how many, how many folks that around tell stories that are completely false. But Sean Masters just said, Jeff, come on, man, you got to tell us the truth. In 2007, you had a no shave November. Oh, yeah, we, that was kind of the year we got, we got on a run, had some big wins. And then, you know, my wife, I guess everybody in the 90s, I don't know about you, but, you know, we all had mustaches in college, which were just. I did not. Come on, man.
You're a little bit younger than me. We had mustaches and then I kind of didn't, I mean, I shaved completely from really 96 to 07. And I beg my wife, I want to grow a beard. I want to grow a goatee. You know, she's like, no, no, no. And then we start winning. And everybody's like, we're not shaving. We're not shaving until we lose. And all of a sudden, you know, we, we all grow these semi beards.
And then if you remember anything about the true no shave November when it started, you would do some really stupid stuff. You grow sideburns, bars. He just does some crazy stuff. Well, the night we played Harris rainbow in Worth County, I shaved a goatee. And, you know, we win that game. We beat the Grange in Perry, which was huge, huge upset. And then we're going to North Hall and, you know, we celebrate that win. And for some reason from 2007, November 2007 till today, I still have a goatee.
And it's, I mean, it's completely white now. But it was, that was, that was my only way to get her to let me grow goatee. We kind of, we started winning and she enjoyed it. You know, she liked it. So sometimes you got, you got to trick your wife in it to do, let you do things that sometimes you might not agree with. Where did you go after Perry? So after Perry, I ended up going to, they opened up a new school up in Wong County. Harris rainbow, I knew real well, was a good friend of mine.
He got that job. I went up there. It was a tough place just because we didn't have any players. It was like I said, a new school branching off from Monroe area and Loganville. So I was probably there seven months. You know, and then I left there and I was it. I went to Lee County. Probably the best move I ever made as a coach was to go and work for Dean from breeze out Lee County. And, you know, I think, you know, looking back, I probably should have never tried to be a head coach. I enjoyed it.
But, you know, when you're when you're a head coach, man, you have so many other things that you do that you just, you just want coach ball. And part of the deal, you know, my wife telling me to do it my way is even when I was a head coach, I was the most part ran the weight room, ran the defense coach linebackers or secondary and working for Dean. I was in I assess all day. All I did was watch film.
I did the defense, you know, call the defense and then, you know, about halfway through January, February, I get a call from Matt Moody, who was a buddy of mine who was at Harrison at the time. Hey, the Kennesaw Mountain jobs. You need to do it. And then a couple of days later, Phil Ironside, who was a good player in middle Tennessee, was in Hill Grove. Hey, you need to take the take the Kennesaw Mountain job. I think it'd be a good job.
And, you know, I go up there six years, move to Kennesaw Mountain and, you know, try to try to do everything I could to get it right. But, you know, just couldn't, you know, it was a seven day school. We had probably 700, 800 kids in a math science magnet school that I didn't really know about until I took the job, which he looked back and you probably should have done your homework on that thing. But I enjoyed it. My son graduated from there. It's as good a school day as you'll ever meet.
I was a little bit surprised, but, you know, did the Walnut Grove, Lee County, Kennesaw Mountain. And then after I was six, I was six years at Kennesaw Mountain and then went to Hiram as the DC. And Pete Coleman and I was incredible to me. You know, I look back, you know, the time I was with Fabrizio as a defense coordinator, as good a job as you'll ever have. I should have never left. I was a defense coordinator for Pete Coleman and I was his defense coordinator for three years.
He was as good as gold to me. I had an easy job. Did the defense. I assisted in the wave room. I really didn't do nothing but coach football. And then all of a sudden, what happens? You get, I need to be head coach again. I need to be head coach again and probably should have never left Hiram and then went to Lafayette was, you know, up there or still there for three years. You know, not really sure what the Lord's got planned for him, but it's got to be somewhere closer to my house.
I never, never was fortunate enough because of the Biden economics or whatever the case may be to move to Lafayette. But I tell you, it's a great place. Got great kids, great facilities, you know, the support in the community is unbelievable. It's somebody's going to get a really, really good job. I think it's a great position. But, you know, I just couldn't, couldn't really afford to move this late in my career, especially with the housing market and the interest rates being what they are.
You know, I'm kind of that in-betweener guy right now just trying to see what's out there, you know. Well, tell me about Wade Stewart versus Brent Ford. One of the funniest things, I know we all as coaches, you know, all feel like we're athletic and Wade Stewart worked with me at Perry and worked with me at Kennesaw Mountain. And Wade, when he was in high school, he was a really good athlete, played baseball, played football.
And, but as he, you know, we all get older and bigger and grumpier and whatnot. Wade, Wade is the constant. He's now a special teams coordinator, secondary coach at Carterville, still a real good friend of mine. But Wade talks major league junk. Brent Ford was a former Auburn great, former NFL, you know, guy that coached her running backs and they get the jaw jacking one day. And Wade, Wade's like, hey man, I will race you.
And if you have ever been around coaches who race, what's fixing to happen? Somebody was going to pull a muscle. Somebody's going to pull a hamstring. And you got Brent Fullwood, who's all of 6'1", 2'30". He looks like he could play for the Green Bay Packers still. And they line down and they take off and about 20 yards in, Fullwood blows his hamstring and Wade Stewart beats him, you know. And Wade's probably, you know, giving him some, he might be 5'9".
And Fullwood's this big, long, athletic looking joker to play at Auburn with Bo Jackson and those, you know, that's just coaches being coaches, you know. Those are some crazy things. I do have to tell you this, you know, one of the stories I wanted to share, you know, we, I don't want to really say the program, but one of the things that I think makes coaching fun is there's, there's certain kids that need football more than football needs them, right?
And we always, coaches are always walking through the halls. And for some reason, we're always migrating to these kids with special needs. You know, every place I've ever been, we've always had either a manager or a player with special needs.
And one of the schools that I've worked with up here, we had a young man, he was a manager, a sophomore, coach, kind of play, and the head coach was like, no, no, no, no, no. Gets to be a junior coach, kind of play, no, no, no, no, no, no. And then gets to be a senior coach, kind of play. Now, listen, you're not probably not going to play in any games, not sure how we're going to get you eligible, but we're going to figure it out.
And we kind of did what everybody does, you know, the Far City watches film on Mondays and what, you know, then you have the JV Super Bowl outside scrimmage. And this kid never, never went to film with us, but would always go outside and do the JV Super Bowl scrimmage with the young kids. And as we're walking out late in the season, he's out there and he is making tackle after tackle after tackle. And we're like, holy cow, what in the world.
And all of a sudden, one of the sophomore kids that just let film jumps in there with the JV Screams and takes off on a little run and kind of makes a juke. And this kid looks like he got electrocuted, right, a special needs kid. He's running to make the tackle and he like this locks up legs straight out, you know, arms straight out. I swear to God, it looks like he just got electrocuted in the middle of the field.
All of a sudden he starts running and he's grabbing his pants and like, what in the world. He's like, coach, I don't crap my pants. I don't think there was a human being on that field that was not laid out on the turf laughing. Oh no. You know, a poor fellow. Yeah, poor guy. But of course, he went back in, cleaned himself up and came back out for practice. And he, of course, what was he, he was in my position group. I'm like, oh, you just need to stand over there.
We're not letting you practice or touching anybody today. But I think that's one of the cool things about coaching is just, you know, how we all just pour in there to the kids that we coach. You know, we're all go different places and Kevin used to tell the story. You know, when, when I was a young coach, you kind of, and you always think you're supposed to hate the other team and get into slave. Listen, we're all bad in the same issues. We're all bad in kids coming to practice.
We're all battling kids, you know, making poor choices. You know, he used to always say, don't put yourself in a position to make a bad decision. And you try to, you try to mentor kids. You try to help kids. And at the end of the day, we're all just trying to get kids on the bus, get to the game, you know, try to do the best we can with what we got.
And, and I think that's one thing that if I've learned anything in my, you know, I spent three years in Tennessee prior to coming down here and all my 30 years of coaching is like to get to know the guys you're coaching against. You know, the days of going to the 50 yard line and pregame and hugging everybody's neck and talking and stuff, you know, those days are like, unless you know somebody, those days are over.
And I feel sorry for the game for coaches now that, that don't have, you know, we don't have a Rolodex anymore like DT had, we all have numbers that are fine. But if you can't pop off a text, you know, if you don't have a chain of 20, 30 guys that whether it be Christmas Thanksgiving, New Year's, hey, congratulations, big win.
You know, one of the coolest things ever is like getting tax on a Saturday morning from somebody that you worked with 20 years ago, you know, that you talked to things like that. And that's probably the coolest thing about coaching that I, that I enjoy and miss and going to miss when I do retire is just being around guys and just sharing, sharing fellowship.
And that's how I met you, you know, in 90, 90s, the all season of 96, 97, you know, I'm in a day hospital in the lounge with with Bubba Jeter and Rob Rottens and you walk in. And we've been buddies ever since, you know, the days of the G, G, a what, what was it G a BS being bent. And all the great stories used to like you just somehow figure out a way to backtrack those and write a book of all the lessons because
Well, I'm writing two books right now. I'm just so scatterbrained that it takes me a minute. I got one that's going to be just kind of like my journey in things I learned. And then another one that's just going to be like these stories. So I am working on it. Somebody's going to beat me to it. I'm afraid, but that's okay. They can read. They can read too well.
And I think, you know, and you and I have done this and other coaches that I've been around would do this, you know, I'll call you or text you and say, Hey, I got to share this. And then you're like, that ain't nothing. Listen to this, you know, like, are you are you for real? That's all you got. And, you know, we kind of all one up each other because you never know unless you're in it how good or bad the situation is.
Oh, yeah, I had a coach today telling me about one of the jobs that are open and he was like, Coach, I can't put this out there because, you know, I don't want to. And I love the kids and I don't want to burn any bridges. But here's the real deal. And I know how you are. You'll tell it because you don't care. You know, and he laid it out, you know, bad support, bad this bad that and and I was like, yeah, that ain't good.
And, you know, I just try to help people, you know, know ahead of time. Well, yeah, I mean, because it's like I said before, everyone at these jobs, somebody's going to take them. And, but you know, I mean, don't make the same mistake we did. You know, we were raised by the old heads and they're gone now. And like you said earlier, I think that's something that changed with society is we had to wait our turn.
Like when we were coming up, there weren't 30 year old and 35 year old head coaches. That just wasn't a thing. I mean, it just didn't happen. And now it is because so many of the older guys retired and got out that there was a need and there were people that were, you know, willing to go for it where we didn't even think about trying to be a head coach till we were 35 to 40.
I mean, just didn't cross our mind and we because we knew we weren't ready. And now these guys are like 27 2832 years old and they're like, Oh, I can be I can do that. And I think one thing that you brought up and it's true is every single place has good and every single place has bad. Okay, there is no utopia. No matter how good you think you've got it.
And I think at the end of the day, you got to see what can you put up with? You know, do you have the kind of support and enough players to be successful? And sometimes the answers no, you don't, you just don't. But that urge for many of us that I want to be a head coach so bad, I don't care, I will fix it. You know, when I was, let's say 28 years, let's see, 26 27 years old, I got offered the head coaching job in my hometown.
And I called coach Donley and I said, Coach, what do you think? He goes, listen, whether you're the first choice or the last choice, if you want the job, take the job. He said, but I have to say this, what makes you think that you're going into a program? He said, I'm not trying to be ugly, but you're going to go into a program that's never won.
And you're going to be the magic, you know, pixie does. And all of a sudden, you all will start winning. He said, if you think that's true, then you're not as smart as I think you are. He said, you do what you want to do. But you're not, you're not new, right? You're not, you know, Barry Bryant, I'm sorry.
But if you're thinking you're going into a program that's never won and you're going to be the magic, pixie does, you're in for a rude awakening. And of course, I turned the job down and, you know, there were many, I guess 2005, I was 35 when I got my first head coaching job.
But prior to that, like you said, I paid my dues, you know, I've been the equipment guy, I've been the CDL guy, you know, I'm both grass line fields, you know, it goes back to a whole another gamut of young coaches like nobody wants to do the weight run. Do you not know how to fix a helmet? You know, do you not know how to do laundry? You know, I think there's not enough guys. And what heck, we were the ones that were just there with the old guys doing it. And we felt bad if we didn't do it.
You know, I don't know. I think I think just society in general, but I'm not speaking the will of young coaches because my son's a young coach, but he was, you know, that coach's kid, you know, like Grayson, he's always around. He just he knows what it looks like, all that kind of stuff. He kind of, you know, tries to do it to osmosis. But I do believe that, you know, a lot of us old guys are the last. Like what, you know, what the, the, they talk about the Hodges.
Oh, well, can't what did they used to break it down on the last of the hard, you know, the tough, hard nose, gritty. This is how we do it. You know, kind of guys. I tell you, I enjoy being talking to those people. I sure have enjoyed having you on today coach and you've been a blessing to a lot of people and impact you've had on young people, whether it be players, coaches, people in the community.
It's just obvious, you know, through your videos and your talk today, just what the profession's meant to you. And as I put in the in the bio, just a true gentleman of the game in a game that we just don't have many of those anymore. And just definitely one of the best dudes to me always been good to me. I mean, there's four or five guys that I've always just said, you know, man, he's a good dude.
And you've just always been a good dude to me. And I sure do appreciate you. I appreciate you, too, bro. And, you know, I can't wait to see you again. And I should appreciate appreciate you being on with us. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Enjoy. All right, man, we'll talk to you later. Yes, sir. Bye bye. Yeah.