Mt. Juliet Christian hires Pearl-Cohn football staffer

Dan Davis, who spent eight seasons as a football assistant at Pearl-Cohn, has been hired at Mt. Juliet Christian to replace Jake Roberts.

"I think my background has made me well prepared because I've had some interesting challenges, and this is an interesting challenge," said the 39-year-old Davis, who will be making his head coaching debut. "It's time to build a winner here."

Mt. Juliet Christian finished 3-7 last fall, competing in Division II-A, and Roberts was 5-15 in his two seasons before leaving to take an assistant coaching position at Knoxville Karns.

"We had about 50 resumes sent to us and we interviewed eight (candidates)," Mt. Juliet Christian athletics director Paul Christensen said. "When we met with Coach Davis, we knew we had the right guy. He's a man of great character, and he has the drive to do something special.

"The fact he hasn't been a head coach before says to me he's going to be hungry to do something special in his first experience."

Davis, who previously coached at Glencliff with the late Jim Wilson in 1997-98, downplayed the transition from the Metro Nashville Public Schools system to a small private school setting.

"I think kids want someone that's going to be honest with them; it doesn't matter if they're Metro kids or in Mt. Juliet or where they are," he said. "Kids want real leadership, and that translates regardless of socio-economic backgrounds.

"We've got to change some things. We have to be committed to the process of changing the culture of how we're going to play football here. That's what it's going to take. I think these kids will take that on really fast."

Reach Maurice Patton at 615-259-8018 and on Twitter @mopatton_sports.