Former Carter football coach Jeff McMillan back at Fulton as coordinator

A familiar face will be back on the Fulton High School football sidelines this fall.

Jeff McMillan, who was defensive coordinator for the Falcons during a pair of recent back-to-back Class 4A state championships before moving to Carter, is back.

McMillan, 57, will be defensive co-coordinator along with Jason Harbison.

McMillan retired from Carter as a teacher and coach following the 2016 season. He will not teach at Fulton.

At the time of McMillan's retirement in December, a review of his personal file by the News Sentinel revealed actions of members of the coaching staff were deemed "inappropriate and unprofessional" by Knox County Schools.

According to a two-page Conference of Concern letter from Assistant Superintendent Bob Thomas and dated Sept. 13, 2016, coaches were accused of bullying players, asking players who were injured to participate in games or practices, dictating players' social media activity and having a negative culture in the program. Coaches also were accused of publicly confronting a student no longer playing on the team in a public arena.

The coaching staff was required to "participate in a training on the Civility Code, Title VI, and Anti-Bullying and Harassment," according to the letter. 

McMillan did not miss any games because of the allegations.

McMillan issued a three-page rebuttal to the letter during the season, arguing the bulk of the accusations were made by a former player who quit the team and his mother. McMillan called the allegations of bullying "absolutely false and unfounded" and said no injured athletes were asked or forced to participate in games or practice.

The Conference of Concern marked the only blip in McMillan's personnel file, which included more than 100 pages.

"Jeff worked for us for awhile and I've known him for more than 30 years and know what kind of man he is, so we had no hesitation at all (about bringing him back)," Fulton athletic director Jody Wright said.

Carter was 14-19 in three seasons under McMillan, who has coached in the area for 34 years.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever coach as long as Bob Black, but I’m not ready to get out now,” McMillan said.

Assistant Bob Black, the son of Falcons coach Rob Black, has coached at Fulton for more than 50 years.

“I had a few other opportunities, but it just so happened that Rob had a couple of coaches leave and things just fell into place,” McMillan said.

More:Jeff McMillan retiring as Carter football coach; staff was disciplined

His son, Clark, is wide receivers coach for Fulton.

Rob Black said he jumped at the chance to get McMillan – who helped Fulton capture state championships in 2012 and 2013 – back on board.

“I couldn’t help but give him a call,” said Black, who returns four starters on defense from last season’s 8-5 team.

He said that McMillan, who was a standout defensive lineman at Carter, knows well what defense is all about at Fulton.

“We want to be an attacking style of defense and create turnovers,” Black said.

Prior to his first stop at Fulton, McMillan coached at Central for 24 years under Joel Helton.

McKinney injured: Black said junior receiver Dashaun McKinney will miss the 2017 season after suffering a serious knee injury at the recent Kentucky football camp.

“It’s his ACL and he’ll be out for the year – he’ll have surgery in July,” Black said.

“He had been so impressive at the camp. It was like his last rep of the camp. He caught the ball in the end zone and just came down wrong.”

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound McKinney caught 50 passes for 848 yards and 13 touchdowns last season for the Falcons.

Mike Blackerby is a freelance contributor.