Obviously, the coaching carousel in West Tennessee has been active this offseason. More active than what I expected. I knew there would be three head coaching jobs for sure that will be available, maybe four. All four of those schools that I expected to get a new head coach, did in fact, get a new head coach. Right now, we're at 14 schools in West Tennessee that'll have a new football coach in West Tennessee.
Of those 14 schools, only three of them still have an opening. I will throw an interesting nugget at you, the 11 schools that filled their vacancy, either hired from within, or took another coach (whether if it's head/assistant) from another school in West Tennessee.
I have this odd theory that some schools will want to hire a head coach, just to hire a head coach. With that being said, it doesn't necessarily work out. Scott Stidham left South Gibson for Independence. He had the #1 player in the state in Ty Lockwood that was scheduled to play for him in 2022, but elected to have shoulder surgery and miss the year. He also had a player that is currently at Western Michigan in running back, Tre Hartwell. They ran more of a I-formation type offense with play action pass. Not to mention, Dexter McCluster is on that coaching staff. They're a 6A school with good athletes. In 2023, they lose Hartwell, and the offense changed to the Wing-T. The same offense that Stidham ran in Medina. To put it nicely, the offense plummeted in stats, and defense in that region figured them out. They were average, and it's not a good fit right now off 840.
I knew the Lexington job would be open last summer. I think everyone in Lexington had a feeling that it was going to be Hollingsworth's last season before the season began. With that being said, they also had John Ross Hudson on staff. Hudson left Lexington as an assistant to go to Camden. That occurred while the Lexington job was still open. Kind of told me that Lexington was going to get a head coach somewhere, and they did.
Liberty hired Robert Gillard as their football coach. And yes, he did have heading coach experience at Kenwood and Austin-East. He spent 3 years at Kenwood as a head coach, and won around 10 games total. I love Tyler Reeder as a person, but he struggled at South Side, especially post covid.
USJ hired an assistant in Derrick Pritchard and South Gibson hired Ben Johnson, an assistant from Westview. I know McKenzie would do their homework, and I'm not worried about who they will hire. However, saying they'll bring a head coach just solely because he has the "experience" doesn't mean it's good.