edwardblake

5 minutes ago, Pinocchio007 said:

This is a strange list and is not going to happen bud, hate to break it to you. Those 3 will not be announced for the Bulldogs in 2022. 

What do you think about it? To me this is an impossible situation. LJS says the admin is not strong and they're in a tough spot. What are the realistic outcomes? It is possible they'll go into February and not have this sorted out.

Bearden has eight jobs posted. Three special ed teaching assistant jobs, two assistant baseball jobs, one softball assistant job, a supply PE teacher position, and a head football coach job. The folks in charge over there are clearly struggling to hire someone. They've had four weeks to get this figured out. They've got three options: hire someone willing to be a special ed teaching assistant during the day and be head coach at night, have a Cocke Co situation and hire an insurance agent, or hire internally. I think they would have already announced if hiring internally. So really they have two options that they don't want to choose. They've done a decent job keeping this quiet except for one or two guys on the hiring panel but that doesn't change the fact that this is a complete clustercuss.

I think not having a teaching job is the reason this has been a sluggish process. I've heard that the market is softening on Josh Jones and hiring Rusty Bradley is more likely.

18 minutes ago, LittleJerrySeinfeld said:

Hopefully they are waiting till after the state championships are over to get someone who knows how to win.  The previous staff definitely did not make it seem like a job someone would want so I agree with you there

All sarcasm aside, what do you mean? Bearden beat West in 2018 and took us to OT in 2019. We went to the semifinals that year. I know their offense struggled mightily all year but it still seems like a proud program.

2 minutes ago, LittleJerrySeinfeld said:

68 vs 78 days does not seem like a big deal to me.  I figure coaching staff and scheme can make up for a couple weeks in the weight room, but maybe I am wrong

Snow, Covid, Illness, Flooding Days, the list goes on an on but I agree football teams only need eight to twelve weeks of strength training. It's not like it helps to be strong or fast in the game of football.

11 minutes ago, LittleJerrySeinfeld said:

If they start working out in January, that gives them 7 months before August.  Is that not enough time?  I am not from Knox County so you all will have to help me out.  Basketball is definitely not an individual sport btw.

Do you know how prep football works? June and July is mostly on the field preseason prep. Take out a month for spring ball, that leaves you with four months. That's sixteen weeks. Uh oh. Spring Break. Fifteen weeks. Five days a week, that's 75 days. Not to mention other school holidays like Good Friday and MLK Day. Do you want a QB standing behind an offensive line that has worked out for 68 days? 

5 minutes ago, LittleJerrySeinfeld said:

My bad, I did not know that a couple weeks in the weight room would make or break a season.  I figured taking time to hire the right head coach would be more important.  

It's not baseball or basketball LJS which are individual sports compared to football. No strength and conditioning a few weeks may not make or break a season in the way you imply but it definitely could get kids hurt if they don't prepare their bodies correctly which will make or break a season in the way you did not imply.

1 minute ago, LittleJerrySeinfeld said:

Like I said, most all of them are working out already. What else can they do?

No they're not. No 6A school in Knox County has a workout class for football. Multiple 5A schools do but not 6A.

I have been hearing from my perch at West High, Bearden is ready to announce Jones as the new head coach. They just have to wait until Powell's run is finished.

What I'm hearing from my perch at West High;

Josh Jones is the leading candidate, would simplify issues as far as faculty congestion, and would serve as a "splashy" offensive hire. Also word is Brad Taylor & Rusty Bradley are interviewing sometime at the beginning of the week. First interviews start today.

10 hours ago, BigTime1950 said:

Coach Taylor and his staff did an excellent job at Bearden. Coach Taylor and his staff also has done an excellent job at Karns.

At what Randall? Underachieving? In 2010 West went over there and crushed them when they had a once in a lifetime running back in Devrin Young and last week Rhea Co did the same with the once in a lifetime back in Bishop.

41 minutes ago, HTV said:

3 post, just showed up?  

Troll city. 

Is this a CoachT first? Someone posing as a school administrator? Hopefully an admin will step in and lock their account.

2 minutes ago, BigTruth said:

I just showed up because I have just recently been added as a member of the interview committee for the Bearden Head Coach. I've heard buzz that all of the best football minds in East TN are on CoachT. Didn't want to miss valuable information about the applicants. Since we can't add all of you to the interview committee, I am here as a liaison between all of you and the powers at be at Bearden High School. I also believe the public has a right to know all of the most factual information about head coaching searches. Please let me know any questions you'd like to ask! Right now, the leading candidate is a young fellow from West Virginia who has won 3 state titles at school comparable to a TN 4A school.

No you're not and no he's not.

3 minutes ago, edwardblake said:

From my perch at West high, I've heard that the head principal and the AD are not on the same page as far as a teaching position for the potential HC and whether or not the head coach will be in the building or not. Seems there is some tension out west.

It's not all that surprising because I did hear years back that the current AD applied for the basketball job but the school went another direction. Probably still some hurt feelings there.

From my perch at West high, I've heard that the head principal and the AD are not on the same page as far as a teaching position for the potential HC and whether or not the head coach will be in the building or not. Seems there is some tension out west.

33 minutes ago, RPohnO said:

There is a difference between 5A and 6A football. I think it is totally reasonable to be skeptical of hiring a 5A offensive coordinator to come be a head coach at a 6A program and expect similar offensive success. HOWEVER. If this coach averaged just 6 points less at Bearden (30), they may have gone 9-1 and a 2 seed in the playoffs. So maybe, if the DC stayed, the Central coach could do enough for Bearden to start winning now?

Any offense would be better than what they had this past year. When they came to play West the defense had to stop our offense and score to win, the offense didn't get off the bus in most of their games.

4 hours ago, dawgs82 said:

FHS, Vil is just being honest. This is the worst Central has looked on offense since 2016. Play calling is terrible. Go to Diamond Clear and watch the 2nd and 4th quarters of the Halls game. Pathetic best describes it. If he wants to leave, let him go. But I'd hate to see him end up at Bearden. He's not the answer!

1 hour ago, madhatter2269 said:

wait WHAT?!?! PLEASE take him. This has to be a joke, right? You do realize those ‘36 PPG’ is SUPER inflated. Running up the score against heritage, cocke co, Hardin valley, TN high is why that’s so high. when we have played good competition this year the results have been 14 points against west and 17 against greeneville. not sure if anyone considers SD good or bad this year. but yes the game plan is sweep left and right with the QB faking the throw after the handoff (fools no one) and a quick 3 years slant or behind the LOS screen.

This is coming from a West fan, and I'm not saying this because I'm nervous about the game this week, @madhatter2269 you mentioned Heritage, Cocke Co,Hardin Valley, and TN High but Central has averaged scoring 10-12 more points than the all of their opponents' defenses average giving up per game. Their game with us was a total outlier. To say they say they don't have a powerful offense is ridiculous, they're in the quarterfinals for a reason. It's not the worst that offense has looked since 2016 because statistically it's better in every way. Some of this seems like it has more to do with personal feelings rather than statistics or performance. @chsbobcat09

11 minutes ago, 5AfballFan said:

Interesting. The current DC would be a great choice. He's young, but his defense did a great job. He's also a fine young man. My son played with Mickey at West many years ago and we thought highly of him.

Speaking of West, Scott Cummings should also be a top prospect. He knows how to build up a program and has tremendous success in multiple schools.

The two of them on the same staff would be dynamite! 

Doubtful Bearden goes with anyone from the Shinlever staff. Again, I’m hearing this is Josh Jones job to turn down. My sons went to West in the late 90’s by the way. Go Rebels!

2 minutes ago, FHSAlum12 said:

Teaching and coaching responsibilities are not connected in KCS. If they choose to coach, then great. If not, that's fine too. Honestly, I don't think that is a bad model to follow when they compensate coaches so poorly in KCS. Admin will have to be creative when they hire to either hire someone in a TA type role or hire someone who does not need a position at the school. This could be done because they have assistant coaches in the building that could handle the academic side for an HC that was not involved at the school.

 

I'm sure an FHS guy doesn't mind there being staff congestion at Bearden. If what I'm hearing is true they have had to work around teachers not coaching. To me that is abhorrent. You look at West and see a common sense approach to running a school. They have made athletics a priority and hired solid men and women that build relationships in the classroom and coach their rear ends off.

54 minutes ago, LittleJerrySeinfeld said:

I do not have much confidence that the hire will be solid.  There are definitely many variables/obstacles in play that other schools or school systems do not worry about as much (like moving non-coaches out of PE).  The current DC did an outstanding job this season.  Not sure about Bradley moving into 6A public school football.  Jones is intriguing.  He seems to have talent wherever he is.

Why no confidence friend? From what I hear on my perch at West high they are working around the staffing issues in a creative way. West doesn't have any PE teachers that don't coach. How many does Bearden have?

From my perch at West High word is that Jones to Bearden is all but a done deal and a solid young QB from another school is transferring in. (The QB part is murky, I was wondering if it was the QB at Fulton) I think what Bearden is waiting on is Powell to finish the season. 

23 hours ago, Drifter1987 said:

Paul Shelton was the OC there for a while, he is currently a position coach for UC Davis in California. When he left, Brian Milan took over as the OC, moving over from his role as the DC. Mickey Chait has been over the defense since then. Milan left this past season as well, took a job as a position coach at Maryville College. Not sure who the OC was this season, heard he came from Heritage. 

The AD at Bearden made it seem like there would be limited teaching positions if that's the case why would they not look internally?

15 minutes ago, HTV said:

As I said earlier, in Knox County it's commonplace for assistant coaches to teach at other schools than the one they coach at.  Staffs are fortunate if the have half of their assistant football coaches teaching at the school where they coach.  

It is definitely commonplace but I don't know about fortunate. It is fortunate if your middle school is in close proximity to the high school but that's not possible at West but it is at a school like Halls. Powell, West, Central, and Farragut have most of their coaches in the school. It is not a coincidence they also routinely put a good product on the field. I think it is a lot more complex than well football is lucky to only get a few positions in the building, it is up to the head coach to get creative from there on out. Not to mention the message it sends to your students that football is not important.

2 minutes ago, oridgecat said:

I don't know how many of the 8 faculty coaches actually teach at Bearden, but if it's all of them than it is clear to see just how difficult it is for a new HC to bring even 1 or 2 assistants with him.  Many times the new HC is lucky to bring 2 of his "own guys" and the admin has to be pretty creative just to make that happen.  Making a change at the top that will have a chance to succeed is very difficult.   It's a tough situation these days.  Ain't like it used to be, it's tough. 

Agreed. It would be something awful if a new HC was hired and those coaches decided not to work there anymore but continued teaching. It is hard to understand how a school as large as Bearden has these limitations in regards to staffing their school.

3 minutes ago, oridgecat said:

So, the former HC will remain in the building?  That won't help getting a new HC.  

The FiveStarPreps said he'd stay on as a PE teacher