Cocke County Hires Mt. Juliet's former Head Coach

[flngrvy]

It was reported that David Crawford, former head coach at Mt. Juliet has accepted the head coaching position at Cocke County in Newport. Good luck to David and Jake!

[wingman10]

Congrats to Cocke Co and Coach Crawford. Glad to see him back as a head coach.

[PTSportsWriter]

Well, I see the cat is out of the bag.

 

Its my knowledge that nothing is official yet, despite a local media outlet reporter totally jumping the gun on this report.

 

It will be made official at the Board of Education meeting on April 6.

 

Just wanted to clear the air.

[footballfan77]

Well, I see the cat is out of the bag.

 

Its my knowledge that nothing is official yet, despite a local media outlet reporter totally jumping the gun on this report.

 

It will be made official at the Board of Education meeting on April 6.

 

Just wanted to clear the air.

 

 

What happened to Wes Jones and what was his record at Cocke County?

[PTSportsWriter]

What happened to Wes Jones and what was his record at Cocke County?

 

 

Coach Jones resigned from his coaching position at the conclusion of this past football season.

 

Jones went 19-44 in 5 seasons.

[wingman10]

What happened to Wes Jones and what was his record at Cocke County?

resigned

[wasplayernowcoach]

glad to hear that cocke county has them a coach as long as something unexpected don't happen at the board meeting. sound as if they got a go canidate from whats being said. wish him the best of luck.

 

 

shelton

[salty]

Congrats to Cocke Co and Coach Crawford. Glad to see him back as a head coach.

 

 

So. Are they hiring him tonight or not?

[wingman10]

Hope so

[PTSportsWriter]

as far as I would assume, everything went as planned tonight.

 

David's already been working with players and beginning to do work in the program.

[PTSportsWriter]

Crawford hired as new Cocke County Football coach

By SETH BUTLER

NPT Sports Writer

 

NEWPORT – Rebuilding a football program requires a dedicated man who brings a lot of energy, enthusiasm, excitement and a ton of hard work to the table. A man who has also been involved in rebuilding a high school program before is also a bonus.

 

David Crawford fits the bill perfectly.

 

Crawford was officially hired as head football coach at Cocke County High School on Thursday becoming the 11th head football coach in school history.

 

Crawford, a McMinnville native and Middle Tennessee State University alumnus, is married to Loudon-native Brenda Crawford. The couple has two sons, Jake, 16, and Drew, 14.

 

Crawford comes to Newport after guiding the Mount Juliet High School Bears to a 14-27 record from 2002-2005. In that period the Bears lost nine games by two touchdowns or less.

 

Crawford’s resume is extensive beginning as an assistant at Copper Basin High in Polk County for three seasons, before moving to Knox Karns for five years and Farragut for eight years. In 2000 Crawford made the move to Maryville College where he assumed duties of wide receivers coach before taking the head coaching position at Mt. Juliet.

 

Looming even larger on Crawford’s past work is rebuilding and laying the solid foundation of the Mount Juliet football program. Before Crawford’s arrival at the middle Tennessee school the opening of Wilson Central High School saw Mount Juliet’s student population drop 42%. The Bears football program did not fare much better finishing the 2001 campaign with only 29 men on the roster.

 

Crawford arrived one year later and the numbers began to rise, ultimately to the point of 92 varsity and freshmen team members combined when Crawford resigned his post last November.

 

“I think there are lots of parallels between Cocke County and (when I arrived in) Mount Juliet,” said Crawford. "The big thing is there is an interest in football here, while there wasn’t a big interest there. Here the interest is present and more or less growing the interest is the main thing.

 

“It’s exciting. It energizes me to know that there is interest (here),” said Crawford.

 

That interest along with Crawford’s mix of philosophy and character building is capable of helping to rebuild the Cocke County program and rejuvenate the participation level of student-athletes.

Crawford is a firm believer in that character displayed off the field will only help character on the field. As a result, the new Cocke County head coach has employed several priorities he has used in the past.

 

“First we have to be a good person,” said Crawford. “Right now we’re kind of looking for superior character and less talent. We’ve got to be good people first.

 

“Second we have to be good students - we have to get work done in the classroom. And then, we will be the best ballplayers that we can be,” said Crawford.

 

“These are the priorities I believe in and those priorities are why I am here,” said Crawford.

 

“Our guys have to be champion people and champion people daily, then they have to be champion students and then we play ball. Those priorities are non-negotiable (with me).

 

“I used the same priorities that I will here at Mt. Juliet,” said Crawford. “We’ve got to be better citizens and students before we can be better ball players.

 

“We’re continuing to look for leadership development and we’re seeing some kids have some courage and step up into leadership roles. Anytime you see that it is very exciting for a coach and energizing for me,” said Crawford.

 

And it’s a good thing the interest is energizing to the new head coach.

 

Crawford was selected as the new head coach several weeks ago and was unofficially on the job for the past three weeks pending Board of Education approval on Thursday. Those three weeks have seen Crawford hit the ground running full steam ahead, including several team meetings and individual player meetings.

 

“The individual meetings with the player make time for each kid. They also help us to plan our organization process and stay on top of the kids thinking,” said Crawford.

 

An implementation of an off-season strength and conditioning program has also been ongoing for the past three weeks.

 

All of that off-season work in hopes of beginning to lay the foundation for the rebuilding of a once proud football program, whose history Crawford is well aware of.

 

“Anytime you go into a program that’s rebuilding with a strong past, its exciting to know that there is (football) interest in the community,” said Crawford.

 

“Our goal in time is to link the future with the tradition of the past. We want to build on the success that guys like Coach (Larry) Williams had in the past and use that to link to our programs future.”

 

Despite the history, Crawford knows very well that the reconstruction of a program is a challenge. But a challenge Crawford thoroughly enjoys.

 

“We’re excited about the challenge here,” said the new head coach. “There is something about a program that needs to be rebuilt.”

 

“It’s a challenge to get people organized and working together. As I told Coach Williams in the interview process our greatest asset is our people. All people want to be successful and that’s a matter of doing things to be successful,” said Crawford.

 

Successful in terms of win-loss marks is yet to be seen, but successful in terms of playing the right way and developing character is already abound.

 

The successfulness of the win-loss record will of course depend on the happenings on the field and Crawford has already begun laying the blueprints for the on-field foundation of Cocke County High School football.

 

In a Five Rivers conference that traditionally relies heavily on the run, Crawford knows that his number one goal on the defensive side of the ball is to stop the run.

 

“We’ll use an eight man front, a 5-3 a 4-4 or some variation of the eight man front,” said Crawford. “Our top priority is to stop the run.”

 

Offensively there will be excitement abound for the Big Red.

 

“We will have an offense that goes no-huddle and up-tempo and get after it,” said Crawford.

 

With a no-huddle offense that is rare in the high school game used it will be imperative for the offensive unit to learn quickly the objectives of Crawford’s offensive system.

 

Helping to overcome that learning curve is the addition of a new face to the Cocke County roster. Crawford’s son, Jake, had a successful sophomore year under center at Mount Juliet last season.

 

The younger Crawford completed 75 percent of his passes for over 800 yards and six touchdowns to three interceptions in eight games. Those numbers through eight games would have made Jake Crawford the top passer in the Five Rivers conference.

 

While the offense will be no-huddle and up-tempo it will not necessarily be a spread, but instead look to build its offense around the play action passing game.

 

“We’re not exactly a spread offense, we won’t be a spread team per se, but we will incorporate it some as the defenses dictate.”

 

Tentatively assisting Crawford this upcoming season will include a trio of familiar faces along with several new faces to Cocke County.

 

Brandon Cassell, Casey Kelley and Jason Kerley all will hold assistant coaching roles within the team.

 

New to the Fighting Cocks staff will be defensive coordinator Mike Childress. Childress, a coaching veteran in his own right, is a big pickup for the Cocke County program.

 

“Mike was an assistant with me at Farragut and he left for Albright (College) at the same time I left for Maryville (College),” said Crawford. “We feel fortunate to get Mike on our staff.”

 

Crawford still looks to make more hires on the offensive side of the ball to round out the coaching staff.

 

Cocke County fans who yearn an early look at the Fighting Cocks can do so next month as spring practice gets underway. Spring practice begins on May 5th and the team has 15 days to get 10 practices in.

[PTSportsWriter]

You see my story above, but here's a slight personal observation.

 

I'm not someone who is that easily impressed - but David Crawford highly impressed me.

 

He has a plan to turn the program around.

He may not win immediately, but the kids on the football team at Cocke County HS will be top quality, high character kids.

 

In my opinion, CCHS has gotten them a coach who will be able to turn the program's fortunes around.