New coach a key to Cannon County football starting 2-0 after going winless last year

Cannon County High School athletic trainer Hope Young was checking the temperature Tuesday afternoon to make sure it was OK for the football team to practice.

That's fitting. The Lions may be the hottest team in the area.

They've definitely had one of — if not the most — remarkable turnaround in the first two weeks of the season.

Cannon County, which finished 0-10 last season and was outscored 418-82, is off to a 2-0 start to the 2018 season under first-year coach Matt Daniel.

And, as nice as 2-0 sounds to Lions fans, that doesn't even tell the whole story. The team has avenged the first two losses of 2017 (Red Boiling Springs and Jackson County) by a combined 87-6.

"Having new coaches has helped a lot," said Cannon County running back/defensive back Cort Litchford, who has 163 yards rushing and five total TDs. "They've changed the culture. We don't give up or quit. We work harder now."

After averaging eight points last year (27 of the team's 82 points came in the finale), Cannon County has surpassed 40 points in each of its first two contests.

Equally as impressive is the defense, which allowed more than 40 a contest last year, giving up just one touchdown total in two games.

"We have a new mentality," said Cannon County  lineman Noah Logsdon. "We work better as a team. We're always busy in practice. Nobody's ever sitting around."

Daniel, who was an assistant in Georgia, was hired in the off-season to replace his cousin, T.J. Daniel, who was removed from the position in November.

He added three new assistant coaches while retaining two.

"You have to have good coaches to have success," said Matt Daniel, of the larger staff. "I expressed that need with (Cannon County AD) Matt Cagle (and school, city officials)."

When he joined the team during the spring, Daniel said there were 18 players out for football. Now there are 38.

"There was a lot of skepticism," Daniel said. "Their attitude was 'Nothing is going to change.' A lot of players came and talked to me during the summer and some since the season has started."

One of those players, DeKalb County transfer Tyler Bundy, had not intended on playing this season but joined the team in the summer.

"I still lived in DeKalb County last year, so I only went to a couple of games," said Bundy, a running back/safety who had to sit out last year because of TSSAA transfer rules. He has 302 yards rushing and five TDs to go along with 11 tackles.

"I didn't really have any thoughts of playing this year, but they brought in a new coach and staff. I missed playing."

Added Logsdon, "There were times when I thought, 'Is this what I really want to do.' But I kept going. (T.J. Daniel) was overall a great guy ... good to talk to. (But) he had more to learn."

Red Boiling Springs and Jackson County are far from world-beaters, and this week's opponent — Sequatchie County — will be a tough test for the Lions, who lost to the Indians 48-6 last season.

It's also the first region game.

But, there's no taking away from what the team has accomplished.

"I feel good about how the kids compete," said Daniel, who was an assistant coach at Cannon County from 2004-07. "I'm not surprised (by the start), but I wouldn't say I expected that either. I preached all summer about hard work, compete, compete.

"(Thinking about the) playoffs is great, but we have to win region games. The first two were non-region games. All we're thinking about now is Sequatchie County."

Reach Cecil Joyce at cjoyce@dnj.com or 615-278-5168 and on Twitter @Cecil_Joyce.

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