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The best of the best in Alabama High
School Football over the past 100 seasons.
2026 Football Coaching Changes
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New Hires: Sixteen Best Hire: Darrell Higgins, Russellville Hardest to Replace: Greg Patterson, Hueytown Best Job: Muscle Shoals Toughest Job: Huffman |
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Most Interesting: | |||||||
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Gus Smith returns to Mobile as the head football
coach at Blount. Jeremy Vines moving to Hueytown after a great season at
Bullock County has to be a move to watch in the future. Rico Jackson making
the move to Minor is also interesting and could be a great move for the
Tigers. The same can be said about Coach O'Neal going to Park Crossing and
Darrell LeBeaux moving to Huffman. A couple of veteran coaches retired as Scott Basden at Muscle Shoals and Steve Mask at Theodore hung up their coaching clipboards. Combined they won 470 games during their careers. | |||||||
| 2026 Coaching Changes | |||||
| Of the sixteen new hires in
5A all but five have previous head football coaching experience. One interesting fact is that
only four of the schools who made changes have a winning record over the
past five seasons. | |||||
| Team | 2025 Season | 2026 Season | |||
 | Blount (2-8) | Ramon Nelson | Gus Smith | ||
 | Chelsea (5-5) | Todd Cassity | Tad Niblett | ||
 | East Limestone (1-9) | Will Johnson | Juwan Simpson | ||
 | Hueytown (7-6) | Greg Patterson. | Jeremy Vines | ||
 | Huffman (2-8) | Rodney Bivens Jr. | Darrell LeBeaux | ||
 | Lee Huntsville (0-10) | Antonio Ford | Navendra Woods | ||
 | Minor (4-6) | Adrian Abrams | Rico Jackson | ||
 | Muscle Shoals (12-1) | Scott Basden | Michael Darden | ||
 | Park Crossing (0-9) | Charles Biggers | Lawrence ONeal | ||
 | Pell City (7-4) | Nick Gentry | Erik Kukendall | ||
 | Percy Julian (3-7) | Kenneth White | Vacant | ||
 | Pinson Valley (4-6) | James Thompson | Logan Colafrancesco | ||
 | Rehobeth (4-6) | Toby Greene | Ethan Holland | ||
 | Russellville (7-5) | Dustin Goodwin | Darrell Higgins | ||
 | Springville (1-9) | Chris Metcalf | Jeff Lumpkin | ||
 | Theodore (8-4) | Steve Mask | Randy Larson | ||
| Most Victories | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class 5A has the distinction of
having eight coaches with
over 100 victories in their career. A couple more could easily be
added to the list as Sam Adams and Richie Busby both have 95 wins. Jeff
Kelly leads the way with 205 wins most of those at Saraland. The eight coaches with 100 wins is the most in any classification. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Most Playoff Victories | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Coach Kelly also tops our list of 5A coaches with the most
playoff wins. Half of these head coaches have won a state championship
during their careers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Longest Tenure at Current School | |||||||||||||||||
| Coach Yeager at
Mountain Brook has been the head coach for the Spartans a total of
twenty-one seasons. The average tenure of all the 5A coaches is 4.3 years. Only Class 4A and 6A among the public schools have a shorter average. | |||||||||||||||||
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| Coaching Turnover 2000-2026 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The lack of success in most football programs often
leads to a change in the head coach. These schools have had the most head
coaching changes over the past 25 years. Although they made the list
Bessemer City and Calera both sport a winning record over the past 25
seasons. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Want to read more articles about the great coach in Alabama?
We have updated our series of articles on the greatest head football coaches.
READ MORE
David Parker
AHSFHS.org
dparker@ahsfhs.org
Great Moments in Alabama High School Football History
Etowah defeated Oxford 69-63 in 1991 to set a state record for most points scored by both teams in a playoff game.
Etowah defeated Oxford 69-63 in 1991 to set a state record for most points scored by both teams in a playoff game.
