He is responding positively about Knotts' accomplishments in a facetious manner.
Dutch Fork "Tommy Knotts"
- Thread starter dcov33
- Start date
Was the Weddington/Dutch Fork a home/home series? If Weddington wins it all could we get a matchup of defending champions next year?
One big difference is that Coach Knotts has never actively "chased" athletes. He never needed to. They and their families chased him. His reputation and results were the attraction and remain so to this day. He has to be extremely satisfied with this year. To start the season with 5 loses (typically more than he has in 5 seasons) and this bring his team back to another state championship by the end of the season is a testament to his coaching ability. He lost some key players early in the season and Dutch Fork was probably not as deep in talent as previous years. People can talk about "portals" at the high school level all they want, but there is no talent infusion from a waivers list or a mid-season trade.
DF was young this season as a whole. You can rest assure they will be back in it and win it again next year.
To piggyback on the point. You can make an argument that at his tenure at Indy the talent advantage was in favor of Butler starting in 06 and he would still win although the games were close. Knotts will always find a way.
Congrats to Knotts and the Silver Foxes. Amazing how things change, Knotts especially early in his career was all about Offense and chucking the ball around. He wins nowadays with a punishing ground game and stout defense. Their D posted a shut out in the state championship, very impressive. Sign of a great coach being able to change and maximize the talent you have, trust me there is no shortage of talent on that sideline. There is one coach many have forgotten about that could give Knotts a run for the GOAT title. Pretty sure his head to head versus Knotts was in his favor but he didn't have the longevity of Knotts. He left coaching to be an administrator. If anyone has the head to head record of Barnes from Richmond versus Knotts it would be awesome to see.
I need to do a bit of research on what coaches have a winning record against Knotts that have went against him multiple times.
Knotts was a bit stubborn in his younger days.
Richmond, during the Barnes era, and WC played four times in 1997 and 1998 then the 2000 regional semifinal. Db 4 TK 1. That was arguably the two best Richmond teams along with 1988 and 1989. Richmond won the first four and won state titles each season. Indy won their first state title in 2000.
1997: 28-14, 27-26. 1998: 14-0, 22-12. 2000: 36-10.
The 1997 playoff game is one Knotts wishes he could have a redo on.
After the 2000 playoff game Barnes left for an HC job at the beach and Indy went on their run.
Richmond was extremely successful and very consistent from 1987 (DB's first season) through 2014 with four different head coaches (Shuler, Emory, and Hoggard including DB's two tenures). Three four loss seasons, three seasons with three losses, six seasons with two losses, four undefeated, and the rest with one loss. DB was 58-4 his first stint (1987-1990) and 55-2 his second (1997-2000) for a 113-6 record. Ed Emory was there from 2001-2006 and was 77-7. Lost twice the year after DB left and once each season thereafter.
Barnes overall HC record was 128-21.
Knotts was a bit stubborn in his younger days.
Richmond, during the Barnes era, and WC played four times in 1997 and 1998 then the 2000 regional semifinal. Db 4 TK 1. That was arguably the two best Richmond teams along with 1988 and 1989. Richmond won the first four and won state titles each season. Indy won their first state title in 2000.
1997: 28-14, 27-26. 1998: 14-0, 22-12. 2000: 36-10.
The 1997 playoff game is one Knotts wishes he could have a redo on.
After the 2000 playoff game Barnes left for an HC job at the beach and Indy went on their run.
Richmond was extremely successful and very consistent from 1987 (DB's first season) through 2014 with four different head coaches (Shuler, Emory, and Hoggard including DB's two tenures). Three four loss seasons, three seasons with three losses, six seasons with two losses, four undefeated, and the rest with one loss. DB was 58-4 his first stint (1987-1990) and 55-2 his second (1997-2000) for a 113-6 record. Ed Emory was there from 2001-2006 and was 77-7. Lost twice the year after DB left and once each season thereafter.
Barnes overall HC record was 128-21.
Barnes left Knotts with the winning formula! Go ask Langston Wertz........
Barnes has winning records against Bobby Poss, Tommy Knotts, Bob Paroli, and a list of other high profile coaches.
Last edited:
Barnes was a great evaluator of talent. Great organizational skills and knew how to run a program. Knotts has the same traits. Both had great athletes.
I'm surprised a d2 or d1aa school haven't reached out to Knotts. Knotts would fit in very well in the CAA at NC A&T. Just shocked they haven't considered him or other smaller schools haven't. They man is a proven Champion
I am sure he has had enquiries, btango would be more privy than me. One of Knotts greatest strengths is recognizing good situations vs bad ones. He saw when it was the right time to leave Harding for WC, the right time to go from the west side of Charlotte to the east and no one thought Dutch Fork was the sleeping giant it has turned out to be. But he did. He was established and kids were flocking to WC which, was a magnet school, so really no reason to leave as far as players but he saw the potential of the job at Indy and headed East. Personally i think he just wanted to wear those colors ha ha.
I have seen him say on video that he went to Independence for one reason. That was to coach Chris Leak. He decided to stay at Independence until NC retirement, and then headed south.
Knotts left Harding for WC due to issues with the adminstration and support from them not really a football move. He had Harding in the state finals in 1987 and lost by a FG to WC in regional final prior to taking over at WC for the 1989 season.
Knotts left WC mainly due to he and the principal did not see eye to eye. WC had an IB program which was one of only a few in the county. The football program did not get many players from that program. Remember, there was no Mallard Creek, Vance/Chambers, Hough or Hopewell at that time so that was a very large talent pool. A player that left the IB program after their junior season at the direction of his advisor is what caused the 1998 forfeits. He was required to sit out 365 or return to his him school per CMS policy although he had been at WC since day one freshman year.
Knotts left WC with no coaching job and narrowed it down to East Meck and South Meck. If available he would have been very interested in Myers Park. South Meck was nearest his house and East probaby had more potential so he was fine with either although both programs had dropped off from playoff teams (when it meant something to make the playoffs) to a few wins at most per season. A close friend put in for East and he backed off that job.
When Indy came open he opted for the Indy job being very intrigue by Chris Leak. Started four seniors in 2000. Left December 2003 and spent the 2004 season at Duke which was his "dream job" as QB coach. Duke had just entered the Ted Roof era after the absolutely dismal Cark Franks run. Roof would be just as bad. Bill O'Brien came in as OC and decided he would be QB coach. The O did worse but he used that to jump to an offensive assistant position with the NFL Patriots and bigger jobs.
Knotts returned to Charlottte and was not committed to any job for the 2005 season / school year. Thought about staying in the Triangle and looked to be headed to Vance when his long time assistant and Indy replacement, Bill Geiler, went to first year program Porter Ridge which opened up Indy.
With his retirement date coming up he started looking for jobs in SC as he wanted to double dip. He had some jobs he was interested in that did not offer. He took the only school that offered him the HC position, Dutch Fork.
And Dutch Fork got a big grand slam when they hired him as Head coach.
