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Murphy defensive coordinator moving on..

murphydawg4life

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Aug 14, 2001
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I saw on Facebook that Thomas Nelson, the defensive coordinator for Murphy, has moved on to a new chapter in his life. Big loss for Murphy and tough shoes to fill. I played on the defensive side under the late, great Coach Gaither and I didn't think anyone could fill his shoes when he became Principal and couldn't be a coach anymore but Thomas Nelson filled the role pretty well. He was a great person and I knew him personally. Huge loss for the bulldogs. Any idea on who the replacement may be?
 
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Did he take another job?
Yes assistant AD and d-coordinator at Union County GA, much better pay.

He was offered the football head coaching job at Union County but declined, best guess on that is he wanted the extra time to be able to watch his son (redshirt freshmen LB at Western Carolina) and daughter (senior this spring) play college ball.

Whoever takes his place is going to have really really big shoes to fill. A great defensive coordinator and one who was adored by his players.
 
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Don't blame him. I've heard great things about him. Where is his daughter playing ball at? I've heard she was awesome.
 
It is a huge loss for Murphy. I have always said Thomas "Hitman" Nelson was my brother from another mother. We graduated together and played linebackers together. He was the Mike and I was the Sam. We actually wore each other's cleats in the 1991 state championship game because he wore high-tops and I was dealing with a lingering ankle injury. His defense played lights out the last two games of the season. He is a great coach but he is an even better person. I don't blame him for taking a job for better pay but it will be strange not to see him wearing the Black and Gold.
 
Tough to lose a high character guy who’s great with the players and is a great coach as well. Congrats on the title and good luck to him and his family with the move to GA.
Any word on Gentry? I fully expect him to return.
 
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Tough to lose a high character guy who’s great with the players and is a great coach as well. Congrats on the title and good luck to him and his family with the move to GA.
Any word on Gentry? I fully expect him to return.

Gentry always finds a reason (excuse?) to come back "one more year". If I were him there would be no better year to go out - to go through this crazy year and to come out on top with one of the "worst" teams Murphy has had in awhile. Plus the defense was as good as it's gonna be for awhile I bet. He risks doing the Michael Jordan thing if he hangs on too long...
 
Good points, but he has nine titles (the school has 10 but one came before he arrived) so why not go for ten? The 1a class will be combined starting next season and there are lots of strong teams which will make it exciting and present a new challenge.
Another thing to consider is that Murphy will be closing down in a few short years, so he might wanna stick around and see it all the way through? If he leaves before the school closes I bet Murphy promotes from within to finish it out. It would be near impossible to attract an outside coach with the school closing down soon.
My personal opinion is that I think he will retire prior to consolidation and recommend Joseph Watson to succeed him in order to give Joseph at least one year of head coaching experience so he could potentially be the front-runner for the new school.
 
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I see people mentioning Coaches Nelson and Watson and the Andrews HC. Would this job not get some interest from some fairly successful head coaches from outside the area? Would think retired coaches from other states may have some interest.
 
Would this job not get some interest from some fairly successful head coaches from outside the area?
I would certainly think so, would be foolish for those in charge not to consider all options.

I feel like Murphy had the ideal candidate for the consolidated job in Campana but he got out of the coaching game 5 or 6 years ago now. I hope he gets back into coaching again one day but it seems unlikely at this point.
 
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I would certainly think so, would be foolish for those in charge not to consider all options.

I feel like Murphy had the ideal candidate for the consolidated job in Campana but he got out of the coaching game 5 or 6 years ago now. I hope he gets back into coaching again one day but it seems unlikely at this point.
Kinda scary who might be interested since he lives across the road from the New school..🥺
 
Kinda scary who might be interested since he lives across the road from the New school..🥺
Might be a challenge he'd be interested in taking on for a few years before retirement. They've got to at least give him a call when the time comes. I think he would be a great first coach for the school, I know quite a few people who would like to see exactly that happen. Him get the program off the ground and the culture built up a little and then hand it off to a younger guy to lead it for the long run.
 
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Wont happen the super is from Andrew's and the school board is run by Andrew's. They will get in the Andrew's coach. He's a pretty good coach for small school like Andrew's but Cherokee Co job will be to big for him. The Murphy kids wont play in the veer anyway. Not that Watson is good enough for new school job because he aint by a long shot. Walsh gonna be licking his chops when Gentry hangs it up. Nelson should be next coach at Murphy but everybody in Cherokee Co knows politics kept it from happening. Maybe they can beg Nelson to take head job at the new school after there 1st choice fails.
Cherokee County job would be too big for him? Because he coaches at a small school? I don't get the logic. I also don't understand why Murphy kids won't play in the veer. Anyway, Andrews runs wing-T just as much as veer now so it wouldn't be a huge change. The only group that it will be a huge change for is the HD kids who know neither wing t or veer haha.

I can't see Walsh being interested. He's got it made at Robbinsville. That program is on fire and much easier to win another one for Title Town in 1a than for Cherokee County in 2a.
 
I would certainly think so, would be foolish for those in charge not to consider all options.

I feel like Murphy had the ideal candidate for the consolidated job in Campana but he got out of the coaching game 5 or 6 years ago now. I hope he gets back into coaching again one day but it seems unlikely at this point.

He would have been a good candidate for the Hayesville job when it was open last time. Obviously he wasn't interested. I bet they begged him to take it. Who knows.
 
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He has what 4 years at least to be ready for that job? It's asinine to think that just because he isn't at a big school now that job would be too much for him.

It's going to literally be a step from 1A to 2A. He's done a great job at Andrews and if kids want to play football they'll run whatever their coach runs.
 
That program is on fire and much easier to win another one for Title Town in 1a than for Cherokee County in 2a.
Cherokee County won't be in 2A long at all. Between the declining enrollment county wide, the early college possibly increasing their cap and TLC charter in Murphy opening up to high school students this fall, the consolidated school will probably be in the 650 or less range enrollment wise when the doors open.
 
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With the numbers as they are and kids that will take advantage of EC new School of innovation and learning center opening a new hs. Very likely it will still be 1A
 
Cherokee County won't be in 2A long at all. Between the declining enrollment county wide, the early college possibly increasing their cap and TLC charter in Murphy opening up to high school students this fall, the consolidated school will probably be in the 650 or less range enrollment wise when the doors open.
You may be right, but there are a ton of variables that could impact where the new school ends up even if enrollment ends up mid-600s.

Seems like at that size, under current system, it would come down to extra factors (see East Surry in 2A at 588 but Eastern Randolph 1A at 671). And the picture is still really vague there. Does the NCHSAA keep the same factors outside of ADM? Do they go back to just ADM? Do they add new ones? How do the three current schools perform the next few years and how do they come up with the Cup score for a consolidated school?

Plus there are some things that could otherwise impact where the line is. How many new charters open and take up spots in 1A? How many more students do traditional schools on the border lines lose to charters as they keep growing? Do they keep classifying East and West separately? If they stop that, it should move the line down a little for schools in the west. Do we finally get a 5th (or 6th) class? I definitely think the new school will be smaller than the sum of its current parts, but I’m just in wait and see mode on what class it will be.
 
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You may be right, but there are a ton of variables that could impact where the new school ends up even if enrollment ends up mid-600s.

Seems like at that size, under current system, it would come down to extra factors (see East Surry in 2A at 588 but Eastern Randolph 1A at 671). And the picture is still really vague there. Does the NCHSAA keep the same factors outside of ADM? Do they go back to just ADM? Do they add new ones? How do the three current schools perform the next few years and how do they come up with the Cup score for a consolidated school?

Plus there are some things that could otherwise impact where the line is. How many new charters open and take up spots in 1A? How many more students do traditional schools on the border lines lose to charters as they keep growing? Do they keep classifying East and West separately? If they stop that, it should move the line down a little for schools in the west. Do we finally get a 5th (or 6th) class? I definitely think the new school will be smaller than the sum of its current parts, but I’m just in wait and see mode on what class it will be.
Definitely a lot of moving parts. I don't think this school will start out in 1A personally but if the NCHSAA keeps the same system in place or goes back to strictly using ADM's then I believe this school will be in 1A within one realignment cycle. Now if the NCHSAA goes to 5 or 6 classes then all bets are off.
 
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Definitely a lot of moving parts. I don't think this school will start out in 1A personally but if the NCHSAA keeps the same system in place or goes back to strictly using ADM's then I believe this school will be in 1A within one realignment cycle. Now if the NCHSAA goes to 5 or 6 classes then all bets are off.
If the consolidated school ends up in 1A, poor old Bk13 will lose his mind...lol
 
Don’t see how it will be 1A at least to start with the numbers. But doesn’t mean there won’t be realignments where it won’t be 1A. Look at ER and Mountain Heritage for example. There are a lot of schools on the border of the cutoff and it just depends on how the enrollment falls on that certain year.
 
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