Our ITG Next Georgia 4 Questions with the Coach guest this week is Fannin County head football coach Chad Cheatham, who is getting ready for his sixth season with the Rebels. Coach Cheatham has done an incredible job of turning around a program that had suffered through several losing seasons prior to his arrival. He has Fannin County football fans excited about the program, and I’m sure the community can’t wait for the team to take the field in 2023 after enjoying a solid run over the last three seasons.
Coach Cheatham is a Fannin County local, having grown up there, played football there, and ultimately returned home to lead the Blue Ridge program. Let’s learn what Coach Cheatham expects to see from his players as they prepare for spring football practice and the remainder of offseason workouts.
Q. Coach Cheatham, thanks so much for joining us for our 4 Questions segment. As I mentioned in the introduction, you have done a sensational job of turning around a Fannin County football program that had not experienced a lot of winning prior to your arrival in 2018, and this is your hometown. What was it like coming back to your hometown and having the chance to coach at a place you know as well as anyone?
A. It has truly been a blessing. To be close to my family again and to work and teach with old friends has been amazing. One of the greatest joys is coaching the children of the guys I played with. The memories come rushing back because you remember the late ’80s as you watch them and you think, “You are just like your dad!”
As with any job, coming back to your hometown obviously becomes a challenge at times. However, the good far outweighs the bad. The hardest part is when you are out in the community and someone comes up and begins a conversation about, “Hey do you remember?” and for the life of me, I remember the face but can’t recall the name. Lots of faces and names over the last 28 years of coaching. It took a while to get back home, and this will be my last coaching stop. I came in a Rebel and I will go out a Rebel.
Q. These last three seasons has been perhaps the best run the Fannin County Rebel football program has experienced in a long time, with 28 wins over that span. Can you take us back to when you were hired through where the program is today? What were the things you realized had to be done to get the football program back on track?
A. I remember that first spring when I came in. I met the team on a Thursday, I think, and Monday we hit the field for spring practice. You have to think about this. I came by myself – brought no one but my wife, two kids, and my faith in God. I had spoken to my assistant coaches on the phone, but until that Thursday I had never met any of them.
We met for four straight days. I came in with an offensive coordinator from Thompson [Chris Thigpen] who had been the head coach at the middle school and never a coordinator; a defensive coordinator from Hawkinsville [Adam Turner]; and an assistant head coach and special teams coordinator [Jeff Kuna] from Illinois. Coach O’Neal was a Fannin alum and was finishing college and was a lay coach. And that was about it.
The beauty of the whole thing was that we immediately were best friends. Still to this day, all but one is still working for me. I sat them down and I told them, “I am not here to control or manipulate you, I am here to serve you.” And all these yearsa that is what I have tried to do. Nick Saban said, “Are you a manipulator or a servant? Do you pray to be blessed or be a blessing?” He said that is how you lead, and I have tried to make that a priority.
Probably the biggest challenge we faced was in changing the culture and devising a plan of just how to do it. We came up with things like Energy, Enthusiasm, Effort and Execution. I remember in the Fall of 2018 we spent almost a whole practice scoring from the 10 and kicking an extra point and then celebrating on the sideline. Yes, we had to learn how to celebrate. We had to change the whole mindset. The physical ability was here; the mental toughness was not. We learned to laugh at practice, listen to music during certain segments, and be very efficient in practice.
We wanted quality and not quantity. I am not a “Run it again guy.” I am a “Let them screw up guy.” We will watch film and we will fix it on the run and in the film room. Everyday we preached “body language.” And we celebrated even the smallest of successes. The biggest thing is we loved them, and they knew it and they know it now! I don’t know the perfect formula. All situations are different. But I know love goes a long way. They don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.
Q. Coach, can you give us a breakdown of your Fannin County football team’s personnel, and which key contributors will be returning, and which ones you will lose to graduation?
A. We lost a tremendous senior class. Almost our entire defensive front with the exception of outside linebackers. Our kicker. Offensively up front we will have to replace two tackles, a center and a guard. Now these were all great players, not to mention our 7-2A Athlete of the Year, Corbin Davenport. With all that being said, almost every senior we graduated at some point was injured, so we have a lot of underclassmen with a lot of grass time under their belt. We will be young and blue collar. I like that. The future looks bright. We will have our share of valleys and setbacks. But when we are working at 6:30 in the morning in the offseason, I see no fear or panic in anyone’s eyes. They know the expectations and the tradition, and that never graduates.
Q. I mentioned that you were getting ready for spring practice and then the summer workouts. What areas of this Fannin County football team do you want to see get better and develop over this offseason?
A. As mentioned above, we are young. So we are in the process of building not just a football team, we are in the process of building leaders. We are focused on not just being connected to one another, but being committed to one another. There will be wrinkles here and there, but I want our kids to play fast and free. No robots. Let them do what God created them to do and let us as a coaching staff adjust to them.
In the mountains we cycle athletically. Our philosophy is let’s morph what we do to maximize the ability of our players. With that being said, we will not coach effort – that is an expectation or you can’t play for us. We can coach execution, but it has to fit what is comfortable to our kids. I love our work in the weight room right now. I love our attitude. We pray we stay injury free and can compete like crazy. That is all a coach can ask.
