After spending his entire professional life in the state of Alabama, Josh Niblett has found a new home. Following a 14-year stint at Hoover High School, where he led the traditional Alabama high school football power to 171 wins, Niblett was named as the new head football coach at Gainesville High School in Gainesville, Georgia.
The announcement came in December 2021 after Heath Webb decided to step away after serving the past four seasons as the head football coach at Gainesville. He was 18-25 during his time as coach of the Red Elephants.
In addition to Niblett’s 171-26 record at Hoover, he had an overall win/loss record of 236-58 as a coach in Alabama. His head coaching career began in 2000 at Oneonta High School, where he spent five seasons turning around a Redskins program that had finished 4-16 in the two seasons prior to his arrival. He won 52 games during his time there, including an undefeated season and state championship in 2004, his final season at Oneonta.
Niblett left his post with the Redskins to take the head coaching job at Oxford High School, where he coached for three seasons, finishing 14-18 there before heading to Hoover, where he took over in 2008.
He led the Bucs to six state titles and a 92-8 record in region play, and he won a minimum of 10 games per season in 13 of his 14 seasons there. In a recent appearance on ITG Next’s Extra Point! With Phil Jones, a live podcast devoted to covering Georgia high school sports, Niblett talked about the path that led him into coaching high school football.
We are proud to officially announce our new Head Football Coach of Gainesville High School, Josh Niblett! Coach Niblett comes to us from Alabama with a record of 236-58 and 7 state championships! Please join us in welcoming the Niblett family to Gainesville! #GOBIGRED ?? pic.twitter.com/Eo9h5RfoGR
— Gainesville HS Football (@gainesvillefb) December 13, 2021
“My dad was a high school football coach, so that was always something I thought I wanted to do,” he said.
After playing quarterback for Demopolis Academy in Alabama, Niblett went on to play collegiately for a season at Southern Mississippi and then three seasons at the University of Alabama.
Niblett said that he initially wanted to be a college coach and went to Jacksonville State University as a “restricted earnings coach.” After spending three seasons there, Niblett said he relied on his faith to determine his next move.
“I’m a faith-based guy, and I wasn’t sure at the time where God was going to lead us, whether it was in coaching or something else,” he said. “I got three interviews and wound up being hired at a school that had finished 1-9 and 3-7 in the two seasons before we got there.”
That school was Oneonta, where Niblett got the program moving in the right direction before moving on to Oxford and eventually to Hoover.
“I had the chance to coach with a lot of great coaches and players within a great community and great school system,” he said.
Niblett said he really wasn’t looking to leave Hoover.
“In January, I turned 50, but I wasn’t really thinking about retiring or changing jobs,” he said. “Then, this opportunity in Gainesville came up. I prayed about it, and I felt this was a calling God had on me and my family, so here we are.”
Niblett said the first thing that caught his attention about Gainesville was their commitment to winning, but that wasn’t all.
“I loved the new facilities,” he said. “Of course that’s great, but when you’re looking at a new opportunity, you have to be around good people, and you have to work for and with good people who want to win. You want to be a part of a community that wants to win, and I knew right away that Gainesville was that type of place.”
The coach said he can sense in talking with the administration, the fans, and the players that they want to return to winning again, and he’s ready to do whatever it takes.
“Nobody is going to put more pressure on me than I put on myself because I’m one of those people who hates to lose more than I love winning,” Niblett said.
He added that one look around the campus made it easy to see that the Red Elephants share his desire and commitment to not just winning, but making the program better all around.
“This school system has provided us with the best facilities possible to not just win football games, but to make sure these student-athletes get the best education possible,” Niblett said.
Niblett talked about establishing a certain culture within the community, as well as his football program, and within that culture is a certain standard that extends beyond just football.
“We want everyone surrounding our program here to trust in, not buy in, because when you buy in, you end up selling out,” he said. “So, we want everyone to trust in what we are doing.”
As far as the message to his players, he said it’s not about the x’s and o’s in the beginning.
“We talked very little football for the first couple of months,” Niblett said. “There’s a couple of things I stress to our players right off the bat, and that involves us evaluating ourselves and learning how to be good people first and foremost. We are also going to be great students and take pride in our academics because what you do off the field is what you’re going to do on the field.”
Love my guys …and they love each other. #fam1ly #atm pic.twitter.com/Gyxj9xMYSc
— Josh Niblett (@JoshNiblett) May 20, 2022
Of course, the new Red Elephants head coach understands that, at the end of the day, everyone wants to see Gainesville get back to their winning ways, and he has a message to those fans: “Winners and losers have the same goals. The difference is winners have a system, and here at Gainesville, our goal within that system is to win a state championship, and I’m not talking two or three years from now. I’m talking about now.”
Get ready, Gainesville fans. Josh Niblett has a plan, and he’s serious about winning. Right now.
Views from last night’s road win! #ATM??https://t.co/iF4XiF82vM pic.twitter.com/spK8WP8vSk
— Gainesville HS Football (@gainesvillefb) May 20, 2022
