Last week Dickson County Head Football Coach Greg Burns resigned from his position.
It came, truthfully, as a shocking development.
Do not misunderstand, I am not claiming no one saw it coming.
Plenty of people were skeptical of the job Coach Burns was doing.
Winning just three games in two seasons, one of which by forfeit, is certainly not success.
However, good, bad, or ugly, a coach moving on or being let go less than three seasons into a tenure should always be shocking.
Especially when you consider that he really only had a year and a half officially with the program and two ‘seasons’, the quotations present due to the 2020 season being marked by Covid.
It is hard enough to build a program in so little time without a national pandemic.
Considering the impact of Covid, and the clear struggles the Cougars have had in recent memory, I do not think anyone thought that coach Burns would not get at least one more season.
That being said, expectations can be fatal.
This season was so greatly hyped and Dickson County just never lived up.
They underperformed as a team, key players underperformed and seemingly coaches underperformed.
All of that more than likely led ultimately to coach Burns resignation.
After reaching out for comment a few times, Coach Burns finally returned this statement about his time on the Hill and the program.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity I had at Dickson. Like most things in life, timing is everything and it created some unique challenges, to say the least. I absolutely believe in the future of this program. In the past 2 years, we managed to get most of the local talent from both feeder schools to stay here at Dickson and a lot of those guys played a major role on the varsity team. We played 12 to 15 Freshman this year 8 or 9 started a game. I truly believe this past year’s Freshman class is one of the most talented to come through the system in a long time. When I arrived here in Dickson the biggest challenge we faced as a program was changing the culture and creating a winning mindset where players and coaches are accountable. Year 1 was really tough setting the standard but it was reinforced in year 2 and now there are guys on the team who only know our way of doing things. It was already starting to pay off, during the 2nd half of the season we started playing better football. The program is in a much better place than it was 2 years ago and with most of the starters coming back next year I expect them to challenge Cane Ridge and Smyrna for the district. The best QB in the region is Colbey Lamberth and he has his 2 leading WRs back as well. I am excited to see them next year.”
As you can see, Coach Burns certainly believes in the future of this program and its players.
Where do the Cougars go from here, however, will be the question.
Do they look within and possibly promote someone who was on Burns staff?
Maybe they look locally and promote someone from Dickson or Burns Middle?
Obviously, AD Jay Powlas, Principal Joey Holley, and the board went outside the county and hired a very hot candidate when they brought Coach Burns in from Independence where he served as the Offensive Coordinator for many years.
Will they follow that path again? Who Knows.
What I do know is this.
If Dickson County wants to be relevant again and compete in Class 6A football, patience will be the name of the game.
No matter how good the next hire is, he will need more than a year and a half and two seasons to effect change.
