COACHES CORNER | Who’s got a new head football coach? Let’s talk local, and let DCTF talk statewide

What’ve y’all been doing?

It’s been a busy few months in the high school football world. And in about two more of ‘em, we’re all gonna be going to preseason scrimmages, band camps, cheer camps, drill team practices and – most of all – getting sweaty and drinking cold drinks, all in the name of what we collectively love: Friday night football (sometimes played on Thursdays, but hey, whatever).

Here at ETBlitz.com, we’re standing pat this year. We have 15 schools in our coverage area and we’ve decided to keep it that way. We’ll be covering Kilgore, Pine Tree, Carthage, Gilmer, and Henderson in 4A; Sabine, Gladewater, White Oak, Tatum, West Rusk, Arp, and Troup in 3A; Beckville and Overton in 2A; and Leverett’s Chapel, of course, in six-man ball. No expansion: 15 programs that we can confidently say all have a chance to make the playoffs, and some of them much, much more.

There are some of our friends that will no longer make the journey with us, heading up their programs, coaches that didn’t return from the 2025 season, guys like Cody Gilbert (Sabine) and Michael Ludlow – coaches we’re going to miss.

But we move on.

Here’s a bit of a roundup of important coaching changes, not only in the ETBlitz.com area, but across the state.

ETB coverage area

Sabine

Tim Russell: Former Harmony and Grace Community head coach and athletic director Tim Russell will fill those same two roles now in Liberty City, as he’ll be the latest to try and turn around the Cardinals. Some have succeeded. It’s worth noting that Cody Gilbert had a rash of injuries to players during his time heading up the program, including to star quarterback Colt Sparks, now at Texas State University.

Russell went 22-11 in his first tenure at Harmony, then returned in 2010 for what would become a 12-year run. He went 1-9 in a somewhat disastrous first season, but wow, what a turnaround: 9-3 the next year.

His best two seasons, record-wise, leading the Eagles were the 2017 season, in which the Eagles went 11-1 and scored 602 points (they topped the 600-point total two straight years) and the following year, going 10-2 in 2018. All this and by the way, won a battle with cancer.

Russell has been at Grace since 2022, going 25-16 there. He guided Grace to 9-2 records in each of his first two seasons.

White Oak

Tanner Thiel: Theil replaces Mike Ludlow, who bounced back after an 0-10 season three years ago to go 5-5 the last two, narrowly missing the playoffs in one of the toughest 3A districts in the state, not to mention the East Texas region (Tatum, Jefferson, and Liberty-Eylau were all state-ranked at periods of time the last two years).

Theil, a former White Oak assistant coach, is back and rarin’ to go. Here’s our story on Thiel after he took the head coach / athletic director positions back in January: White Oak fans, meet new coach Tanner Thiel.

Thiel, by the way, got Grape Creek, a San Angelo-area program, its first playoff win in program history – he was there for eight seasons.

Other coaching changes of note

Channelview (6A): Averion Hurts led Channelview football as head coach and athletic director for 20 years. The father of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts won’t be back for season 21: The Falcons will instead be led by former Texas Southern head coach Clarence McKinney. Of interest: coach Hurts’ older son, Averion Hurts Jr., once played quarterback for the Kilgore College Rangers.

North Crowley (6A): The Panthers went 54-4 the last four seasons under Ray Gates, including the 6A-Division I state title in 2024. But Gates has left the program to take a position at the University of North Texas. North Crowley has elevated DeMarcus Harris, its former defensive coordinator, to head coach.

Southlake Carroll (6A): For years one of the benchmarks in 6A football in this state was Southlake Carroll. And the Dragon are still a handful. But they’ll be moving forward with a different head coach. Riley Dodge, the son of longtime Carroll coach Todd Dodge, has stepped down after eight seasons and a 107-10 record. Lee Munn, the defensive coordinator under Dodge, will now be head coach. Dodge also guided the Dragons to the state title game in 2020.

Denton Ryan (5A-DI): Another Texas high school football power has a changing of the guard. Ryan, under coach Dave Hennigan, went 141-23 the last 12 years and a 5A-Division I state championship in 2020. Hennigan has retired, and Shane Tolleson, who was head coach at Waxahachie, has accepted. It’s a homecoming for Tolleson, who was the defensive coordinator for the Raiders for seven seasons (2014-2020).

Celina (5A-DII): Here’s one that a lot of Kilgore folks will read with interest. Bill Elliott, who went 150-38 as head coach of the Bobcats, has retired after a 33-year coaching career. There was some controversy in the last year, of course, and who knows – that may have been a big factor in Elliott’s decision. Maybe not. But there will be a new face in charge of Bobcat football as they move in to Class 5A’s smaller division. Marc Bindel, who was head coach at Wichita Falls Memorial, takes the Bobcats’ reins. He’ll have a difficult time following Elliott, who won one title (beating Kilgore in the 4A-DI state championship in 2024) and was a state finalist back in 2015. By the way, Bindel went 99-53 in 12 seasons at Wichita Falls Memorial.

Nacogdoches (5A-DII): It’s yet another head coaching change in Nac. Darby House coached the Dragons for the last three seasons and got them back into the playoffs (a 6-5 record last year). But he’s moving on to accept the same position at Smithville. Nac didn’t search long before naming assistant coach Jay Brown as its new head coach and athletic director.

Whitehouse (5A-DII): It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Randy McFarlin was running the ship at Whitehouse and the Wildcats went from doormat to district title contender. Former Frisco Lone Star offensive coordinator Brett Gilchrist will be the Wildcats’ new head coach, as Kyle Westerberg, who coached the ‘Cats to three playoff appearances in five seasons, has stepped down.

And right here, at this link (Texas High School Football Coaching Changes), check out a list of all head football coaching changes in the state, courtesy of our friends at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. That’s a subscription website, by the way, but it’s worth it if you’re a real honest-to-goodness high school football fan in Texas.

We feature the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football poll here on ETBlitz.com every week during football’s regular season, and we’re proud to do so.

To subscribe to DCTF, including getting that big ol’ magazine, go here: REVEALED — The 2026 Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Summer Magazine Cover.