Story by Rusty Ellis
The end of the 2020 school year marked the end of an era in Livingston, as long-time Athletic Director and Football Coach Bruce Lamb announced his resignation in May.
Former Assistant Coach Dale Flatt was hired in June to fill the position, and now with just over a week until the season-opener, Flatt is tasked with preparing a young team for White County.
“They’re eager to learn, they want to do good, and it’s encouraging every time I step onto the field with them,” Flatt said. “They ask questions and they try to do good. Everything they do, it’s just them wanting to do the best they can.”
Young teams endure growing pains, especially ones that have a combined 12 seniors and juniors. For Flatt, he says he hopes any struggles now lead to more success down the road.
“I’ve got some freshmen that are doing a pretty good job,” Flatt said. “Every snap that they go through, it’s going to help them. It’s going to help them to be a better football player this year and beyond.”
The 2020 rendition of the Wildcats suffered a big blow early when Senior Quarterback Parker Coleman tore his ACL against Cookeville. This led to Sophomore Nathan Cowgill taking some snaps in the pocket, and gaining experience that could help the Wildcats this season, albeit in a different position.
“Right now, we don’t have him playing quarterback just for the reason that he can do so many different things and help us everywhere else,” Flatt said. “You can put him everywhere on the field, and you don’t have to worry about him because he’s going to do a good job.”
So that begs the question: who will be taking snaps for the Wildcats at quarterback?
“Right now, Brodey Coffee is playing quarterback,” Flatt said. “Nathan is his backup, but he’s also one of our best receivers right now…I think they feed off each other. Brodey has really picked it up since the 7-on-7s, and has really come into the way we want him to play.”
The offensive line will be key to keeping Coffee protected, and just like the signal-caller, the line features more of LA’s younger talent.
“If you looked at our younger players, that’s our offensive line,” Flatt said. “They’ve gotten so much better from the time we started practice to now…we scrimmaged Gordonsville and I was really proud of our offensive line and how they’ve improved.”
Flatt says that while the improvement that unit has shown is promising, they still aren’t done growing. That’s a microcosm of his philosophy, which revolves around constant improvement.
“It’s a weekly thing,” Flatt said. “When we did 7-on-7s, I went to as many of them as I could get us to, just to get the timing down between the quarterback and receivers. We wanted to get our defensive backs ready and aware of where to line up…each week, you just have to put in the new scheme or that new wrinkle that might help you in that game.”
The Wildcats region had one change made, as Upperman moved up to 4A. This creates one of the most competitive regions in the entire classification with teams like Macon County, DeKalb County and Stone Memorial also fielding good teams.
Factor in Livingston’s non-region schedule that begins with White County in week one, and the Wildcats should be more than prepared to compete with that region in Flatt’s eyes.
“They’re a big, powerful team,” Flatt said. “We’re coming in with a young team, and I think they’re more seasoned…they’re going to run that power football, and the biggest thing we can do is stand up there with them and take them on. That’s what we have to prepare for: their power run game.”
The Wildcats and Warriors square off at Tennessee Tech’s Tucker Stadium on Friday, Aug. 20 at 7 P.M. The game will be live-streamed on the Upper Cumberland Reporter’s Facebook page.