Central, AD, Continue Search for New Football Coach

Central recently fired head football coach Lance Griffin, after going 0-9 in his only season with Eagles. A search for his replacement is under way. The search is being led by Athletic Director Luke Dillon, who would like to see the program get back to “competing at a high level.” 

It is more than just calling plays and running practice that Dillon wants to see in this new hire. Dillon said, “I want somebody that is passionate about students, passionate about students on and off the field.” He is looking for, “somebody that is going to hold them (the students) accountable but be fair. I am looking for somebody who has a humble approach, somebody that is willing to go the extra mile, and definitely somebody that is going to put in a lot of time.” 

On the field Dillon would like to, “get back to what we were doing, the year prior to (last), just kind of that same approach, getting eight guys in the box before the ball is snapped, run a similar familiarity of offense.” He wants to play the way, “we used to play, just being a little bit aggressive, getting after it.” 

When hiring a coach, Dillon likes to “kind of approach every situation differently, kind of look for what is more so needed at (the) time.” A year ago Central was in this same spot, needing to hire a new head football coach, the Eagles were coming, “off of a very long tenured successful coach.” Dillon thought Central needed to not change a lot of things they were doing in order to be successful. But, “that did not turn out to be the case.” 

A year ago, it was important to Dillon that he hire somebody who has connections with Central. This time around he is, “just trying to get the best person to lead our program, to build a positive culture, and somebody who knows the game.”  

Something important to Dillon, is he wants this hire to have, “Class A experience, if not class A, a real high competitive class B experience.” He said, “being at the class A level is a lot different than class B or even C, C-1, C-2, on through. Football is football, and there is certain way you need to run a program in order to be successful, but, at the same time, the speed of the game is just completely different in Class A, especially at the high competitive level, which is where we want get the program back to.”