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With a new coach and new region, the Coffee County Red Raiders are hoping to build a consistent winner following a respectable showing in 2024.

After a poor, 2-8 performance in the 2023 season that saw a coaching change two games in, the Red Raiders rebounded well in 2024 under head coach Roger Haynes, finishing 5-6 with a 6A State Playoffs loss to Mt. Juliet.

On March 10, 2025, four months after the conclusion of the Red Raiders’ 2024 season, head coach Roger Haynes resigned from the team after one full season in the position, most of the 2023 season as the interim head coach and nearly four years with the Coffee County football program overall.

At the end of a month-long coaching search, Coffee County Central announced the hiring of Brandon Harmon on April 7. The Carson-Newman graduate has 14 years of coaching experience, but the Coffee County job is Harmon’s first as a head coach. Harmon’s previous job at Marion County as an assistant coach ended with the 2024 Class 2A State Championship and the Warriors’ first in nearly two decades.

Nearly four months later, and it seems that the players and coaching staff at Coffee County are locked in and ready not only for 2025, but beyond.

“For us, this is a long-term process,” Coach Harmon said after a scorching July practice. “We’ve got kids and coaches that are fully bought into the vision of this being a consistently winning program… We want to build a culture here at Coffee County that is four quarters of disciplined and hard-nosed football.”

The Red Raiders lost 24 seniors from last year’s squad, and while that may be a large number of leaders to replace, Coach Harmon is confident in the players that have made the next step during the offseason.

“There’s no doubt that we’re trying to replace a lot of good football players from last year,” he said. “We’ve got guys that haven’t had a lot of Friday night experience, but they’ve stepped up, taken their role and ran with it since spring practice. You never really know until you get that first scrimmage in, but as we’ve progressed from helmets-only to full pads, I’ve been really pleased with what I’ve seen. I think our coaching staff has done a tremendous job and the kids are figuring out what we’re trying to accomplish. We’re very optimistic.”

When a team gets a new head coach, it often brings with it a new culture and a new way of doing things then the previous person. Coach Harmon doesn’t deny that this coming season is going to be different in a lot of ways, but he hasn’t completely thrown out some of the mentality that led the Red Raiders to the playoffs last year.

“Schematically, it will be different, especially on offense, but I still think you’re going to see that same four-quarter mentality that they had under Coach Haynes last year,” Harmon said. “They’re going to play hard until the final horn sounds.”

That mentality will be important for the Red Raiders, especially when navigating their new home in 6A Region 6. The likes of Brentwood, Franklin, Independence, Ravenwood and Summit occupied the region last year with Overton leaving in the TSSAA realignment, and Coffee County, along with rival Shelbyville Central, moving in.

“It’s hard to look at it and not single out a team like Ravenwood, ” Harmon said of the defending Region Champs. “They’re a tremendous program, and they’ve had a lot of success, but for what we’re trying to accomplish long term, every team that we play on Friday night is just a nameless, faceless opponent. It’s not as much about who we play as much as it is about us doing everything we need to do on Monday through Thursday to give us a chance on Friday nights. There’s no hiding behind it, we have a tough schedule, but the kids are excited for the challenge.”

With his first season as a head coach in front of him, Coach Harmon wants to see his team prove that they can compete amongst the best in the mid-state.

“Early on, we just want to prove that we can compete at a high level,” he said. “There’s games you’re supposed to win, there’s games that you’re not supposed to win, so can we take care of business in games that we’re supposed to win and then be in position to win games that we’re not supposed to be in? I would like for us to find that competitive balance; not playing up or down based on who we’re playing.”

Coffee County will get a small taste of competitive football when they host Lincoln County for their first of two preseason scrimmages at Carden-Jarrell Field on Friday, Aug. 8 at 6 p.m.