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Coffee County football kicked off the Brandon Harmon era in the win column Friday night.

Traveling down to Winchester for their week 1 matchup against Franklin County, the Red Raiders overcame a slower start in the first half on the way to a 30-14 victory over the Rebels.

“I think (Coffee County) just settled in. We’ve got a lot of inexperience, a lot of new starters and we’re in a challenging situation because our new starters haven’t gotten the Friday night experience. I think some of that slow start was just them getting their feet wet on a Friday night, the heat of the battle, first regular-season game,” Harmon said of the Red Raiders’ second-half comeback. “I thought when we went into halftime, the attitudes were good. Our kids fought all night. They stayed together when it could’ve went sideways, but I think it was just get it to halftime, let’s regroup, let’s realize we can do this and I think the second half is more of what we expected for four quarters.”

Scoreless for most of the first quarter, Coffee County got on the board first courtesy of a safety from Calvin Barrett with 32 seconds on the clock.

Franklin County did not wait long to answer, adding a touchdown and an extra point to put the Red Raiders in a 7-2 hole with 10:12 left until halftime. The Rebels continued to push ahead from there, adding another touchdown with under two minutes to go until the break.

Trailing by 12 to start the ensuing drive, Coffee County was able to cut into the deficit before the first half’s close on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Kaysen Lowery to Jett Trussler with 11 seconds remaining. Trey Caron followed with the extra point to send the Red Raiders into the locker room down 14-9.

Coffee County continued to find its rhythm as the second half got underway.

Needing a touchdown to take the lead, the Red Raiders began a long third-quarter drive at their own 20-yard line that ended with a two-yard push into the end zone for Lowery. Jordan Thompson followed with a run of his own for the two-point conversion to put Coffee County up 17-14 with 2:57 left in the quarter.

“We came out, we’re getting the ball on this drive, we knew we had to score,” Lowery said of taking the lead in the third quarter. “We knew it was gonna be a long drive and that’s honestly what the goal was.”

Still ahead by three to open the fourth quarter, the Red Raiders added to their lead on a 31-yard scamper to paydirt from Kane Dixon with 6:46 remaining. Caron followed up with the PAT to put Coffee County up 24-14.

Dixon was able to reach the end zone one more time before the game’s conclusion, catching a pass from Lowery for 34 yards and six more points to bring the game to its final score.

With Franklin County in the rearview, Coffee County (1-0) will return home this Friday to face off against arch-rival Tullahoma for the 100^th edition of the storied Coffee Pot game.

“I think the biggest thing is learning from this week. We’ll break down the film, leave no stone unturned,” Harmon said of next week’s matchup. “On the coaching side of it, with the game next week, you can’t make it bigger than what it is. The kids are gonna feed off of us this week, so if we change how we coach and how we approach it, then it’s gonna negatively affect them.”