New coach McCord, multitalented roster has Wilkinson County planning to stick around as contender 

Wilkinson County’s Mack McCord hopes the surprises and proving people wrong continues.

He’s already working on both.

McCord is making his debut as a head football coach this season at age 55, having started his coaching career as an assistant for a middle school volleyball team after years in the business world.

When he got the job in April, he told school officials he was all in, to the point of buying a house in the area.

“The thing at Wilkinson is the coaches keep coming, they stay one or two years, and they leave,” said McCord, a graduate of what is now Dade County High. “All I can do is say it over and over, that I’m not going anywhere.

“I don’t intend to go anywhere, but you know, they’re not going to believe that until I’m here five, six, seven years. Then they’ll start believing that I ain’t going nowhere.”

McCord takes over a program that has gone from the 22-year tenure of James Hagins from 1996-2017 – a run that included three region titles and four 10-win seasons – to its fourth head coach in less than a decade.

That’s not if one includes Keldrick Burke twice. He resigned in 2020, after his second year, and then returned after a few months, then departing in the middle of the summer of 2023 to become principal at East Laurens, putting the Warriors in a bind.

Interim head coach Terrell Holt lasted a 5-5 season, and Jamoski Ward went 10-12, choosing then to take over a Central program in Macon that is on a 1-29 run the past three years.

Now, the Warriors have a coach who started his career full-time at the age of 48 and had a goal of becoming a head coach before he was 55.

He made that by one day. Next goal?

“Be a head coach for 10 years,” he said. “I ain’t going anywhere unless they kick me out of this county.”

It wasn’t that long ago that Wilkinson County had three straight non-losing seasons, so McCord is confident that there’s a little more to the program than outsiders think.

“The biggest thing here is getting their minds right, and get the discipline,” he said. “They had this attitude of ‘Hey, we’re talented, we’re going to win on talent, why should we have to work hard?’

“I started getting them in the weight room and getting them into spring practice and everything, I’m just like, “Guys, the work ethic’s not here. The discipline’s not here.”

That’s coming around, as is improving under yet another coaching staff.

A quarterback with options… 

The Warriors have had some quality passing games, which goes against McCord’s history. He doesn’t really know how to throw a lot.

And McCord grew up playing quarterback.

“I was a 5-8, 170-pound quarterback that could run the option,” he said of his days at Tennessee Wesleyan. “They ran the wishbone. They didn’t care how tall I was, just how fast I was and could I make good reads and pitch the ball.”

Well, he’ll have to adjust some, because Wilkinson County returns one of the top quarterbacks in Central Georgia, senior Quenterrion Stanford.

He has completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 3,947 yards, 35 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in two seasons.

The coach who thought for decades that airing it out meant four passes in a couple weeks has a talented arm to work with.

“I think he’s a legitimate D-I quarterback,” McCord said of the 6-3,180-pounder. “He makes really good decisions.”

McCord has installed a run-pass option system he thinks fits Stanford, who will rely more on his legs than he has in the past.

“I’m giving him the opportunity to show me that he can run, and show college scouts that he can run.”

There will be, no doubt, some serious discussions between head coach and quarterback.

“In this offense, he could conceivably throw for 2,000 and run for 1,000,” McCord said. “He told me, ‘Coach, I would love it if I could throw for 3,000 and only run for 100.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s possible, too.’”

McCord had some convincing to do upon arrival, carrying a reputation as a die-hard Wing-T coach.

“The kids were absolutely terrified,” he said. “The rumor was out there that I was going to run Wing-T. It took me weeks to squash that.”

Wilkinson County will run a pistol flex, incorporating some double-wing and Wing-T schemes as well as RPO and spread.

Stanford is taking to the learning process.

“When it comes to football, he’s pretty smart,” McCord said. “I’ve got a lot of football books in my office, and he’ll take one home and read it, and he comes back and gets another one.”

A lot to like, a little to learn… 

The transition is a little tougher than usual because of numbers and a difficulty for a faction of players to make it to summer workouts or camps. Now that everybody’s together, McCord has started to see the progress.

A boost has been senior wideout Cha’Marrion Hall.

“He just dedicated himself to learning all the formations and the offense,” McCord said. “If he tells you, ‘Hey, you’re lined up wrong’ or ‘This is what you do,’ he’s pretty dead on every time.”

Junior Amare Todd (6-0, 180) is somebody McCord can’t wait to see get going on Friday nights. He’s an all-region linebacker who is adding running back duties to his game.

“People are doubting that he’s going to be a good running back, but I think he’s going to be outstanding,” McCord said of the all-region linebacker. “I think this kid could run for 1,000 yards if given a chance.”

Junior Jason Hurst (5-10, 290) leads a fairly deep offensive line that Stanford, Hall, and Todd will rely on. Deion Nesbitt is a 6-3, 360-pound sophomore McCord expects plenty from, especially as conditioning improves.

“He’s got grandparents that were 7-feet tall,” McCord said. “He’s going to grow some more.”

Todd is a 100-tackle defender McCord expects to lead that region in stops, courtesy in large part of good vision and an above-average ability to read an offense.

He’ll be in the middle of the 3-5-3 scheme that is strong on the back end.

“Linebackers, they’re going to make the majority of the tackles,” said the widowed father of one. “I trust our two corners, our free safety. I trust them to literally shut down passing games.

“They’re ball hawks. You throw the ball against us, and our guys are looking to go get it and take it back the other way.”

One is the aforementioned Hall, who doesn’t play like his 5-7, 150-pound frame, and hungers to show colleges he’s worth a look.

McCord said Hall was beastly during a camp at Woodland against much bigger schools.

“They were throwing these 6-2 receivers out there against him,” McCord said, “And he refused to let them catch a ball. He just manhandled those bigger receivers.”

Kicker Diego Reynoso couldn’t make many summer sessions, but McCord expects him to be in mid-season form pretty quickly. Stanford returns at punter, and the Warriors have plenty of candidates in the return game.

Long-term vision, short-term confidence… 

Wilkinson County was a playoff team despite a 4-6 regular-season last year, only giving up 39 more points than it scored.

The Warriors will have about three dozen players, and McCord expects to play nearly 20 on most Friday nights. The roster is a little senior-heavy but has underclassmen with some big potential.

McCord isn’t looking at a long-term building plan.

“There’s too much talent here coming through this program for them to not be winning more ballgames,” said McCord, who will spend a lot of time working on his house in Gordon because he expects to live there a long time. “Single A and double A players, when you get that work ethic right, they’re going to be in the weight room, they’re going to push each other, they play with a chip on their shoulder.

“Wilkinson County football players have kind of lost that chip, and I’m trying to get it back.”