Former Georgia Bulldogs star wide receiver accepts head coaching role at Georgia high school
Former Georgia wide receiver Terrence Edwards accepted the head coaching position at Mount Vernon School (Atlanta) on Thursday.
Edwards holds UGA’s all-time receiving records in career receiving yards (3,093), career touchdown receptions (30) and most receiving yards in a single season (1,004).
Edwards played for the Bulldogs from 1999-2002 before joining the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2003. Injuries plagued Edwards’ single year in the NFL, and he spent the 2004 season out of football entirely before joining the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in 2005.
Edwards spent nine seasons in the CFL, which also included stints with the Montreal Alouettes and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He is considered one of the most productive receivers in CFL history, earning All-Star honors in 2007, 2010 and 2011. Edwards retired from football in 2013 after totaling 508 catches for 7,673 yards and 47 touchdowns.
Edwards created his company, Terrence Edwards’ Wide Receiver Academy, in 2015. It trains wide receivers.
Georgia tight end Brock Bowers came close to breaking Edwards’ career touchdowns record, but an ankle injury derailed Bowers’ hopes of breaking that record.
Josh Heupel’s offense stems from Baylor’s veer and shoot. Mount Vernon head coach Brad Willard, a former Baylor player and coach, discusses the offense’s success, and also leading the FBS and FCS statistically.
Tennessee’s offensive scheme under Josh Heupel is statistically leading college football in the FBS.
The veer and shoot offensive scheme is also having success at the high school level in Texas with head coach Brad Willard at Mount Vernon.
Willard comes from Baylor’s coaching staff when the Bears experienced success with quarterbacks Robert Griffin III and Bryce Petty in the veer and shoot offense.
Heupel was hired as Missouri’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016. He brought in Joe Jon Finley from Baylor to serve as the Tigers’ tight ends coach under him.
With Finley on staff, Heupel began to install Baylor’s veer and shoot offense.
Finley served as an offensive quality control analyst at Baylor in 2015.
Willard coached alongside Finley at Baylor as an offensive graduate assistant. He worked with tight ends alongside Finley exclusively. Willard played running back for the Bears before coaching.
“Coach Heupel has done such a good job,” Willard told Vols Wire. “What we do is so simple. You have to have your twist on things, and tempo has got to be right to give you your advantage, so he’s done an awesome job.”
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Willard is in his second season as head coach at Mount Vernon.
Mount Vernon has an open date this week after an 8-1 start to the 2022 season. Despite having a quarterback change due to injury this season, Willard and Mount Vernon have scored 42-plus points in every win.
“Our running back is about 50-60 yards away from 2,000 in nine games this season and has not had more than 30 carries in a game all year,” Willard said. “We’ve got a really special player that’s kind of helped get us through all the personnel changes with the quarterback going down. He’s really carried the offense. Got a receiver that’s started for two years, since his sophomore year, we moved him to quarterback and he gives us a dynamic playmaking ability at the quarterback position. We’re just kind of figuring out all that he can do with only one game left before the playoffs.”
Willard also discussed the offensive scheme having success throughout the sport of football, everything from tempo, teaching players to find referees quickly to have the ball spotted, and wide splits.
“You have to teach kids and that’s what we do even at the high school level, teaching kids to find umpires,” Willard said of teaching the system. “Don’t let ref’s play catch, let’s play catch for them and give them the ball where they can spot it.”
Willard further discussed the offensive system and if he is surprised it has taken off from his time at Baylor.
“It does take a lot of buy-in from the entire staff,” he said of the offense. “Obviously, the defense is going to be on the field more. It’s just a completely different style of football game, not just offensively, so to see the amount of coaching staff’s that it has had, to kind of take off is a little bit of surprise.”
Mount Vernon forced overtime in a Virginia football game with help from a play that might have been a forward handoff. Fair or foul?
Mount Vernon would not be denied in regulation of its game against Lake Braddock, but should it have been?
Mount Vernon was stopped as time expired, but a penalty led to an untimed down on the next play. On that next play, Mount Vernon was close to the goal line when the running back was stopped short. It appeared that the ball was either fumbled forward to another player, who recovered the ball in the end zone to score, or it was a forward handoff.
The touchdown and point after tied the game and sent it into overtime. However, Lake Braddock came out in overtime and scored on the first play. The team then sealed the 30-24 win with an interception on Mount Vernon’s next and final drive.
