Clayton George

 

Clayton George is the new head football coach for Robert E. Lee High School.

George was approved unanimously by the Tyler ISD board in front of a packed house at Monday’s school board meeting at the Tyler ISD Jim Plyler Instructional Complex. Afterward, George met Lee football players, parents, faculty members and other well-wishers before joining TISD athletic director Greg Priest for a news conference.

“It’s a great day for me and my family to be back in East Texas,” George said. “I grew up 30 minutes down the road in Athens and it has always been a dream of ours to come and raise our family back home. This opportunity presented itself … I just want to thank everyone who was involved in this process for giving me the opportunity to be the next head coach at Tyler Lee.”

George brings nearly two decades of coaching experience and success with him to the Rose City, most recently as offensive coordinator/assistant head coach at Southlake Carroll.

It was his second stint as OC for the Dragons (first under Todd Dodge and second under Hal Wasson) and George helped bring undefeated state championships to Southlake Carroll twice (2002, 2011). His first time as OC was from 2000-04 and this time from 2011-15.

In between, he was head coach at Dallas Hillcrest (2004-06), leading the Panthers to their first playoff win in 10 years and reaching the area round in both years; coaching one year at Haltom before re-joining Dodge in the collegiate ranks as a wide receivers coach at the University of North Texas from 2007-10.

George has also been a coach at Trinity Valley Community, Carrollton Newman Smith High School and Keller Fossil Ridge High School prior to Southlake Carroll.

Last year, George was honored as the 2015 Assistant Coach of the Year by the National Football Federation Gridiron Club of Dallas.

“We’re super excited about this hire,” Priest said of George. “To have someone with his credentials to come here and lead our teams is something that we’ve been looking for.”

The Lee job came open in November following a 5-5 season under fourth-year coach Darrell Piske with the Red Raiders missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.

“We had our shortlist and we knew who we wanted to go after and the good thing is we were able to get the guy we wanted,” Priest said.

George is known for producing explosive offenses and has coached several players currently in the National Football League with the most recent Scott Chandler (tight end, New England), Chase Daniel (quarterback, Kansas City) and Lance Dunbar (running back, Dallas Cowboys).

Last year, Carroll garnered 3,110 yards passing yards and 41 touchdowns, while rushing for 2,562 yards and 28 touchdowns.

He said Lee will be up-tempo, exciting and relentless in all three phases.

“You’re going to see a team that is going to play fast and is going to play physical,” George said. “I think that starts from day 1, from the first time that I walk into the building that our kids know that we are going to play fast and physical and be aggressive.

“It’s easy for a coach to say those things. Everything that we do with our program is going to be based on getting us to that level.”

George takes over an REL team that has had no problem scoring points and providing big plays, averaging 284 yards rushing and 236 passing, but also gave up 557 yards and 49 points per game to opponents.

George said the program’s mentality needs to be established from the middle schools and players be ready to go by the time they reach the freshman and sophomore years of high school.

A veteran of two state champion staffs with the Southlake Carroll, George wants to bring that mentality and mindset to the Red Raiders. It is a similar approach to what he did at Hillcrest.

“We’ve been very fortunate and blessed to have a lot of success at Southlake, and when I left to become head coach at Hillcrest, what I said is I want to bring our program, our brand and our style of the way we run things from top to bottom,” George said. “I look forward to bringing a program that is going to be established on trust and working with each other, and when you do things and have a family atmosphere, the wins and all of the (accolades) that come with the program take care of itself.”

George recognized that this is a two-school town and Tyler shares several middle schools with cross-town rival John Tyler, but he is ready for that challenge and added there was a big rival for Carroll too – Coppell, so he understands the passion in that game.

“(I want) to get a chance to be around the middle schools and meet the coaches and the players who are going to be attending Robert E. Lee. Once you do that and can identify and start working with installing your program, I can’t tell you how important that is at the successful places I’ve been,” George said. “We all speak the same language, we all do the same things and we all run the same plays.

“They know who we are and we know who they are, so once they get to high school our job gets a little bit easier.”

The Red Raiders return 22 varsity players from last year’s team, many of them starters. Sophomore quarterback Chance Amie gained valuable experience after coming in for injured starter Zach Hall and finished with 902 yards passing and nine touchdowns.

Lee also returns starting linebackers Campbell Miller and Rhett Parker, among others.

The REL defense has struggled stopping opponents in recent seasons but George believes that is going to turn around.

“It’s about the way that you train and the program you build,” George said. “If you say you are going to be physical, it needs to be a part of your program from January to starting in the fall.

“I want to see a team that believes in one another; that trusts their coaches and their coaches trust them. What I will tell them starting tomorrow is the most important relationship they have is with their position coach, and me as the head coach I am overseeing everything, but the wide receivers with their coach and the D-line with their coach. And once we put all of the pieces together and we go through the spring and they learn me and I learn the, good things will happen.”

The Red Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since 2009 and haven’t won more than five games in the regular season since 2008. George understands the task at hand and the pressures with the job and is ready to get to work.

“In this era we can’t wait and say we want to do this two or three years down the road,” George said. “There are kids that are going to be seniors right now and they want to win right now. I am going to promise the kids and coaches when I meet with them (Tuesday) that we are going to play a fast, up-tempo, aggressive style of football and get after it.”

Raider Rap: George is the 11th coach in REL’s history with only two of them (Mike Owens, Biff Peterson) posting above .500 records in their time at the helm … George is joined in Tyler by his wife, Angie and five children: Chloe (16), Claire (13), Carlee (10), Cade (7) and Chandler (3) … George will be one of three former Southlake Carroll coordinators currently as head coaches in East Texas joining Bill Poe (Class 4A Spring Hill) and Shannon Wilson (Class 4A Bullard).