Jeff Herron, GACA Hall of Fame coach
Today’s interviewee is retired coach Jeff Herron, who plans to attend the Oconee County-Cherokee Bluff game on Friday night, when Oconee County will honor its 1999 championship team that Herron coached. Led by Tyson Browning and Tony Taylor, who went on to play at Georgia, Oconee County finished 15-0 that year and claimed its first and only state title. Herron retired after last season, when his Camden County team reached the Class 7A semifinals. Herron’s 32-year career record was 334-69 with five state championships. Herron is living in Livingston, Tenn., about 80 miles east of Nashville, in the remodeled house of his wife’s parents.
1. What was most memorable about the 1999 Oconee County team? “There were a lot of reasons that team was special. It was my first state championship as a coach. My wife [Inka] reminded me the other day that we had a sick child that night. Our third child, Taylor, was sick and throwing up, and my wife couldn’t see the game. She was trying to listen on the radio, and she said she cried the whole fourth quarter. We finally got it done. Oconee County had been bad. I didn’t take the job [in 1997] thinking we could be good. I thought it was a good decision for my family. But we kept getting better each year, and the stars aligned. It was so new to the community. Nobody expected it, so it was fun. It was also the only time in my career that we played for a state championship at home. That’s the greatest feeling, being able to win it on your home field and the memories of that night, the crowd, the celebration on the field, going to the house and celebrating the rest of the night with the coaching staff. It was a great way to end that run there. We usually get together once a year whether it’s an official reunion or not. You don’t see that a lot these days. It was a special group of players and men.” [Highlights of the 1999 championship game, part of GPB's televised covered with Larry Munson doing play by play and Jeff Van Note on color commentary, can be found on YouTube in two parts here and here. Oconee County defeated Mount Zion of Jonesboro 17-7. Herron left after that season for Camden County, where he coached from 2000 to 2012 and 2021 to 2023.]
2. How have you been spending retirement? “The first time I retired [after the 2018 season at T.L. Hanna in Anderson, S.C.], I went to nine high school games that fall. This time, I told myself I was going to remove that from who I was. I’ve watched a couple of games on GPB and Peachtree TV, and I read Georgia High School Football Daily every morning. That’s the first thing I do. But I’m trying to remove myself from it. I went to one game at White County, Tennessee, last week because one of my Oconee County coaches [Mark Frasier] is coaching there. It’s different this time. I don’t miss being a coach on Friday night. You get to a point where you say enough is enough. Maybe that’s what happened this time, I knew it was time. I started feeling that way even during the season. I didn’t want to do it halfway. I’ve really enjoyed this year. It’s been different. I’ve found some hobbies this time. I’ve played more golf since spring than in my entire life. My wife and I got into pickleball. I’ve traveled some. This weekend my plans are to go to the Oconee County game, then Saturday go to Tuscaloosa and watch Alabama-Georgia. Next weekend I’m going to my high school reunion [Gate City High in Virginia], then to Emory & Henry’s homecoming [Herron’s college alma mater]. When I was a football coach, you don’t do anything. You play Friday, you watch film Saturday, and you’re working all day Sunday. You don’t do things normal people do.”
3. Looking back over 32 years as a head coach, how did the game change in terms of what wins football games? “Certainly there was some evolution. As a coach, you have to evolve, but I think there are some principles that have always been true. If the Falcons had been able to run the ball Sunday night, they would have won that game [with the Chiefs]. I think there still comes a time when you have to run the ball and control the clock, and I still think the most physical team is going to win most of the time. It rarely goes the other way. Those were some of things that we wanted to get back to in the return to Camden County [in 2021]. These guys are going to hit you, and they’re going to challenge you and be physical. That’s why we had success in the playoffs last year. We ran into teams that were extremely talented but that hadn’t faced an opponent that did the things we did [including running the wing-T offense], and that caused some problems. So again, there are a lot of ways the game has changed, but in important ways, it’s still the same.”
4. You hadn’t been retired long before the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association decided to select you for its Hall of Fame. How do you feel about that? “Any time you get honored, it’s human nature to like it, but I’ve always said this: Football is the ultimate team game. You don’t win games by yourself. It takes a lot of people and support from others. There are players involved, coaches involved, communities involved. I am happy about it, but it’s more of a reflection of the people and the places I’ve worked. It takes a village, as they say. I’ve been fortunate to coach at some really good places with some great assistant coaches along the way.”
