Kareem Reid, McEachern head coach
Today’s interviewee is first-year McEachern coach Kareem Reid, whose team defeated then-No. 9 Valdosta 28-7 last week. Valdosta was a 27-point favorite, according to the Maxwell Ratings. Reid was coach at Griffin (2019-20) and Westlake (2016-18) before taking college jobs at Central Florida in 2021 and Florida in 2022. He returned to Georgia this year to take over a McEachern program that missed the playoffs last season for the first time in 14 years. McEachern started this season 0-4, including losses to top-10 teams Hughes and Douglas County, but has won two straight and will begin region play in 3-7A in two weeks against unbeaten Harrison.
1. What did your team do so well to control the game Friday? What was the difference? “The difference to us was we wanted to win the battle at the line of scrimmage on the defensive side and not allow them to pound us and run the football as effectively as they have in the past. Our kids did a great job accepting the challenge. On offense we stuck to the game plan and didn’t panic when we had some negative plays, which we anticipated because they have a good defensive line. We kept hitting them with body blows in the run game and took some shots when we had it, and our kids won some one-on-one battles.” [Jaydon Kinney threw TD passes of 65 yards to Jayreon Campbell and 52 yards to Kayden Patterson. Valdosta rushed for 231 yards but lost three fumbles and had no run longer than 25 yards.]
2. What's your assessment of your team six games in? “We’re battle-tested because of the schedule and the caliber of opponents from week one through six. We gained a lot of lessons in those early losses. We figured out we’ve got kids who like to complete. We’ve made adjustments offensively. We went from being a heavy zone blocking team to now we’re more of a gap team and power-run team. We’ve simplified things for the quarterback so he knows exactly where to go with the ball and can be more decisive. That’s paid dividends in the past two weeks.”
3. What brought you back to high school coaching? And why McEachern? “The high school game is more pure than college football in terms of the player-coach relationship, taking them from their freshman to their senior year and seeing the growth. I also missed being part of a community. Friday night lights are just special. It also provided stability in my personal life. I knew at Florida that it wouldn’t be my final destination to get where I wanted to be. In high school, I can control my schedule in terms of destiny. Why McEachern? It’s an elite job. It has resources, players, proximity to Atlanta, great facilities. That makes it a super attractive job, and it’s one I always had my eye on, even when I was here previously as a head coach.”
4. What did you learn from coaching in college? “It validated that I was doing thing correctly as a high school coach. I honestly learned more about the recruiting side than anything, what schools look for based on conversations we had about who and how they were going to recruit a kid. I did learn a lot of scheme stuff at Florida because I was in the room with a lot of great minds, but most of all, I have a new perspective on being on both sides of recruiting. I can guide my kids on how to get through the process. I learned there are a lot of good players everywhere. You may think your kid is exceptional, but there are good kids in every state. I no longer take it personally if they don’t like a kid because at the end of the day, college coaches’ jobs depend getting the best players. The competition is really stiff, especially now with the transfer portal.”