How new Alcoa football coach Brian Nix plans to continue Gary Rankin's winning tradition

Brian Nix wasn't nervous for his first official practice as Alcoa football's coach. Even in his new role, everything felt completely familiar to the longtime defensive coordinator.

Monday was the first July practice in 15 years without Gary Rankin. The winningest coach in Tennessee high school football history resigned after winning his 13th state championship with the Tornadoes to move closer to his family in Chattanooga.

Nix had waited a long time for the opportunity to lead the program. He first joined the Alcoa staff in 2004, four years before Rankin's arrival.

"My wife's biggest fear was that I would leave to go somewhere else, because it was starting to get to the point...and a couple of other jobs got pretty close to happening," Nix said. "it's something I've looked forward to for a while because you want to see how you can do this job and how we're going to develop."

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Nix retained every member of the 2021 coaching staff except for safeties coach PJ Burden, who decided to take a leave to spend more time with family. His lone hire is Dakota Summers, who coached at Central last season.

That made the transition to Nix's leadership easy for both the staff and team. Since he spent the past 19 seasons as defensive coordinator, Nix will remain the primary play-caller for the defense. He is leaving the offense in the experienced hands of offensive coordinator David Sweetland and offensive line coach Brian Gossett.

Day 1 of Team Nix

Nix's first July practice didn't go exactly as planned. He spent the first hour huddled around his assistant coaches constantly refreshing the weather forecast as the team waited for lighting in the area to move outside of the required 10-mile radius.

One of the biggest lessons Nix learned from Rankin was to value time, so instead of keeping the team later on Monday because of the weather delay, he cut down his practice schedule on the fly to keep only the most important drills.

"I think that sometimes people mistake work put in for work accomplished," he said. "Two out of four days last week, we ended practice 10-15 minutes early. When the reps are done, we're done, so I tell them if we drag through them ... it's  gonna take 10 minutes, and if we pop through and you execute, we can go home."

Nix has one volume setting on the field — loud — but his shouting rarely carries a tone of frustration or anger.

"I try to keep things positive," Nix said. "If we're if we're gonna get on them, when they do it right and they do it perfect, that better be a bigger celebration. The kids will buy into that."

Gossett said Nix's practices are one of the biggest differences between him and Rankin.

"Brian learned a lot from Gary that the practice has to be the most stressful part of everything that's going on, because if the game is stressful, it's too late," Gossett said. "Gary would put pressure on them very vocally, whereas Brian will put pressure on them through scenarios and having a lot more best-versus-best and making it more competitive."

Making changes

For players, the changes have been refreshing. Senior running back Jordan Harris said there is "a lot less yelling," but he said Nix has maintained the intensity and accountability that are trademarks of Alcoa culture.

Because Rankin was more offensive-minded, Nix's defensive focus also gives the offense freedom to test out new schemes and systems.

"We have a newer college offense now, so we've really changed our whole offense," Harris said "Coach Rankin's was more the old school type of guy, but I like the new offense a lot. I think it's easier once you get the hang of it."

Nix has been the team's de facto hype man since he started at Alcoa, leading pregame warmups and weight room sessions, so most of the veteran players already have a high level of respect for him as a leader.

"Coaching is a relationships game, and if you spend two minutes with (Nix), you feel like you've known him about 25 years," Gossett said. "Gary gave him a lot of opportunity to get that respect, so that when the time came, everything just kind of kept chugging right along. Brian took all those opportunities that Gary gave him to be a leader and ran with them."

Continuing Rankin's legacy

Rankin's 467 wins and 17 state championships are not an easy act to follow, and Nix certainly feels the pressure to keep the winning tradition alive. However, that pressure comes less from the legacy of his predecessor and more from his relationships with the senior class.

He doesn't want to be the coach that lets them down.

"I've always felt the pressure to have the best possible season ... and the years that we haven't won it, I felt like there were some more things I could have done to help them," Nix said. "They're always going to remember their senior year. They're always going to remember that last game."

Gossett, who has been a coach alongside Nix since 2008, feels the pressure, too. He wants to see his friend succeed and establish his own legacy. At Alcoa, that means winning the state title for the eighth year in a row.

"I want to win for Brian, and I want Brian to be able to get on solid footing with the community — and he already is, but if he it wins it, it changes people's perspective, like okay, they can still win it even though Gary's not here," Gossett said. "I want him to be able to say that he won a state championship as a head coach."

Contact Emily Adams at eaadams@gannett.com or on Twitter @eaadams6.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TSSAA football: Alcoa coach Brian Nix continuing Gary Rankin's culture