University of Tennessee at Chattanooga defensive back coach David Bibee talks to Brandon Golder in the game against Western Carolina at Finley Stadium on Saturday.The texts have appeared on Central High School football coach Cortney Braswell's cellphone every Saturday morning this season after a Friday night game.
Though sent from his former Baylor School coach, David Bibee, who has always been a stickler for details, the texts have little to do with the technical aspects of the Purple Pounders' performance from the previous night.
"It's almost never about what we did wrong or right," Braswell said this week as he prepared his team to host Sullivan South in a first-round playoff game tonight at 7. "It's usually just something to encourage us. Not changing something - just an idea about doing what we do a little better."
As he spoke, the second-year Central head coach pulled his phone from his pocket and reread Bibee's message from last Saturday, less than 12 hours after the Pounders' regular season concluded with a tough loss to Tyner.
"He sent it at 8:16 in the morning," Braswell said. "It reads: 'Forget it. Drive on. Your great year doesn't have to end.'"
Regardless of what happens tonight, it has been a great year for a school that still owns one of the greatest traditions in Tennessee high school football history.
A winless 0-10 two years ago, Central finished 3-8 in its first season under Braswell. It is 6-4 this year and hosting a playoff game for the first time in anyone's memory, and all four of the losses have come against schools that won their region championships: Red Bank, Notre Dame, Anderson County and Tyner.
"This is one of the most special football traditions in the state," Braswell said as he sat in front of a giant purple-and-gold photo graphic that centered him between late Central coaching legends Stan Farmer and E.B. "Red" Etter. "We still have the sixth-most state championships and we haven't won one since 1969. We're not there yet, but trying to restore that gets me going every day. You can coach anywhere, but I get to coach at Central."
He also said of tonight: "We're going to make it a block party before the game. Inflatables. Face painting. We want to foster a stronger connection between those who went to Central years ago on Dodds Avenue and those who've gone to our campus here on Highway 58."
Yet as inspiring as the Purple Pounders' football rebirth has been for both the Highway 58 community it serves today and all those much older folks who were its students and fans during its glory days before it moved to the suburbs, the lasting relationship between Bibee and Braswell is equally uplifting.
"I came to him in his second year at Baylor, and now he's come to me in my second year at Central," said Braswell, who also said of Bibee, "The best feeling I've ever had in my life was the first time he told me he was proud of me."
Although Bibee acts only as a consultant for Braswell, never coaching on the field, he bubbles with pride when asked about how one of his most talented Red Raiders has turned out.
"I'm so proud of how he got here," he said by phone Wednesday night. "Cortney went to night school to finish up his degree. He's never cut corners. He's a true student of the game. When I was (an assistant) at Middle Tennessee, he'd come to see me all the time. He'd talk to every coach there, try to learn everything they knew. He's started doing the same thing now with Dale Jones at Appalachian State. And he has the biggest heart. Nobody cares more about his players than Cortney."
This isn't to say the Bibee-Braswell relationship hasn't had its tough moments.
"He always told me what I needed to hear, never what I wanted to hear," Braswell said of his former coach. "He was never interested in my excuses. That's made our relationship difficult at times."
Said Bibee: "Hard love."
But Braswell, whose biological father died when he was three months old, is also quick to add, "He's the only person who can change my mind about something pretty quick. I'm 30 years old and I still want the approval of my high school coach. He's really been a dad to me through the good, the bad and the ugly."
What's really interesting, though, is how much of Bibee's hard love has resurfaced in Braswell's coaching style.
"By far the hardest coach I've ever had," said Central junior running back Mike McGhee, whose 24 touchdowns this season thus far are 11 more than the entire Pounders team scored last season. "But he's also like a father figure to me. He can be your best friend off the field."
Bibee first taught Braswell the meaning of hard love early in their time together at Baylor. Having run for more than 300 yards and five touchdowns against Montgomery Bell Academy, Braswell returned to the practice field that Monday to be repeatedly screamed at by Bibee.
"I was crying," he said. "I swore if I ever became a coach I would never treat my players that way."
Instead, said McGhee, recalling an earlier game this season in which he thought he was playing well: "He cussed me out in front of the whole team, and the game wasn't even over."
Said Braswell with a grin: "If you get mad at me, blame (Bibee)."
Just also make sure you blame both of them for quickly putting Purple Pounders football on a path that seems destined to lead it back to its long-ago glory days.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.