Less than three months after guiding Tyner Academy to its first football state championship in 25 years, Scott Chandler is stepping down as head coach of the Rams.
The veteran coach announced his surprising decision Friday, leaving the program after two successful seasons that included overseeing a record-setting defense during a run to the TSSAA Class 2A title last fall.
“It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make because we’ve got great kids at Tyner and they bought into everything we wanted to do,” Chandler said. “But when it comes to your family, that makes any decision a lot easier. My daughter is going into the ninth grade next year, and I think it’s important that I take a step back and make a move to be closer to home so I can spend as much time with her as I did her two older sisters.
“I’m driving about 45 minutes, one way, to work every day right now, and that makes spending time with my family really hard. I had thought this would be my last stop, but things change and my family comes first.”
On Thursday evening, Chandler was approved by the Chattooga County (Georgia) Board of Education to be hired as a defensive assistant at Chattooga High School. That move would cut Chandler’s commute from his north Georgia home by more than 20 miles.
Chandler was thrown into a difficult situation when he took over the Rams in late May of 2021. Tyrus Ward had stepped down just one month after taking the Tyner job to accept an offer to join the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga staff.
Despite the late hire, Chandler led Tyner to a 7-4 finish, then followed with last season’s unexpected 14-1 campaign that featured a dominating defense that recorded seven shutouts as the Rams outscored opponents by an average of 39-5.6 in their wins.
“I would like to thank (former principal) Gerald Harris and (athletic director) Ronald Davis for giving me the opportunity to come to Tyner,” Chandler said. “We were all on the same page as far as our vision and goals for the program, and I appreciate their support.”
Harris left Tyner to become the principal at Garber Construction Academy, Hamilton County’s newest Future Ready Center, in March 2022.
Tyner outscored its five Region 3-2A opponents by a total of 202-7 last year, and only four teams all season managed to score more than seven points against the state’s stingiest defense. Tyner’s lone loss came at eight-time Class 3A state champ Alcoa, and the Rams also had a Tennessee Titans Mr. Football winner in quarterback Josh Jackson.
Their BlueCross Bowl title victory against Decatur-Riverside came in dramatic fashion in early December at Finley Stadium.
“I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished in my time at Tyner,” Chandler said. “We won 21 games and obviously a state title, but the most important thing is the culture we built. It was very satisfying to hear compliments from the people who worked on our sideline about how our kids didn’t use some of the language they hear from other teams and just how they conducted themselves. That meant as much to me as winning football games.
“We’re leaving the program in good shape financially, equipment-wise, and the facilities have improved, so I feel good about what we’ve done here.”
Prior to taking over at Tyner, Chandler was the head coach at Ooltewah for three years, compiling a 16-16 record after being promoted from defensive assistant prior to the 2018 season. In his first season with the Owls, he guided the team to a 9-3 finish and reached the second round of the Class 6A playoffs.
He also coached for three years at Georgia’s Coosa, where he compiled a 20-15 record from 2002-04 with two trips to the GHSA Class AA playoffs, which ended a 15-year postseason drought prior to his arrival.
A 1981 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe graduate who later graduated from UTC, Chandler also worked as a graduate assistant at Kansas State under defensive coordinator Bob Stoops. Chandler has also been a college assistant at Valdosta State and Emporia State and a high school assistant at Rhea County, Trion and Gordon Central, where he also coached boys’ basketball.
Tyner becomes the area’s sixth prep football program that will undergo a head coaching change this season, with three of those — Chattanooga Christian, Hixson and now Tyner — coming open this week. Just three days after its job came open, Hixson promoted Nick Rivers to head coach on Friday morning.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.