Coach ,

We love seeing coaches in our community succeed. 

We were especially excited to hear the news that Scotty Walden was named the head coach at Austin Peay, making him the youngest coach at the D1 level at 30 years old. This isn’t his first head coaching job. At 26, he led East Texas Baptist to a 7-3 season producing one of the top offenses in D3 football.

In 2017, Scotty Walden made an immediate impact on Texas Baptist and was quickly identified as one of the brightest and youngest offensive minds in the country. At the time, current Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said this of Walden:

"I have had the opportunity to get to know Scotty Walden over the last few years, and I couldn't be more impressed with his knowledge of the game and his work ethic. He has accomplished so much as a football coach at such a young age that it is truly amazing. Scotty is as smart of a football mind as there is in the country.”

Here you can see him 3- Man Cross country Concept:

As the youngest college coach in America at 26, Walden led the ETBU Tigers to a 7-3 record. Prior to ETBU, Walden’s first year as a coach and offensive coordinator, his offense led all of NCAA averaging 581.9 yards per game and 48.8 points per game. Walden’s offense rewrote the record book in his time as offensive coordinator and head coach. The highlights are below.

NCAA Rankings

• Total Passing Offense (ETBU) - 2014; 1st (368.1 pg)
• Total Offense (ETBU) - 2014; 2nd (566.1)
• Scoring Offense (ETBU) - 2014; 11th (42.3 ppg)
• Total Offense (SRSU) - 2012; 1st (all divisions – 581.9 ypg)
• Scoring Offense (SRSU) - 2012; 3rd (48.8 ppg)
• Passing Offense (SRSU) - 2012; 11th (333)

A coach doesn’t put up numbers like that and go unnoticed. This quickly led to an opportunity at the FBS level with Southern Miss. Walden joined the Coach and Coordinator Podcast prior to taking a job at the FBS level. Listen here. He began as the receivers coach, was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in his third year, and two weeks ago, was promoted to interim head coach.

It was exciting to watch Walden who was a fireball of enthusiasm for the Golden Eagles in his first game against La Tech. While the Eagles lost this one late, it was clear the team responded to Walden’s leadership.

Expect the offense to get rolling under Walden as well. One play he loves as part of his offense is the mesh. This was a play that scored for Southern Miss in Walden’s first game at the helm. 

Though Walden never loved the mesh initially, it definitely is a play that he loves now. The main reason is that it can give an offense both man answers and zone answers. As teams prepare to stop RPO with man answers, Mesh becomes a very good answer with high percentage throws. He explains in this video.

Walden really covers every detail in his course. If you are currently looking for answers for teams that are stopping your RPO, but you want high percentage throws and the ability to use the concept if the defense jumps into zone, the Mesh is an outstanding answer.

Watch the Golden Eagles and Coach Walden as they take on Tulane this week.

Good luck to you this week!

Coach Grabowski