New (and familiar) Central football coach hired by Phenix City Board of Education
The Phenix City Board of Education indeed approved the hiring of a former Central High School staff member to be the next head football coach for the Red Devils.
But he isn’t the guy multiple social media outlets reported he would be.
The board, which conducted its monthly meeting two days earlier than originally scheduled, unanimously voted Tuesday night to hire former Central football assistant Cody Flournoy as the program’s new head coach.
Flournoy succeeds Patrick Nix, who resigned “to pursue opportunities” in the ministry, Phenix City School announced in a news release last week.
Monday, the X account Fired Football Coaches of Georgia posted and the Facebook page ITG Next – Georgia reported — without citing sources — that former Central head football coach Jamey DuBose was returning to the position in Phenix City one month after leaving Biloxi, Mississippi, for the job in Bainbridge, Georgia.
Monday night, DuBose told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I’ve not been offered that job. I don’t know how it got out today.”
Tuesday night, the PCBOE instead hired Flournoy, the head football coach at Class 4A Jackson High School to lead the Class 7A Red Devils.
Bio info about new Central head football coach Cody Flournoy
Flournoy is mighty familiar with the Chattahoochee Valley. He graduated from Smiths Station High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a master’s degree in education from Columbus State University, according to his bio on Jackson’s website.
During his 23-year coaching career, he was:
- An assistant at Wacoochee Junior High School in 2002
- An assistant at Lee County (Georgia) High School in 2003
- An assistant at Central from 2004-08
- An assistant at Smiths Station from 2008-15
- Defensive coordinator at Smiths Station from 2011-15
- An assistant at Central from 2015-17
- Head coach at Beulah High School from 2017-19
- Head coach and athletics director at Jackson since 2019.
Overall, Flournoy has a record of 80-31 in nine seasons as a head football coach: 11-10, including 0-1 in the playoffs, during two years at Class 3A Beulah; 69-21 in seven seasons at Jackson, including 16-5 in the playoffs and back-to-back state championships in 2024 and 2025.
Why Central hired Cody Flournoy as its new head football coach
State championships also are part of the goals each season in Central’s program as well. The Red Devils won state titles in 1993 (head coach Wayne Trawick), 2018 (DuBose) and 2023 (Nix).
So the top level of winning that Flournoy brings in his return to Central certainly helped his candidacy, Phenix City Schools interim superintendent Nathan Walters told the Ledger-Enquirer — and Flournoy’s wife being a Central grad also is a plus — but what impresses him most about Flournoy goes beyond the scoreboard.
“He just walks by faith, character and morality,” Walters said.
Walters praised Central principal Chris Lindsey and athletics director Matt Bell for doing “a phenomenal job” quickly identifying and securing a candidate who met this description:
“They need to be involved in the community,” Walters said. “When there’s a turkey giveaway, they need to be standing there. When there’s Christmas gifts given out, they need to be there. And then the second thing is, we’ve got a good culture that has been built on faith and character, so I told them to hire a coach that’s going to let their light shine.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 9:10 PM.
