How Patrick Nix’s football ‘ministry’ aligned with the needs of Central Red Devils
Central High School found itself without a football coach for the first time in nearly six years. It was Jan. 7, and the school’s championship-winning coach, Jamey DuBose, had just announced his retirement from the state of Alabama, taking a head coaching job at Lowndes High School that night.
Many schools and school districts use committees to find head football coaches. Some promote from within. But to find the right coach for a job like Central, with its strong winning culture and history, the search needed a more personal touch. After a week-long search, former Pinson Valley head coach Patrick Nix was named the Red Devils’ new coach.
“The job advertised for itself,” Randy Wilkes, Phenix City Schools Superintendent, told the Ledger-Enquirer. “When (the press) covered (DuBose’s) retirement last Tuesday ... I had resumes before noon.”
The district received so many applications, it had to create a special email account.
So, Central principal Tommy Vickers, a former offensive coordinator, and Wilkes, a former defensive coordinator, got to work and moved fast. The two decided they would run the coaching search, rather than use a committee.
Wilkes and Vickers reached out to proven coaches across many states for input on potential job candidates. Both declined to tell the Ledger-Enquirer who specifically they contacted, but said they spoke to numerous high school coaches, individuals with knowledge of the game and coaches at college programs with more than 20 years of experience. They said they also spoke with coaches at SEC schools.
The one common suggestion among those spoken to was Nix, who was working as the head football coach at Pinson Valley in Pinson, Alabama.
Nix boasted a winning pedigree, too, which was essential given the heights Central reached under DuBose.
Nix won back-to-back Alabama 6A state championships at Pinson Valley in 2017 and 2018, before losing in the playoffs to eventual state champion Oxford this past season.
In three seasons at Pinson Valley, he had a 38-4 record and lost just one playoff game. He has a 66-22 all-time record in AHSAA football, holding a 15-5 combined record in the 5A and 6A playoffs.
“Every year at Pinson, the expectation is a state championship,” Nix said.
In the days following DuBose’s departure, Vickers and Wilkes spoke to candidates.
They held “telephone call after telephone call,” Wilkes said, and had several conversations with Nix before the weekend, and met more than once over the weekend.
‘I’m a Luke 2:52 guy’
The first time Wilkes and Vickers spoke to Nix, the coach led with two Biblical passages.
“I’m a Luke 2:52 guy,” Nix told the media Tuesday night. “That either opens the door or shuts the door real quick. Because I’m also a Revelation 3:7 guy.”
Luke 2:52, in the NIV translation, reads: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Revelation 3:7 reads: “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”
That was when Wilkes knew Nix was the right man for the job. Vickers knew just from what other coaches had to say about him.
“He talked about growing in wisdom, in strength and in stature,” Wilkes said. “... When he talked to me about that, and the passion with which he spoke to me about that, I realized then that this is much more of a ministry, than it is a job. That was the first thing that stood out to me.”
Nix said he and his family prayed for days that God would either open or shut the door to Phenix City. Every time they turned around, the door remained open.
Nix said he knew Tuesday morning that Central was the right place for him. He met with his former team around 8:30 a.m. to break the news, according to the Trussville Tribune.
Nix was approved unanimously as an educator in a Phenix City Board of Education meeting that lasted 15 minutes Tuesday night, and named the Red Devils’ new head football coach at a press conference inside Central’s football expansion facility following his approval.
An ‘offensive guy’
On paper, Nix is a perfect fit.
A former Auburn quarterback and father of current Tigers starter Bo Nix, Patrick refers to himself as an “offensive guy.” He played high school football at Etowah High School. At Auburn, he played quarterback under head coach Terry Bowden, offensive coordinator Tommy Bowden and quarterbacks coach Jimbo Fisher, who currently coaches at Texas A&M. His coaching stops before Pinson Valley include Charleston Southern, Miami and Georgia Tech.
Bo Nix said in August that the offense his father ran at Pinson Valley was “very similar” to Tigers coach Gus Malzahn’s up-tempo attack, which likely eased the freshman’s transition into Auburn’s offense. Under his father’s coaching, Bo Nix set Alabama state records with more than 12,000 career yards of total offense and 161 touchdowns.
The Red Devils will likely score in bunches in Nix’s first season in charge. They return the bulk of their offensive talent from last year’s state runner-up team, but the winning culture is not going anywhere. Not with Patrick in charge.
“I want to be somewhere where the expectations are extremely high,” Patrick said. “They can’t get much higher than what we had at Pinson, and they can’t get much higher than what we have at Central.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 3:35 PM.
