New Packers LB coach Jeff Kent delighting in payoff results
MOULTRIE – Samari Louis did the strip. Marcus Anderson did the score.
They are among the seemingly endless list of names under linebacker for the Colquitt County High football defense. Louis, Anderson and the rest including major prospect JJ Peterson, all report to yet another new edition to the Packer coaching staff. It was Jeff Kent, who started as linebackers coach in June, who took special delight in the final play of Colquitt’s recent 27-0 shutout of Valdosta High when Anderson made the season’s first turnover touchdown off the quarterback fumble caused by the one called “Smoke.”
Kent, from 2015-16, was Sheldon Felton’s defensive coordinator at Crisp County High. Crisp is Felton’s alma mater, and he took over the Cougars following a stint on Rush Propst’s staff at Colquitt County. Felton, however, made a major career change during the offseason accepting a linebackers coaching position in college, Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Propst had a position to fill also for the 2017 season. With all the Crisp-to-Colquitt connections, Kent received an interview in Moultrie.
“Coach Propst reached out to coach Felton,” said Kent. “Everything worked out from there.”
And it helped for Kent to work under a coach who worked under his new boss. Behind Felton and Kent and a now Auburn freshman Markaviest Big Cat Bryant, Crisp was coming off a banner 2016 season at 13-1. They were 3-7 the year before.
“Coach Felton was bringing in a new system,” said Kent. “It was a completely different football program from what they had before. It was kind of a shock to the kids. He had brought everything he learned from here under coach Propst.
“That was one of the best things for me coming here. There was no change to schedule, about time and what you put into it. It’s the same standard coach Felton had. The only difference is you’re doing it at a higher level with the resources the kids have. The facilities are so much nicer.”
Before Crisp County, Kent coached at Curtis Baptist, a small private school in Augusta. This institution is a member of South Carolina’s independent association, and Curtis Baptist played for its championship once during Kent’s stay.
“I was ready to get into public schools,” said Kent about when his boss at Curtis received a new job coaching at Aquinas, also in Augusta. Kent graduated from Briarwood Academy in Warren County and played college football for two years at Morehead State in Kentucky. He is also a graduate of Georgia Southern University.
“We were a 3-4 (at Crisp),” said Kent about being in charge of the Cougar defense. “Very similar to what we do here. We had a motto: We are agile, mobile, hostile. We were able to adjust to anything anybody did. We were going to play with an aggressive attitude. On Saturdays after the game, we wanted offenses to know they played Crisp County. We created problems for you all night giving you different fronts.”
In four years, Kent has gone from a Class A level private school to the biggest classification in Georgia. Dream come true for a 30-year-old.
“Working for the best high school coach in America,” he said. “There’s so many people to be thankful for, and then what I owe him every day, the work ethic I have to bring for him because he gives me a chance to work on his staff.”
In addition to preparing Peterson, Anderson and Louis, Kent is also working to develop first-time varsity players like Callon Kubiak and Rashad Revels.
“We’re an odd stack, so we have three inside linebackers, a mike, a buck and a will,” said Kent. “Peterson … we move him around to each of those three spots. In an even front, we’re able to use JJ as a line pass rusher. We are able to get him up on the line of scrimmage, come off the edge and create some problems.
“Working for (defensive coordinator Mo) Dixon has been another one of those unreal things. Working for two guys who’ve been so successful. It’s unreal the amount of knowledge you can learn. It’s there if you want to learn it. All you have to do is ask one of them. There’s always a learning moment, how multiple a defense is, the pressure packages. It’s huge how much pressure he can bring.”
It’s Kent’s goal to see these linebackers get “on the map” the way Peterson is, getting them seen and in the scouting conversation with a star or two by their name.
“There’s a lot of work getting them buying in to what I teach and how I coach,” said Kent. “How we do things is 100 mph non-stop. It’s been unbelievable to see what some of the kids have done. We don’t have any 6-footers besides JJ. You see what he does week in and week out.
“Then we have guys like Revels, Louis, Anderson and Kubiak. Once they bought in to how we do things, how we teach our keys, what we put into preparation, it all plays out on Friday night. You have a guy 5-9, 165 pounds make 17 tackles just because he’s doing what he’s been coached to do. That’s a huge payoff.”
Going back to last Friday’s game on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium, victory is certainly in hand and Valdosta is in the final minute of regulation looking to avoid a shutout. The Wildcats already lost one fumble in the fourth quarter, and on the next series the quarterback is moving to his right looking for a throw.
“‘Smoke,’ who is our will backer, is the one who makes the hit on the quarterback,” said Kent. “Marcus scoops and scores. All the time they put in, it pays off for a defensive guy to hit paydirt like that.”