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At his National Signing Day press conference, Nicholls State coach Charlie Stubbs said he wanted to revamp his team’s tight end play.
The fourth-year Colonels head coach is tabbing a local to bring the transformation to light.
Nicholls hired Morgan City football coach Brandon Nowlin this week to serve as the team’s tight ends coach for the 2013 season.
Nowlin lands in Thibodaux after three seasons as the head coach of the Tigers, during which he helped make this year’s senior class the most successful class in more than a decade at the school.
He also has Southland Conference experience. Before landing at Morgan City, Nowlin was an assistant coach at Central Arkansas, where he helped the team win the Southland Conference Championship.
“This gets me back in the college ranks, which is something that I’m very, very excited about,” Nowlin said this week. “It gets me back in the Southland Conference and hopefully we’ll help turn this thing around and make things better for the Colonels.”
Nowlin said he “cannot wait” to get started with the Colonels.
When looking at the team’s roster and philosophy, it’s easy to see why.
In Nowlin’s first season with the team, Nicholls will return All-Southland Conference tight end Nick Scelfo for his junior season.
Scelfo caught 22 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns last year as a sophomore.
“He’s a good player,” Nowlin said. “I’m excited to work with him. Coach Stubbs and I talked about him when we were discussing the job. They think Scelfo and a couple of other guys coming back will return with nice experience and the ability to make plays.”
In addition to those players, the Colonels signed former E.D. White tight end Stephen LeBouef and Hahnville tight end Cody Morales.
Both players were multiple-time All-District winners in their prep careers.
They both figure heavily in the team’s planned offensive transformation to a spread attack that exposes defenses with the use of the tight end.
“I’m just really excited about what they have on campus – including the two kids coming in,” Nowlin said.
Turning an offense around through tight end play is not something foreign to Nowlin.
While at Central Arkansas, he coached an All-Conference tight end that helped push the team to the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs.
“They didn’t even have a tight ends coach before I got there,” Nowlin said. “But we signed a really good junior college tight end and we really wanted to make him a focus of our offense. It worked out well there. It’s almost the same situation here. I think it’ll be a great opportunity for us.”
As a player, Nowlin also reached the highest level of success. He played for Nick Saban when the esteemed coach paraded LSU’s sidelines.
During his time as a Tiger, Nowlin was a member of the LSU’s 2003 National Championship team.
But no matter how much excitement he has about his opportunity at Nicholls, Nowlin said he is going to miss being Morgan City’s head coach.
During his time with the Tigers, the coach helped spark a program turnaround that saw the team hunker itself from the bottom of Class 4A to the brink of postseason play in the past two seasons.
Nowlin said he wants all of his Morgan City players, friends and colleagues to know that his door is always open to them now and into the future.
“I’m not moving 10 hours away,” Nowlin said. “I’m still going to be connected to this community. I’ve told any player I’ve ever coached at the high school or college level the same thing. I tell them that once they play for me, I’m their coach for as long as they want me to be. And it’s the same for these kids here. I’ll help all of them in any way that I can. My number hasn’t changed since I was in college. It’s not going to change now.”
He added that he has “no doubt” that the program is better off now than when he took the job just weeks before the 2010 season began.
“When you see where this program was and then where it is now, it’s been a nice ride,” Nowlin said. “We’re graduating the most successful senior class here in 15 years. Here in Morgan City, that’s something a lot of people are proud of and that’s something a lot of our guys take pride in. Our seniors on this year’s team are responsible for half of our program’s wins since 1998. That’s remarkable.
“I enjoyed my time there and I’m grateful for the opportunity. I’m going to miss the kids and I’m going to miss the people I’ve been working with, but I think this is a chance for me to keep progressing and to keep pushing myself forward in my career.”
Former Morgan City coach Brandon Nowlin coaches his team during a practice this season. The three-year Morgan City coach announced this week that he will move back into the college ranks and be the tight ends coach for Nicholls State.
