Jackson coach Cody Flournoy celebrates with his players after claiming the Aggies’ second straight Class 4A state title with a 52-0 win over Anniston in December in Birmingham. Flournoy has been named the new coach at Central Phenix City. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
Cody Flournoy, who coached Jackson to two straight dominant seasons as the Class 4A state champion, has accepted the Central Phenix City job.
Flournoy — who is 80-31 overall in nine years as a head coach, including 69-21 in seven seasons with the Aggies — confirmed the hire Tuesday night and will be introduced in Phenix City Wednesday evening.
Flournoy was 69-21 in seven seasons with the Aggies, including 27-3 the last two years. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
With generational talent such as running back E.J. Crowell and quarterback Landon Duckworth, along with wide receiver Keeyun “Red” Chapman and defensive backs Keegan Chapman and Jamarrion Gordon — all Power 4 signees — Flournoy directed a team for the ages the last two years as Jackson went 27-3 with two Blue Maps. The Aggies outscored their opposition 1,270 to 361 in those two seasons.
“There’s only a handful of jobs that I would even consider leaving Jackson for and one of them is Central Phenix City,” Flournoy said. “We weren’t looking to leave. My wife is an alumnus and I worked there on two different stints under two different head coaches, so that’s home for us.”
Jackson Principal Dr. Charles Alford said Flournoy is everything a school wants in a coach.
“It has been an absolute pleasure to work with coach Flournoy,” Alford said. “He is in it for the right reasons. He wants to win football games. He wants to foster kids into young men and he wants to give them opportunities to play at the next level. He’s a student-first kind of coach where he just echoes what we’re trying to teach, that being a student and treating academics first is the foundation of their career. Although I’ve not worked with him long, I can see that he and his wife are valuable assets to our community.”
Flournoy was an assistant coach with the Red Devils under Ron Nelson and Jamey Dubose, who won a Blue Map there in 2018 and was rumored to be returning.
Flournoy succeeds Patrick Nix, who won the 2023 Class 7A state championship at Phenix City and resigned last week to go into the ministry.
“The job came open last Wednesday, they called me Thursday, we had a zoom interview Sunday and then they offered me the job Monday afternoon,” Flournoy said. The Phenix City Schools Board approved Flournoy’s hire Tuesday.
Flournoy is going from one championship program to another and wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Jackson is very similar to Central,” he said. “The expectations are out the roof, sometimes unbearingly so. Central has got high-level athletes and that’s what we’ve been dealing with here. Central is arguably one of the top two schools in the state. Nobody would have any problem arguing that. They produce talent every year. They’ve got great facilities.”
Flournoy also noted the Red Devils are returning 10 of 11 offensive starters off a team that finished 11-2 and lost to state champion Thompson 35-34 on a two-point conversion at the end of their semifinal game.
The Aggies are going to be reclassified from 4A to 3A and will likely continue to be dominant.
“Everybody knows about the group that we have that’s graduating this year and rightly so,” Flournoy said. “But we’re going to return four offensive line starters that are going to be the biggest thing in 3A with a quarterback (Jay Morris) that we really like. Our leading receiver (De’corious Jackson) is returning and a lot of guys that played a lot of reps for us. Moving down the classification, we felt really, really good.”
But the lure of Central Phenix City and the timing were irresistible, Flournoy said.
“The timing’s right,” he said. “My youngest daughter is starting her second semester at Alabama. We’re empty nesting. We’ve got this big class that is about to graduate. If we’re going to leave, this is as good a time to leave as any.”
He said his Jackson players and Aggies fans have wished him well.
“We’ve been in this thing together for a while now and they’ve accepted me, so it’s been a lot of congratulations,” he said.
Alford said 10 candidates from Alabama and Georgia had already contacted him about the Aggies’ job Tuesday night.
“I feel like we’re going to have a lot of interest,” Alford said. “People want to be a part of what’s going on in Jackson. We don’t want to rush into a bad decision. We’re wanting to have somebody in place in time to prepare for spring football. I hate to say when that is because I don’t know what we’ll run across. Selecting the five candidates to interview will be very difficult and it will be very time consuming but I’m looking forward to it.”
Flournoy said offensive coordinator Chris Moore and defensive coordinator Davey Moseley are good candidates to follow him
“Both our coordinators have been really good,” Flournoy said. “I’d pull for anybody on the staff.”
