By Blake Colston
Sports Editor
When Jeff Hall arrived in Piedmont three years ago, he came with a plan.
Football Xs and Os weren’t his priority. In fact, they were way down the line.
“We were going to teach our kids how to be good human beings,” he said. “After that, the winning will take care of itself.”
And it has. Piedmont is 15-7 in two seasons under Hall.
Hall and his staff have changed the culture inside Piedmont’s football program. That’s not to say it bad when they arrived, but it could’ve been better and now it is.
“The culture in our locker room is better than it’s ever been,” he said this preseason. “We have leaders that are taking the bull by the horns and making sure the kids are doing things right. There’s accountability in the locker room.”
Hall’s pyramid of success starts with small steps and builds from there. The key is to accomplish each small goal one step at a time.
Piedmont’s flexbone offense fits perfectly into that mindset. On every play, execution is paramount to success. The gains are often small, but methodical and productive.
Hall said a pregame speech he gave before a game vs. Guthrie in his first year at Piedmont stands out as a defining moment when the program took a big step forward.
The speech was about prioritizing love over fear.
“A lot of times with teams or programs that are struggling, there’s a lot of fear involved in their disappointments” he said. “We’ve stressed love, because if you love each other enough, that can get you through anything.”
Piedmont beat Guthrie 49-7 that night. Later that year, the ‘Cats stunned Carl Albert, snapping the Titans 40-game winning streak. The Wildcats finished the season with 10 wins and won two playoff games, a rare feat in program history.
“That first year there were several ‘A-ha’ moments,” Hall said.
The Wildcats followed that up with another playoff appearance in Hall’s second season.
This year, Hall added a new element to the program. A 12-player leadership council that has a hand in most of the day-to-day operations of the program.
Most importantly, the council serves as a self-policing entity so that the coaches do less disciplining themselves.
“Those guys on that council have done a really good job,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that it has made a huge difference for us.
What’s next for Piedmont’s evolution as a program?
Not surprisingly, it’s a one-foot-in-front-of-the-other answer from Hall.
“Beating El Reno Friday night,” he said.
