Ads add new OC, OL coach to 2026 staff
At long last, the first taste of football has arrived.
The Farragut Admirals will kick off their 2026 spring practice Wednesday, April 22.
When they do, a couple of new assistant coaches will be roaming the practice field.
Head coach Geoff Courtney announced Daniel Bruton as the Ads’ new offensive coordinator while Matt Bates will oversee Farragut’s offensive line.
For Bruton, his addition to the staff marks a return to football after a year away from the game.
He brings 18 years
of varsity football coaching experience, having worked in North Carolina and Virginia as
an assistant coach and head coach.
Bruton worked as an offensive coordinator at multiple stops, gleaning lessons about offenses ranging from the Air Raid to the triple option. He became a head coach for a decade with three of those years at Briarwood (Virginia), the school that produced former Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley and built a brand-new program at Gainesville (Virginia) High School with an 8-2 in his final season in 2024.
Upon their move to Farragut, Bruton said he wanted to “just be a dad” to his daughter Bella, now a standout on the FHS girls flag football team.
But as he watched film of his old team in Virginia and enjoyed Farragut games as a spectator, Bruton felt a pull back to the game he loves.
“I feel like God gave me a gift to help people through sports, and I was wasting it,” he said. “So I started looking at how I could help. My wife even put a bet on it and said she thought I’d be back at it in less than two years, so she was right.”
As the Farragut OC, Bruton will call plays, thus taking a load off Courtney’s plate.
He is no stranger to running multiple looks, so fans can expect a bit of diversity with the Admirals’ attack.
“It won’t look so wide open as UT, but it won’t be pure pro stuff either,” Bruton said.
“Just depends on our personnel so we will design around them. I tell everybody I’m a can coach not a can’t coach, so I’ll figure out what you can do and we’ll highlight that.”
“We’re very similar in the way we think, how we diagnose and strategize against defenses,” Courtney added.
“But he’s got some things that will bring new, creative ideas to us from an offensive standpoint. He works really well with players and has done just about everything in the football coaching profession, so we are glad to have him.”
The Admirals are equally happy about Bates, who noted he will still teach and work as the head wrestling coach at Hardin Valley Academy.
He noted there are several similarities between the two sports, especially where the front five are concerned.
“Leverage, body position, hand fighting, footwork — all those things mesh perfectly,” Bates said.
Like Bruton, Bates spent a year away from the gridiron, most recently working as the Bearden tight ends coach in 2024.
But he has worked with offensive line units throughout his 20-year career, having discovered a clear advantage in the trenches.
“The biggest message is that fundamentals win,” Bates said. “Offensive line play has gone away from being low hat, low man wins. But when you look at the NFL and college, it’s still a low-man game. So bringing that mentality back.”
Bates will oversee a unit that will be looking to replace five senior starters, so he is ready to hit the ground running.
“It’s a long process, so in spring, it will be about showing up to get better,” he said. “You won’t see a big improvement until fall, so we’ll get a lot more work done in June and July than we will in spring. The biggest thing is trusting the process and getting better day to day.”
“He comes with experience, a veteran coach who’s been a long different placed here,” Courtney added of Bates. “We’ve played against him at his previous stops, and he’s great with kids. He was looking to get back into it, and we needed an offensive line coach. He’s going to add a lot of valuable experience to our staff.”
