Chad Parker reportedly to be removed as head football coach at Florida’s Fleming Island
After just one season as the head football coach at Fleming Island High School, Chad Parker will reportedly no longer be roaming the sidelines for the Golden Eagles.
According to multiple sources, Parker will be released as the lead man of Fleming Island on Tuesday. The program is in its second week of practices with the regular season rapidly approaching. The Golden Eagles travel to Clay on Aug. 23rd. The school has yet to announce the dismissal or the reason for it, but is expected to do so on Wednesday.
Reached via text message on Tuesday, Parker denied being released from his coaching position but alluded to the possibility that he could be.
“I have not been relieved as head coach yet,” said Parker. “Could be, but right now it’s not.”
Parker was the associate head coach at Bartram Trail High School and after the 2022 season decided take the lead role at Fleming Island.
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The former Bears’ assistant coach learned a lot during his nine-year stint under the tutelage of longtime head coach Darrell Sutherland, who stepped down after the 2022 season concluded.
“Coach (Darrell) Sutherland is the best in the business,” Parker said back after he was hired in December, 2022. “He taught me about the importance of creating a culture and building better men and as a result you will win. He gave me the opportunity to take on tasks to help me to be ready to be a head coach and mentored me throughout. He knew my goal was to be an head coach and he made me development a priority.”
The Golden Eagles finished 3-7 in Parker’s lone season at the helm and they’re just three seasons removed from making a deep playoff run in Class 7A. Fleming Island went 5-4 in 2022, the campaign prior to Parker taking the job.
As Bears fans, we always hear, “We are dialing things back or making it easy.” Williams hasn’t been given that chance. I am not entirely sure if that is a good thing, but I can tell you that Williams hasn’t shown that it’s breaking him. Williams announced that he is focusing on who is blitzing, where he is going, and what plays he needs to check into for what he is seeing on the field. I am not trying to compare him to Justin Fields, but how can’t you?
Fields struggles to identify when he should rip the ball and when he shouldn’t. His ability to read a blitz is almost non-existent. However, Justin Fields has great deep ball accuracy, arm strength, and the ability to get out of sacks and make plays with his feet. Eberflus seems to have learned from working with Fields for two years what he needs to teach his new quarterback.
Eberflus wants Williams to be able to identify what he is seeing on the field and make the correct decision. Don’t shame me, but Fields’ deep ball accuracy still looks way better than Williams’s. But that won’t matter if Williams can see that it’s open faster. I kind of like what Eberflus is doing. I expected him to do that with Justin Fields, but sometimes, it takes time for coaches to learn what should be done to mold a young quarterback in the NFL.
Work smarter, not harder, to get better results. How can you not get excited about the coach learning to do things differently? I don’t blame the coach for figuring it out later in life. We are all human. This article won’t likely be out before the preseason game, but man, I would like to see him play to see if he can get even more impressive than he was in college.
