Arguably the deepest, most expansive coaching tree in all of college football grows in one of the sport's tiniest, most rural outposts.
Martin, Tenn., is situated in the northwest no-man’s-land of the Volunteer State, closer to Caruthersville, Mo., than either Memphis or Nashville.
The town with a population of approximately 10,500, according to most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, nonetheless has been home to 18 eventual and mostly current Power 5 college football assistant coaches; 11 NFL staffers, another 11 Group of 5 assistants. Just in the past 15 years.
Kane Wommack traces his coaching roots from Martin to Mobile, Ala., with stops in-between his record-setting 2022 head coaching debut featuring 10 wins atop South Alabama.
Marcus Satterfield has been an offensive coordinator in the Big 12, the SEC, the NFL and now again in the Big 12 for Matt Rhule’s Nebraska rebuilding project.
Gerard Parker’s considered one of the bright, young offensive minds in college football; previously the offensive play-caller for two seasons at West Virginia, Parker now coaches tight ends and sits as one of Marcus Freeman’s top assistants at perennial powerhouse Notre Dame.
The thread among these coaches, and myriad others, is Jason Simpson.
Head coach at Tennessee-Martin since 2006, Simpson is a four-time Eddie Robinson FCS Coach of the Year finalist, the Skyhawks’ all-time winningest coach with 107 victories.
Above all else, Simpson is a football-lifer. And the roots for so many others’ coaching careers.
“Honestly, that’s where I learned how to work and really learn the work it takes to put in a game plan in a week,” says Parker, a former Kentucky wideout with coaching stops at his alma mater, Martin, Purdue, West Virginia and Notre Dame. “He always reached out to people he trusted and found ways to find great coaches.
“That’s something, I know all of us want to do that, but it’s different doing it at Martin than a lot of other places. But Coach always did his due diligence, conducted his interviews the right way – and a lot was he was an offensive-minded guy and wanted to hear things, hear how guys taught and learn ball anywhere he could.”
In an annual rite of passage, Simpson again is replenishing multiple spots along his coaching staff. His approach is as straightforward has his delivery.
“I just kind of try to follow the ole Bear Bryant rule,” says Simpson, an Ellisville, Miss., native who played football at Mississippi State and baseball at Southern Miss before entering coaching. “‘Find somebody to hire who’s going to be smarter than me,” which is not hard to do. But why would I bring in someone to do something I’m capable of doing?
“I think the consistent is identifying good, young coaches that come here and bring fresh ideas, they’re going to use this as a launching pad, and while they’re here they’re going to help develop players and win games.”
Simpson’s outgoing boss, UTM Chancellor Dr. Keith Carver, sees it on campus.
Sees it together during alumni golf outings.
Doesn’t escape Simpson’s football fascination even while strolling through the neighborhood they share.
“He lives about five houses down from me,” says Carver, who after increasing UTM’s freshman enrollment by 17% and the school’s graduation rate by 15% in barely six years is now taking over the statewide University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. “We’ll be out walking our dogs, and I’ll run into him; he’ll talk for five minutes about something he saw from the Tampa Bay Bucs in a series on Monday Night Football, and he writes these down and then introduces new wrinkles.
“He’s like this scientist and he’s always, always studying. He has that focus. He’s going to run his program, recruit the best coaches and be involved in recruiting, but I’m so impressed with his focus.”
Fertilizer for Simpson's coaching tree is equal parts his acumen for assessing and evaluating young coaching talent, as well as empowering those coaches brought into his Ohio Valley Conference powerhouse program.
Sometimes, that’s even giving coaches the keys to power equipment.
“My first day on the job, I had to drive a scissor-lift from the practice field to the game field for filming practice,” says Parker, with interim head coaching experience in 2016 at Purdue. “I had no damn clue how to do that. But that’s that job. My other job was being in control of our pre-game meals and scheduling all those meals with our cafeteria on campus.
“I have an unwavering respect for being with Coach Simpson and him helping teach me to be earning the right to be at the job I’m at now. Being with Jason Simpson at UT-Martin taught me that. I learned how to work a transcript, to get a 48-H form -- stuff you had to do at those jobs.”
The Skyhawks are coming off back-to-back OVC championship campaigns – the first such repeat in program history. College football, even at the FCS level where players are garnering Name, Image and Likeness deals while also entering the NCAA Transfer Portal at record clips, is amidst a sea of unprecedented flux.
In Simpson, Carver sees a de factor civic leader.
“I think the thing for me that is amazing is that so many coaches I’ve seen and have worked with can get distracted with sort of the everyday,” says Carver, whose son Britton won a Tennessee high school football championship protecting Simpson’s son and current Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. “Whether it be something with the conference, player development or dealing with fires in and around that athletic program, budgets; these football programs are like little cities. And they’re like the mayor of these small cities.
“What’s amazing about Jason Simpson is that he is first and foremost a play-caller. And he loves those guys and he develops young men and we’ve had very few issues, ever, with our athletes. He’s on top of it, but he is still so dedicated to watching film, breaking down film, watching other college games when he gets home on Saturday nights to see if there’s a wrinkle he wants to install.”
Anthony Blevins is an assistant with the New York Giants, but his career traces early to Martin. Now with the Tennessee Titans after previously serving on staff at Florida State, Clinton McMillan has Skyhawks DNA.
Ryan Nielson, currently the Atlanta Falcons’ defensive coordinator, is another member of Simpson’s transcendent 2010 UTM staff to include Parker, Wommack, former Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Nathan Burton and current Samford defensive coordinator Chris Boone, among others.
Simpson remains the unifying fabric, tucking himself – by choice after turning down multiple opportunities to leave – in this unlikely college football hamlet.
“Marcus Satterfield and Gerad Parker and Ryan Nielson and (Georgia defensive assistant) Tray Scott, they really helped me to just emphasize that culture of toughness here in Martin and kind of that approach of something to prove,” Simpson says. “Whether kids are from West Tennessee or Miami, Florida, to come here, that’s the culture.
“We’re the safest institution in the state of Tennessee (per public data), you get a University of Tennessee degree here and an opportunity to compete. We have won more games, overall and in the OVC, over the last 17 years. For the seven teams in our league now, we’re the only one with a winning record, I think we’re 107-80-something [107-84 since ’06].”
The Skyhawks are, without question, an image of their leader. A vision college coaches reflect throughout the sport.