The first season never happened.
Months before he was to debut as a collegiate head coach and less than three months after he had accepted the challenge of doing so at Football Championship Subdivision program Gardner-Webb, Tre Lamb watched as 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic wrenched everything about daily life – and cast particular doubt on the future of college athletics.
Eight years after he concluded a standout playing career at Tennessee Tech, where as quarterback he served as a three-time team captain and helmed the Golden Eagles’ 2011 Ohio Valley Conference title team, Lamb saw his coaching career – as did so many others – rest in suspended animation.
Rather than bemoan a situation in which they were powerless to act, Lamb and his assistant coaches forged their football-less existence into the present foundation of Gardner-Webb’s program.
“I got here, and we didn’t play a game for 14 months,” said Lamb, hired in December 2019 but unable to coach his first game until the last weekend of February 2021. “We had several really good coaches on that team, and were together and bonded for several months.
“Covid hurt a lot of programs, but it helped us.”
The macro impact of Covid has continued into 2023, but at the micro level, delays in college athletics – Football Bowls Subdivision programs in fall 2020 played truncated schedules, almost exclusively without fans while FCS programs punted their seasons to spring 2021 –temporarily empowered Lamb to keep together what has proved to be a star-studded inaugural G-W staff.
Most importantly, it gave Lamb an opportunity to solidify the Runnin’ Bulldogs with an inaugural staff that has proved template for college football coaching tree.
Consider from Lamb’s first G-W staff:
- Jake Thornton now is Auburn’s offensive line coach for Hugh Freeze
- BJ Johnson is Georgia Southern’s wide receivers coach for Clay Helton
- Joe Scelfo is New Mexico’s tight ends coach for Danny Gonzales
- Kurt Mattix is San Diego State’s defensive coordinator for Brady Hoke
- Kelsey Pope is Tennessee’s wide receivers coach for Josh Heupel and a 2022 FootballScoop Coach of the Year finalist
- Taylor Lamb is Virginia’s quarterbacks coach for Tony Elliott
“I hired good, young people that are thankful to work at it, and good things happen,” Tre Lamb told FootballScoop.
“We all get on the same page, and the ‘big time’ is where you are at and what you make of it daily.”
As Lamb has grown somewhat accustomed to annual offseason replenishments to his coaching staffs, the son and grandson of legendary Georgia high school football scions – father, Hal, won a trio of state titles; so, too, did grandfather, Ray – has not wavered in the non-negotiable traits he has sought in coaches who would join his G-W staff.
“Loyalty, I think, is No. 1,” Lamb, nephew of highly-esteemed former Furman, Mercer and current Anderson University coach Bobby Lamb, said. “Loyalty to the head coach and to push out his message for the program every day, get that across the board to our organization, recruits, media. But at the same time, understand that loyalty doesn’t mean if you get a better offer, don’t take it. If you get a better offer and you need to take it for your family, take it. Like an FBS or Power-5 offer.
“We’ve kind of had our niche here with young guys, early 20s, sometimes late 20s, who maybe have never had their own room, but they get a chance and have gone to jump off to bigger programs.”
Second is the intangible but controllable factor that Lamb mandates across the board.
“We want a good vibe in our program,” Lamb said. “We don’t want a bunch of robots, and we don’t want anybody scared to do their job. We want you to bring ideas to the table and think outside box. We’re not on ESPN every week; this is a great place to cut your teeth. At program that’s not won a ton in the past, if you win people are going to notice. There’s a lot of rewards when coaching here.
“But we want good teachers who hold their (position) room and hold them accountable. We don’t want the vibes of being egotistical, but eager to work. There’s nothing more annoying in this profession than when you walk in and someone is hard to be around.”
Lamb, Thornton explained, has developed the ability to demand excellence from his staff but to empower their journey.
“He lets us do our job, but makes us want to buy in to his way and it’s easy to do that because he’s such a good person,” said Thornton, who alongside Arkansas’ Cody Kennedy has blossomed as two of the sport’s top young offensive line coaches at college football’s highest levels. “I truly believe that, and I think that’s why he’s had so much success with coaches and been able to turn around Gardner-Webb so quickly.”
Thornton pointed to the inexorable wait of the Runnin’ Bulldogs’ first-ever game under Lamb, 14 months after Lamb was hired away from his post as Tennessee Tech offensive coordinator, and how G-W responded in a spring 2021 game against nationally-ranked Elon.
“We didn’t play football for a whole year, didn’t really practice for almost a whole year,” Thornton told FootballScoop. “We opened up at home against Elon and they got up 20-0.
“Tre never panicked. He told everybody to relax, do your jobs and he just brought a sense of calmness to you. We ended up winning the game by two or three touchdowns (42-20), the first game of his career as a head coach.”
The Bulldogs won six games over the balance of that 2021 calendar year; they dropped four contests by one score.
More importantly, Lamb’s foundation for the program was poured. This past season, Gardner-Webb broke through with such force that it turned heads nationally around college football. The Runnin’ Bulldogs won their first-ever Big South Conference title, advanced to the second round of the FCS Playoffs and knocked off well-regarded Eastern Kentucky along the way.
“I think what Tre has done at Gardner-Webb is a bigger accomplishment than what people realize, when you think about that three months after he got the job the whole world shut down [due to COVID-19],” said Thornton, who played at Southern Conference program Western. “This past season was the first year they had winter conditioning leading into the season, a true spring and summer cycle and fall camp.
“They just got to coach, and they beat a blueblood FCS program in the first round.”
Thornton’s own ascension through the coaching ranks – he left several seasons working alongside Lamb at both Tennessee Tech and Gardner-Webb to take over the offensive line duties for Lane Kiffin’s record-setting start to his tenure atop the Ole Miss program – has provided him with unique perspective on Lamb’s coaching arc.
“I believe, and I’m biased because I’m a Tre Lamb fan, but if I’m a Group of 5 program or shoot, I’d hire him if I was a Power-5 A.D.,” Thornton said. “He’s going to do the best job possible, turn the program around and he’s going to do it the right way. That’s Tre Lamb.
“My opinion don’t mean much, because I’m just an O-line coach, but I’m telling you the guy is special. He has a unique way of rallying people around him. There’s no ego, no agenda, and it’s pure because he cares about his coaches and their families and his players and winning. There’s no hidden agenda, and that’s so unique in football to find.”
Having confronted more staff turnover this offseason, Lamb has found perspective in the impact of the sport’s transient nature.
“When people do a good job, they deserve to get hired,” Lamb said. “We’re getting a lot of guys that are hungry. And they’re making this profession better. It’s not a bunch of me guys.
“All six of those guys that have left here at Gardner-Webb are gonna be dudes in this profession because they do things the right way, and they’re not selfish.”
Indeed.
They’re branches on a tree – like the on-field product – that keeps growing under Tre Lamb.