Dragon tempo rising: Dawson’s fast start at Clinton
Jake Dawson recently wrapped up his first spring practice as Clinton High School’s head football coach, and he said the Dragons made some great strides.
“I think it went really well,” said Dawson, who becomes the program’s third head coach in as many seasons.
“We had a good scrimmage against Carter, and I felt like that went really well,” he said. “The goal is always to get some things on tape — things you do well and things you need to work on. We got both.”
Dawson brings a strong defensive pedigree to Clinton.
He previously coached under Jeremy Pruitt at the University of Tennessee and was a defensive assistant for Powell’s Class 5A state championship team in 2021.
Most recently, he served as defensive coordinator at Knoxville Catholic and held a defensive assistant role at Heritage High School under former Vols assistant Joe Osovet.
Typically, a new coach aims to change a program’s culture, but that wasn’t Dawson’s focus.
“I think the biggest thing we had to change here was tempo,” he said. “Once we changed the tempo, things went really well. Our guys had to learn not to stand around, and how to run to their spots. We’re not going to be a team that wastes motion, and we’re not going to have two-and-a-half or three-hour practices.”
With the school year ending, the Dragons will head into the dog days of summer. That means strength and conditioning will once again take center stage.
“We’ll be in the weight room, and our big thing will be to work on the body,” Dawson said. “It’ll just be a continuation of our offseason program. Then we’ll throw and have some 7-on-7 until the dead period. After that, we’ll come back, have more 7-on-7, and start getting ready for the season.”
