Red Bay, new coach Jeffreys eye rebound in 2025
The 2025 campaign will be a fresh start for the Red Bay High School varsity football team. Though the Tigers have made the playoffs each of the last three seasons, last year ended with a 2-8 record and Tyler Jeffreys was hired over the summer as the new head coach at RBHS in an effort to turn things around with the program.
Now, with kickoff just days away, Jeffreys said there’s an air of enthusiasm surrounding the team going into this new season.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement and momentum heading into the season,” Jeffreys told the Franklin Free Press. “The kids are working hard. The question is can we continue that momentum and stay excited throughout the season and keep getting better every day.”
The Tigers have a number of key players returning which will no doubt help in this transitioning year. Jeremiah Thorne returns under center with seniors Brayden Tabbs and Ayden Pruitt returning on both sides of the ball. Red Bay also returns standout running back Jaxon Vinson, who rushed for over 1,000 yards his junior campaign.
Jeffreys said these players and their performances will be vital to team success this year, but everyone is going to have to pull their weight.
“It’s going to be a team effort. There won’t just be one person that we can rely on. But obviously having Jaxon Vinson will help tremendously, along with Tabbs and Pruitt and Thorne at quarterback,” he said. “All of those guys have done a great job since I’ve been here, and they’ll play a big role in our success.”
On the offensive side of the ball, Jeffreys said as coach he has to play to the strengths of his team, but ideally he would like to take a balanced approach to attacking opponents.
“Obviously you’re harder to defend when you can do either (run or pass effectively), but whether it’s running it or throwing it you’ve got to play to what your kids strengths are. At the same time we have to get better at both of those,” Jeffreys said.
“The best teams, when you look at it in terms of percentages, want to be 50/50 with the run and pass, so I’d like to keep it close to the same,” he added.
No matter the approach, though, you can’t run with an offensive line leading the way and you can’t pass the ball without protecting the quarterback. That’s why a key focus for the Tigers this offseason has been in the trenches.
“The biggest area where we need to improve is up front, and what’s going to be the tell-tale sign for us is how well we can contribute up front—how fast we are to get to our blocks, how long we can hold our blocks,” Jeffreys said. “We’ve got to continue to get better every day up front because that’s where the games are won and lost.”
Defensively, Red Bay has to be much, much better than it was a year ago. In 2024, the Tigers allowed 35 or more points in seven of their eight losses. Jeffreys believes this matured group will be better able to tamp down on opposing offenses this season.
“I think we’ll be better on both sides of the ball just because we’re a year older, but defensively I think we’re getting better and better each day,” he said. “We’ve seen them improve in terms of their tackling and they’re being more physical, so I’m expecting us to be a bit better on defense than we were last year.”
Red Bay’s schedule mirrors its 2024 schedule with the Tigers taking on Lamar County to start the season followed by a non-region contest against the University Charter School in week two. Red Bay’s first region test will be week three against Winston County, the reigning Class 2A Region 8 champions, followed by a matchup against Lexington in week four. The remainder of RBHS’ region schedule sees the Tigers take on Tharptown in week seven, Decatur Heritage in week eight, and Tanner in the penultimate week of the regular season.
Jeffreys said he expects Region 8 to be a tough, competitive region again this year, and his team will have to perform well each week if the Tigers want to make a fourth-straight postseason appearance.
“We’ve got a tough schedule,” he said. “In terms of the region I can’t really say a whole lot about (the other teams) right now, but I do know we’ll have good competition, they’ll all be well coached, and we’ll have to prove ourselves week in and week out if we want to make the playoffs this year.”
Making the playoffs—and hopefully hosting a playoff game—is one of Jeffreys’ and Red Bay’s goals this year. Another goal is to have a winning season, the head coach said. But maybe the biggest objective for this team and the program is for the Tigers to use this season to take the necessary first steps back to their traditional winning ways.
As the son of former Red Bay head coach Dale Jeffreys, who won 114 games with the Tigers from 1997 to 2011, Tyler Jeffreys knows what success at RBHS looks like. He also knows it may take some time to get back there.
“Our biggest thing is we just want to build up this program and be able to take those next steps (towards a deeper playoff run),” he said.
“We could say (right now) that we want to go to a state championship, which everybody does, but the truth of the matter is Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Jeffreys added. “This group has done everything we’ve asked of them so far. They’re eager to learn, they want to get better every day, so I think this group is heading in the right direction. The biggest thing for us now is to just continue that this year and to keep doing it year in and year out.”
2025 RED BAY SCHEDULE
8/29 vs. Lamar County
9/5 @ University Charter School
9/12 vs. Winston County*
9/19 vs. Lexington*
9/26 vs. Belmont (MS)
10/10 vs. Tharptown*
10/17 @ Decatur Heritage*
10/24 @ Tanner*
10/31 @ Phil Campbell
* - denotes region game