Waggoner has served as the Assistant Director of Player Personnel for Georgia Tech University since May 2014. Prior to that, he spent 10 years coaching at the high school level in Georgia, Alabama and Florida and three years as an assistant.
“I wouldn’t have left Georgia Tech for anywhere unless it checked all my boxes,” Waggoner said. “Not every place is like the tradition you have here in Trousdale County, where football is important… I missed being a coach in high school, having an influence on kids’ lives…
“I wanted to be at a place where expectations are high, where there’s an established tradition, where it means something to the kids and the community.”
Satterfield praised Waggoner’s work ethic and background as an offensive coach when asked what made Waggoner the right man to lead the Yellow Jackets.
“We had talked from the very beginning about some criteria that we were looking for,” Satterfield said. “We wanted a good person who we trust with our kids, who’s going to work our kids and make champions out of them.
“Coach Waggoner has a plethora of head coaching experience, and I like his experience at Georgia Tech, which will look like we did in the late 1990s… A lot of power football. I think our community is going to be excited about that.”
Waggoner said he was a Wing-T man, adding that watching Georgia Tech in its upcoming bowl game in the TaxSlayer Bowl on New Year’s Eve would give insight on what he expected from Trousdale County.
“That’s what I know,” Waggoner said of the Wing-T. “We’re going to be a Wing-T team… option-based to a point… I’ll be my own play-caller.”
The road to Hartsville
Waggoner said he had been looking to reenter the high school coaching ranks, and a friend at Marion County alerted him to the Trousdale opening.
“He said, ‘If you’re looking for a football place, you need to look at (Trousdale County).’ I started researching it, talked to kids on our team and (former MTSU) Coach (Andy) McCollum,” Waggoner said.
“What interests me is being somewhere where football is important, it means something to the community. That’s what made this job attractive.”
During his high school coaching days, Waggoner helped coach two future NFLers in Calvin Johnson and Andrew Gardner.
According to tnhighschoolfootball.com, Waggoner has a 59-48 overall coaching record.
His first stop as a head coach was at Crescent City, Fla., where he went 4-6 in 2004 while winning a district title. The four wins were three more than Crescent City had the previous year.
He next went to Luverne, Ala., where he went 25-11 from 2005-07 with three playoff appearances. His best Luverne team went 11-2 and made the quarterfinals in 2006.
In 2008, he went to Pike County, Ala., where he finished with a 5-5 record.
From 2009-11, Waggoner compiled an 18-13 record at Chattooga, Ga., before spending one season each at Decatur, Ga. (2012, 5-5 record) and Lumpkin County, Ga. (2013, 2-8 record).
Waggoner also has coaching experience at the collegiate level, having served as an assistant at Virginia Military Institute and West Alabama, and as a graduate assistant at the University of Alabama.
Waggoner, a former linebacker, played college football at Georgia Tech for one season before finishing his playing career at Liberty University.
The Fayetteville, Ga., native has a wife, Mary Beth, and a son, Brad, Jr.
Brad Waggoner HC
Trousdale County HS, TN