From Corbin Redhound Football on Facebook.

I have no ties to Corbin, this is just my view:

I think hiring Salmons is an interesting hire that can go really good or really bad in the eyes of Redhound faithful.

 

The Good About Salmons:

- He knows the landscape of Kentucky HS Football from his time at Lawrence County. He knows what football means to the Corbin community and the responsibility he is undertaking.

- He knows how to run a "big" program. Cabell Midland would be one of the biggest public High Schools in KY. He has overseen facility upgrades and modernized that program in his time. He stabilized their feeder program as well and made Midland a fixture when the talent could have easily went to a number of schools in a Tri-State area. He also served as an AD in the past so he knows how the inner workings of running a program works.

- He has had some highs. He took Midland to a pair of State Runner-Up finishes and a couple deep playoff pushes. He has had them ranked #1 during the year. He has pulled some shocking upsets as well. Midland plays in a region that epitomizes parity. Spring Valley, Huntington, Capital, and South Charleston all have had their moments in the sun and all are pretty consistently good teams every year.

- Salmons has helped get kids to the next level. He has had a handful of kids go on to play D1 football.

- His offense when he has had the pieces have been impressive. He prefers a very run centered offense, but he does it from more traditional sets such as the I, Pro, and Single Back. He still uses a fullback from time to time as well. With that said, he will maintain a semblance of balance passing as well and has no issue adapting his teams when needed to a more pass reliant offense when personnel has dictated as such. This will sit well in Corbin where even during the Peak of Haddix's success, people still grumbled about an inconsistent focus on the ground game.

 

The Bad About Salmons:

- Zero State Titles at Midland and only two Finals appearances. This speaks heavy on a couple different layers. First and foremost, WV AAA football (largest class) traditionally has some good teams, but this is not a gauntlet even the likes of 5A and 6A Kentucky (and Kentucky isn't exactly regarded as elite HS football). Midland is a massive school, the largest in WV I believe, right in the middle of probably the best and most steady talent pool in the State to pull from.

 

Secondly, the other knock is he has had some powerhouse teams that didn't even reach the finals. The 2015 Cabell Midland team was probably the best team of his tenure. Absolutely loaded and ran roughshod to a #1 ranking and undefeated regular season... only to get beat soundly by a Capital team they had previously beat. 

 

- Something that has plagued Salmons his entire career is he will get a head turning performance when you think they are a prohibitive underdog... or get the big win in a big time matchup... but for each of those there is always a counter balance when they lose the big game or when they are the shocked upset victim. 

Midland has seen teams poised to make a title run get shocked in games.

 

- His three year tenure at Lawrence County is a question mark. It was early in his career and he was in a tough spot. Lawrence was on a downward trajectory already when he took the program over, but an 0-11 season was a spot Lawrence had not experienced or fathomed would be possible. To his credit they rebounded in a big way to go undefeated in the regular season the next year and a Regional Finals berth. The third season had more highs than lows and after which he bounced for Midland. It is hard to give his tenure a passing grade, but it definitely was far from a failure. If anything it would be graded "Incomplete".

 

 

VERDICT:

Salmons midline is successful. With the exception of his first year in Louisa his team has never finished with a losing record. He knows how to take something given to him and find the flaws and make it better.  He knows how to schedule and knows when to build for the future. These are all good qualities that would make someone feel confident at the very least, Corbin should sustain themselves as a quality program for years to come with more wins than losses and plenty of District titles.

The rub is the rhetorical question "What would success be defined at for Corbin faithful?"

Corbin had a potential future HOF coach on their sideline wearing the C on his polo and lost him. They saw the baseline he set was an expectation of reaching Semi-Finals and State Finals... and now they see that his baseline at Boyle County is winning State Titles more times than not. If Corbin continues to chase Haddix as their rabbit, there are very few hires in the Nation they could have made to help them meet this standard.

So let's say expectations somehow get tempered and "just" maintaining an expectation of deep pushes to Thanksgiving with the possibly December game are the new bar to jump.... is Salmons that guy? His past results would suggest he gives them a shot at that expectation if they are patient, but that would be a marked progression over what his track record has suggested. It also remains to be seen how the fervent fanbase he now commands reacts to what happens if Salmons repeats his history of shocking losses or coming up short in the biggest post season games.