Is Matt Rhymer the answer to Whitley football’s woes?

On Wednesday of last week, it was announced that Zeke Eier had resigned as head coach of the Whitley County football program after two years at the helm. It marked the third time that a head coach has departed the program since Jason Chappell left after the 2018 season.

With that much turnover in such a short amount of time, it is no wonder why the Colonels have struggled to find an identity and establish any sort of consistency on the football field. New head coach Matt Rhymer seems very eager to be the one to finally right the ship, but only time will tell if he can accomplish that goal.

I was not surprised to get the news that Rhymer had been selected for the head coaching job at Whitley. When I saw that he was added to the Colonels’ staff as an assistant back before the start of last season, I kind of thought that we might eventually see him taking over this role. I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

Eier compiled a 5-17 record in his two years leading the WCHS football program, only being able to get the better of the South Laurel Cardinals in an admittedly tough district that also included the likes of North Laurel, Pulaski County and Southwestern Pulaski. Luckily for the Colonels, the Cards’ struggles on the gridiron have been considerably worse than theirs in recent years, so a spot in the Class 5A playoffs has been all but guaranteed. The team has failed to be competitive in postseason play, though, losing, 41-6, to Southwestern in 2021 and falling, 49-6, to Woodford County in 2022.

Again, I fully expected for Rhymer to be in the running for the head coaching position at Whitley once the news of Eier’s resignation broke last week. I did expect a slightly longer interview process, with the new hire coming just two days after the announcement of the vacancy, but hey, the folks down at Whitley clearly feel as if they have their man in the former University of the Cumberlands head coach. No doubt, he knows firsthand what it takes to lead a football program, so fingers are crossed that this will be the beginning of a long, and hopefully fruitful, new era in Colonel football history.

The last time that Whitley finished a season with a winning record was in 2019, when the Colonels went 8-4 and advanced to round two of the Class 5A playoffs in the first of Head Coach Jep Irwin’s two years at the helm. It is important to note, however, that this was also the year that several assistant coaches left Corbin to be on staff at Whitley County, including Wayne Mills, whose son, Seth, led the way on the field at the quarterback position.

A year later, Mills and company rejoined the Corbin coaching staff under new head coach Tom Greer, and Seth Mills went on to enjoy great success as a running back for the Redhounds over the course of the next two seasons. Meanwhile, Irwin and the Colonels finished 2-6 in 2020, with his departure coming soon thereafter.

Needless to say, Whitley County football fans and players alike are hungry for some sustained success. There is still much work that needs to be done, but a change of scenery in terms of classification and district competition is, in my opinion, going to help things considerably.

Beginning next season, the Colonels will no longer have to worry about North Laurel, or either of the Pulaski County schools. Instead, they will be facing the Corbin Redhounds, the Perry County Central Commodores, and the Letcher County Central Cougars in the Class 4A ranks. Corbin is the big test here, obviously, but the good news is that playing the Hounds will be nothing new for Whitley, as they have been locking horns with their inter-county rivals every year since the 2015 season (they are still looking for their first win in the series).

The Colonels are also no strangers to either the Commodores or the Cougars, as they shared a district with both of those teams for several years prior to re-alignment in 2019.

So, leaving 5A and getting to face familiar opponents are two things that I think will be overall positives for Whitley County beginning in 2023. That just brings us back to the question of whether Matt Rhymer can capitalize on these opportunities as the new head coach, and finally put a winning team out on the field on Friday nights.

Rhymer has only been a head coach at the high school level once, in 2013, with the South Laurel Cardinals. He left South the following year when he (understandably) jumped at the chance to become the head coach at his alma mater, the University of the Cumberlands. The Patriots were coming off of a history-making 13-1 season where they advanced all the way to the NAIA national championship game under the guidance of former head coach John Bland.

The Pats took some lumps after Rhymer took over in 2015, going 3-7, but by the following year they had managed to completely turn things around, finishing at 7-3, including key victories over rival opponents such as Union, UPike and Campbellsville.

Rhymer’s most success at Cumberlands came during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Under his guidance, the Patriots finished both campaigns with 10-2 overall records, and on both occasions, they qualified to compete in the NAIA national championship playoffs.

Rhymer and company posted a combined 10-7 record between 2020 and 2021, with Rhymer resigning as head coach at the conclusion of the 2021 campaign after eight seasons at the helm.

That was a lot of history to revisit, and I appreciate you hanging in there with me. I felt that it was important to review all of the events that led up to this point, though, as I not only personally find it interesting, but I also think it helps us to understand just how important this particular moment in time is for this football program.

I want to wish Coach Rhymer the very best of luck in this new endeavor. My sincere hope is that, with his leadership, the Colonels will once again be able to find some consistency. I think that has to be the first step, and once things are headed in a positive direction, the rest of the pieces should begin falling into place.

Here’s to better days ahead!