Navarre principal Brian Noack went with experience over familiarity and friendship in choosing his next head football coach.

Noack was as transparent as he could possibly be in front of a large group of players, the current coaching staff, administration and media in the school’s media center on Tuesday.

He explained the hiring process that led to the hiring of new head coach Jay Walls and what set him apart from the other candidates — including current offensive line coach and runner-up for the job, Aaron Daniels

Walls’ experience won out over Daniels’ youth and familiarity. Walls who has 23 years of experience in coaching — including 15 as a head coach – has proven himself a winner in his two head coaching stops at Tift County (Ga.) and Suwannee.

Daniels is still waiting on that first head coaching gig that will eventually come.

Noack said that deciding against someone he considers a friend was not an easy decision.

“It was tough and people that know me personally know that I hold friendship very close to me,” Noack said. “You had to let go of the personal side of things.

“But at this particular time I felt the need to bring in somebody that has been there, done it and is proven, and ultimately that’s what it came down to.”

Full Walls Interview Transcribed

What was it about here that was so appealing that made you want to come back?

“I’ve been watching Navarre from afar. I’m familiar with the area and coach Larry Olson I worked for him and I know beiong a new program it would be interesting to see how they would do.

“They’ve been pretty dang good the past five or six years, they’ve been really competitive and I was here for eight years in the Panhandle and loved it. I believe there is great football here and certainly our district is very good, very competitive football.

“I think it’s a great place for my family and we just weighed all the pros and cons and felt like it was the best move for us and certainly excited to be apart of Navarre.”

As you mentioned, you’re replacing a very popular, successful coach. How do you balance making the most of what they’ve done with what you do.

“I’ve gone into two places, Suwannee High School and Tiffs County and both those programs had a lot of success previous and I think trying to make as smooth a transition as possible is helpful for the program.

“Obviously they’ve done great things here, Coach Lashley has done an outstanding job and I’m going to work like crazy to build on everything he’s done as far as the foundation and the success.”

You said you’re a defensive coach first. That’s a little different than what Lashley was. Does that change your approach at all?

“I’ve been coaching offense for 15 years as a head coach, but I coached defense for 11 years as a coordinator and as an assistant. I know if we’re going to be really successful we’ve got to start with our defense.

“But offensively we’re going to try to be wide open and have a very aggressive attack, a balanced attack on both sides of the football. We’re going to try to to build on what they’ve been doing with the spread offensive attack and just try to improve defensively.”

What will you do with the current staff in place here?

“I’m going to interview each coach and see what their strengths are and see what they bring to the table and set up our staff. Certainly I don’t hold anything against those coaches for applying for the job. If I was in their situation I would’ve done the same thing. They want to be head coaches and I’ll certainly do everything I can do to help them reach their goal.”

Offensively they ran the spread last year, should that make the learning curve less steep?

“The spread offense, I love it because if you have a great throwing quarterback you can throw the ball around. If he’s an athlete you can run you can do even more in the running game and now it’s evolving into the more two back stuff and the misdirection.

“I think you can adapt the offense to your personnel and they’ve been running it here. The kids know it, the coaches know it and hopefully I can bring some things to the table that we’ve done to make it better and fit our attack to what our kids can do.”

So spread concepts are pretty unilateral?

“It’s a lot of one-back a lot of gun, a lot of guys are going undercenter, offset I in the gun. It’ll be multiple in formation and we will try and throw it, try and run it and I think if we’re ultimately going to be successful on a high level we’re going to have to be able to run the football.”

How much did family have to do with the decision having a daughter in Panama City?

“I can coach anywhere. I can coach in Alaska being frozen in, but I want somewhere where my wife and my daughter that’s nine – she’s in third grade – where she’ll be happy. I do have an older daughter who lives in Panama City and we’re very excited about being closer to her.

“My oldest daughter in Jacksonville she’s so busy she doesn’t have time for dad most of the time. But being over here is going to be great for my family.”

What was the timeline for the application process?

“I had an interview I think two weeks ago I heard the job had opened up and saw it was advertised right before Christmas break. As I mentioned I was familiar with the program and the coaching staff and the success and certainly was very interested from the get-go.

It’s got to be pretty encouraging seeing that this young program has already had success amongst so many well established programs.

“I think they worked really hard here and there is already a lot of pride in the program, so I’m going to jump right in and try to do every-thing I can do to let us win some more games.

“I saw them play Lincoln two years ago and what a great game and Navarre really could’ve won that game really easily. When you see them play on that kind level I’m very excited about the opportunity to be around that and be apart of that.”

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