Photo by Richard Force
Chelsea’s new head football coach Tad Niblett during a practice at Chelsea High School.
Tad Niblett has been coaching football for 34 years. He has been a head coach three times and an assistant in many facets before that. He’s worked for his dad and for his brother. He was an offensive coordinator at one of the state’s premier programs and part of four state championship staffs at Hoover.
Each experience has taught him plenty, and now he is more ready than ever for his next shot at leading a program, this time at Chelsea High School.
Niblett was introduced as Chelsea’s new head football coach in January, taking over a program that posted its first winning season in eight years in 2024 under Todd Cassity.
He brings with him a resume that includes two stops as offensive coordinator at Hoover, a four-year run as head coach at Foley and most recently four years alongside his brother Josh at Gainesville High School in Georgia.
It is Tad Niblett’s fourth head coaching job and, by his own account, the culmination of a career path he did not always see coming.
Growing up, he thought he wanted to be a sports medicine doctor. He enrolled at Harding University as a pre-med student in the late 1980s, drawn to the then-emerging field of sports orthopaedics.
“That fascinated me,” he said. “I thought that’s what I wanted to do.”
He changed his major to education after his freshman year. When his eligibility ran out, he stayed on as a graduate assistant and has been coaching ever since.
“I probably subconsciously knew I would end up being a coach one day,” he said.
Photo by Richard Force
Chelsea’s new head football coach Tad Niblett during a practice at Chelsea High School on June 22.
His early career took him through smaller programs, where he was asked to do a little of everything. He coached both sides of the ball and special teams, building a foundation that he said most coaches never get.
“The smaller the school, the more hats you wear,” Niblett said. “You can’t be a good offensive coach if you don’t understand defensive concepts. I am blessed and thankful that I had that opportunity.”
His first coaching job in the high school ranks was at Shelby Academy before he joined his dad’s program in Selma at Meadowview Christian in 1995. He continued coaching with his dad at Central Christian a few years after that before taking over as head coach for the first time in 1999. He then moved to Springwood in Lanett from 2000 to 2005 before landing at Hoover, where he spent seven years as offensive coordinator under Josh Niblett and was part of state championship teams in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014. He took the head coaching job at Foley in 2015 and spent five seasons there before returning to Hoover for a second stint as offensive coordinator. When Josh left for Gainesville, Tad followed.
“I had been a head coach for five years, about to start my sixth year,” he said of the decision to join his brother. “We [Tad and his wife] prayed about it, and the more we prayed about it, the more we felt that’s where God was leading us.”
The Gainesville run produced results on the field, as the team won 45 games over that four-year span. Josh Niblett stepped down to become the tight ends coach at the University of Colorado, where he will serve on staff with Deion Sanders.
Tad Niblett took the opportunity to move back home. The U.S. 280 corridor is not unfamiliar territory for Niblett. His mother is from Sylacauga, and he grew up traveling the corridor, watching the area develop over the decades. When the Chelsea job came open, the community aspect of it was as much a draw as anything else.
“That was real big for both of us,” he said of conversations with his wife, Paige. “The Chelsea community is a special community, and everything has confirmed that since we’ve been here. It’s about community. Not about this team.”
Photo by Richard Force
Chelsea’s new head football coach Tad Niblett during a practice at Chelsea High School on June 22.
Chelsea Principal Brandon Turner said the hire was about more than what Niblett has accomplished on the field.
“Not only is he an accomplished football coach, but he also possesses a strong sense of character that is fundamental to our purpose as a school and community,” Turner said. “We look forward to seeing him help grow and develop our program to new heights.”
Athletic Director Michael Stallings pointed to Niblett’s track record as the reason for optimism.
“His coaching foundation is built on success,” Stallings said. “He understands what it takes and has a plan for bringing that style of football to Chelsea.”
Now running his own program again, Niblett said the biggest adjustment has been the scope of the job.
“A lot of days, the coaching is just a small part of it,” he said. “As an assistant, you have a smaller unit of guys and you spend more time with them. As a head coach, it takes a lot more intentionality to connect with every kid.”
Building the right staff, he said, is as important as any scheme or system.
“You’ve got to be surrounded by good men first and good coaches second,” Niblett said. “I don’t want our kids to just see us as coaches. Guys on our staff are husbands and fathers, and we want players to see how they are as husbands and dads.”
On the field, Niblett’s approach is grounded in fundamentals. He wants his offense to dictate tempo and his defense to align, execute assignments and get the ball back. Spring practice, he said, was an early indicator that the players are buying in.
Photo by Richard Force
Chelsea’s new head football coach Tad Niblett during a practice at Chelsea High School on June 22.
“Football is won by tough people,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what offense or defense you run; it comes down to blocking and tackling. Every good offense I’ve been a part of, they could block. Every good defense I’ve been a part of, they could tackle.”
The program’s framework runs on what Niblett calls the 3 Cs: connect, contribute and compete. Every practice breaks down on “ATM,” which stands for “accomplish the mission.”
“Our mission is chasing our best — getting better every day,” he said. “Everything matters — from making sure your locker is arranged how it’s supposed to be, to classwork, to how we dress, to how we talk to other people. Everything’s got to be connected.”
His four pillars for the program, listed in order, are person, student, athlete and player. The order is intentional.
“If all you get out of this program is football, I’ve done a poor job,” Niblett said. “Ten years from now, when they leave our program and become husbands and fathers, is there something they can tap back into that they learned from being in our program? That’s my philosophy.”
Four months into the job, he said the foundation is there.
“We want to be a program, not just a team, from top to bottom, from our oldest kids to our youngest ones,” Niblett said, “so that the community can say they’re proud to be part of Chelsea.”
Chelsea will begin its football season Aug. 21 at Southside-Gadsden.
