Today’s Four Questions interviewee is Hart County coach Biff Parson, whose team is off to a 2-0 start in his first season. Parson coached at Banks County for three years and Rockmart for 10 years before taking the job in Hartwell. The Bulldogs opened Parson’s tenure with a 51-3 win over Habersham Central before beating Madison County 51-12 last week. Parson’s son, Tucker Parson, is one of the top sophomore quarterbacks in Georgia.
1. When you were coaching this team this summer, did you expect this strong of a start to the season?
“I just think the newness of something, the believability that we present to them of our philosophy of how we’re doing things, I think they were just hungry. They were ready to absorb something that maybe they hadn’t heard in a while, so that kind of catapulted us to having a good summer. We went to several padded camps, and didn’t do well on some and did do well on some. Having the two scrimmages and playing pretty well there, and then the opening game with (Habersham Central), the environment was unbelievable here at Herndon Stadium. Our kids played well, and I think that momentum was on our side early, and we kind of just kept it. The ball bounced our way, and next thing you know, we’re up whatever it was at the end of the day. We didn’t face a lot of adversity, which we talked about that it’s coming and how we responded is going to be important. And then you face Madison County, which you don’t see that a lot. There’s probably a handful of teams in the state of Georgia that run the old school triple option, and we struggled a little bit early. Just alignment and assignment type stuff. It’s not that we didn’t play hard. We just had some undisciplined issues of assignment, but we corrected at halftime and ended up playing a lot better in the second half. But both of those games, now, we’ve had a special teams score and a defensive score, and that helps.”
2. Your first coaching job after your playing career ended was at Hart County. How cool has it been to start strong for a place that gave you your first shot?
“There’s a little backstory. I graduated from Franklin County, which is one of their rivals. We played Hart County, and we could never beat them in football. Just knowing back in the 1990s and early 200s how successful they had been, that’s what I remembered. So it was always intriguing to come and coach at a place like this, and then you fast forward from 2002 to 2026, which is a lot of years in between. The town is different. They still love football, and that’s important. That was important when I was trying to make this decision. Football means something, which is important. I don’t know if I really kind of understand the magnitude of this was my first real job to where I’m at now because there’s a lot of life experiences that’s kind of shaped me to who I am between those years, but Hart County has always been a place that, as a coach, I’ve always thought would be a really good job.”
3. Your son and starting quarterback, Tucker Parson, had a great freshman year under you at Rockmart. How has he grown in his second year at a new school?
“The second-year maturity is the biggest thing. He knows the system, he’s done it for a year, and he’s had success. He can almost be a coach on the field. He’s still a sophomore, so I sometimes have to sit back and say, ‘He’s a sophomore,’ when sometimes, I feel like he’s a senior. But the kids have accepted him here with open arms, or the community has. As a dad, not as a coach, my worry was just how did that transition look and how does that affect a teenager in the mental aspect of things, but man, these kids are resilient. ... Through the game of football and basketball and baseball that he plays, we tell him through adversity and through some of the bad times is when you learn the most about yourself. He has stepped in, he hasn’t missed a beat and he has done a really good job leading our offense and being a leader of this team.”
4. How did he win that team over as a transfer quarterback? When did he get the respect of his new teammates?
“I don’t know if this is politically correct or not. This is just what I feel like has happened is when we announced that we were taking this (Hart County) job, the quarterback that had been the starting quarterback for the last two years here texts Tucker that same night. He had just finished a basketball game, and he texts Tucker and said, ‘Hey, we’re excited that you’re coming to Hart County and your dad, and we can’t wait to have you. I’ve been wanting to play receiver. I’m good with it. Let’s get this thing going.’ I think it was that conversation that kind of got this thing going, because if you know Curt Curry, who was the quarterback here and a phenomenal football player and phenomenal basketball player, he is a phenomenal human being. His character is unbelievable, and for him to reach out and kind of say those words was kind of an affirmation for the rest of the kids of acceptance. The reality is they probably looked to see what type of quarterback are we getting, and they look him up and see his stats and what he’s done and as a freshman, going to the third round (of the playoffs), and throwing for all those yards and all those touchdowns, that obviously helps him win a lot of people over. But because he takes a lot after his mama being kind and humble and hungry and just a good kid, that helps, as well.”
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