Aucilla Christian football hasn’t missed a beat.
In Matt Wheeler’s first season as head coach, he has led the Warriors to a 7-1 record after shutting out Scintilla Charter, 33-0, in a makeup game on Oct. 21.
With the playoffs two weeks away, Wheeler believes his young Warriors have exceeded expectations and haven’t yet reached their peak. He looks forward to seeing how far they can go in his first playoff appearance as a head coach.
“Our early goal was to be the hardest-playing team on the field every single game, and I think we have hit that nail on the head,” Wheeler said. “I can’t wait to watch them just ramp it up to the playoffs and go play good football.”
The moment Wheeler was hired over the summer, the team of 28 players, including 10 upperclassmen, bought into the former Florida High assistant coach after their first meeting.
“I think you could go way back to the summer. It started pretty good there, with good attendance and a lot of guys showing up,” Wheeler said.
“They’ve just responded to everything I’ve given them, risen to every challenge, and done everything I asked them to do. They’ve just done it, and so far, most of it has worked.”
Wheeler had a mutual understanding with his team after the Warriors suffered their first loss in Week 2, a 28-27 defeat to Trenton. That was a turning point for Aucilla Christian, which became closer as a unit than they had been before.
“I think anytime you lose, you either fight or flight. I got a lot of kids that are all about the fight, and that’s kind of where we went from there. We just started fighting for everything and working even harder, and you learn about guys as you go,” Wheeler said.
“I have only been with these guys since June, so you don’t really know them. You know some of their skills, but you don’t really know how much about the game they know, or situational football is a big deal, and you can’t really learn if they know about certain situations until you’re with them, and I think in that Trenton game, we got put in some of those situations, and I was able to learn exactly what they’re thinking during that time and get them to see it the way I want them to see it. “
How Florida High prepared Matt Wheeler to be a head coach
Wheeler started his coaching career at Florida High at 22 years old in 2008. For 16 years, he was part of a winning program, contending for a state title throughout the decade.
Head coach Jarrod Hickman taught him everything about offense, from the Xs and Os to installments and play-calling. Over the years, Wheeler served multiple roles, including coaching the offensive line and running backs, and eventually becoming offensive coordinator.
“He’s a phenomenal person and a phenomenal coach,” Wheeler said.
“I’m not doing things exactly as he would, but there’s a ton of stuff that he taught me over the years that I’m definitely implementing, and it’s hard to think of the specific things, but just how you want to do stuff, you know, the philosophy involved. You know, we had a team there that worked. We want to outwork everybody.”
Wheeler’s coaching style is similar to Hickman’s, drawing on the influence he learned from him while also wringing out some of his own traits. One of the mindsets he brought to Aucilla Christian was outworking your opponents.
That philosophy is something he carried throughout his coaching career and personally.
“I think that’s something you have to have. We want to have toughness, discipline, honesty and integrity, just doing things the right way, you know, like I said, it’s not anything super specific, it’s just the overall philosophy,” Wheeler said.
Hickman knew Wheeler was capable of becoming a head coach, and Wheeler’s success in his first year doesn’t surprise him.
“He was an outstanding assistant for me,” Hickman told the Tallahassee Democrat. “Always very organized, always had great ideas, and always was an extremely hard worker. Super happy for him and the success that he’s having in his first year.”
Hickman and Wheeler still touch base, picking each other’s brains on how to improve their programs.
“I still talk to him pretty much at least once, maybe twice every week, and I have since I took this job,” Wheeler said. “We throw ideas back and forth, and he’s still coaching me as we go. There’s still more to learn.”
Matt Wheeler stays patient with Aucilla Christian
For any first-year coaches building their own winning program, there are various obstacles they must overcome.
For Wheeler, his challenge was being patient.
Wheeler wanted his offense and defense installed immediately and expected them to be executed perfectly. However, he knew that it takes time to develop, which he has constantly reminded himself.
“I wanted to do a whole lot of stuff. I just can’t yet. So there have been times where I have to remind myself, like, just be patient. Get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better, and we’ve done that,” he said.
“We’ve gotten a lot better at this point. So I’d say that was kind of the biggest challenge, just learning to have a lot of patience. I came from a school where the entire playbook was installed and the culture was installed. The normal season and the daily routine was kind of just all good, and now we went here, and I have to implement all of these things, and it’s been a lot, so I’ve had to remind myself to stay patient through it. More than anything.”
Aucilla Christian starts clicking before the playoffs
Offensively, Aucilla Christian is led by quarterback Landon La Rosa. Entering Oct. 24, the junior quarterback has 1,557 passing yards and 451 rushing yards. He has totaled 23 touchdowns in eight games. The offense has averaged 36.3 points a game.
“He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes because he’s willing to listen and willing to see it. He just put the time in, but, man, a quarterback-head coach or quarterback-playcaller relationship is definitely important,” Wheeler said.
“So just daily, I’m coaching him as tough as I can on a daily basis about reading safeties and reading defenses, and where do we want to look for the RPO and the option and getting him to communicate all of this to his teammates, and check things. There’s been a lot. “
Defensively, the Warriors generated 26 turnovers, including 14 interceptions, through Oct. 24. Senior defensive back Bryson Mills leads the way with six of the 14 picks.
Wheeler said that the team started clicking on Oct. 3 when they blew out Calhoun County, 47-14. The following week, Aucilla Christian shut out Graceland, 49-0. Last week, the Warriors took down Franklin County, 49-27. Wheeler believed that was their best game.
Aucilla Christian is now in playoff mode. With little familiarity with teams in Class SSAA, Wheeler is focused on his approach to his first playoff appearance as head coach.
“Playoff football is different. It’s a different level. Both teams are good. Both teams want to win, both teams want to fight till the last breath,” Wheeler said.
“So you got to be able to have that really, really high intensity, but you also can’t hurt yourself through it. So you have to play. You have to play with a ton of emotion, but you can’t play overly emotional to where it hurts you.”
Aucilla Christian 2025 schedule
Peter Holland Jr. covers Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at PHolland@Gannett.com or on X @_Da_pistol.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: How Matt Wheeler has been successful in his 1st season as head coach at Aucilla Christian
Reporting by Peter Holland Jr., Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
