David Gregory, a 49-year-old assistant football coach at Daphne (Ala.) High School, confirmed Thursday afternoon that he has accepted the head-coaching job at William Blount High School.

Gregory replaces Scott Meadows, who planned on Gregory being his defensive coordinator for the 2009 season. But Meadows was hired at Catholic on April 30, leaving the door open for the promotion.

Rhea County head coach Jason Fitzgerald was also a lead candidate, sources say.

Gregory accepted the job Thursday morning. He will meet his new players at 6 p.m. Tuesday and already has a vision of what he'd like to see on the field.

"The offensive side, we're going to stay with some of the Tony Franklin passing game," said Gregory, in reference to the former Auburn University offensive coordinator. "I'm just not familiar enough with it. We run it down here (in Daphne). I'm not comfortable enough with it to run the whole package. So, we're going to mix that in with what I've done in past years, which is basically a double wing - a lot of option, things like that and mix that passing game in with it.

"Defensively, we're going to stay with what we did in the spring, a four-man front, a 4-2-5. That's probably what we're going to do, unless they allow me to bring in a defensive coordinator. In which case, we'll discuss it."

Gregory was the athletic director and offensive coordinator at Sequoyah High School two years ago but spent this past season in Daphne coaching running backs. All told, he's coached football 22 years, 20 of which were in Mississippi.

He has been a head coach for 17 years.

He still has a home in Madisonville, Tenn. Once that sells, he said, he'll move his family to Maryville.

"We liked the Maryville area," he said. "We said if we ever went back (to Tennessee), that's where we'd want to be. Things worked out the way we worked out."

Gregory will get to coach against Meadows on Sept. 18, when the Governors visit Knoxville Catholic in a District 4-AAA tilt.