How Carlton Flatt became Nashville high school football's greatest coach since 1960

Ask his cousin Howell Flatt how Carlton Flatt was different from others in the Flatt family and he'll tell you Carlton was extremely intelligent.

Ask one of Carlton Flatt's most successful proteges Ricky Bowers how he was different from Bowers' other mentors and he will tell you Flatt kept things simple when it came to coaching.

And that is how Carlton Flatt became the greatest high school football coach in the Nashville area during his tenure (1969-2006) — he was smart enough to keep things simple.

The Tennessean named Flatt, the coach on its All-Legends Team, a compilation of the greatest Nashville area high school football players from 1960-2019.

"He simplified the game for his kids in a way that was really beautiful," Bowers said. "Not to discredit his intellect because he's a smart guy. But the key ingredient that coaches that are great have is they instill confidence in their players so that they can play fast and free and in his case physical and enthusiastically. He was plenty smart about the way he did things. He did that intentionally. Not because it was the only way he knew but because he knew it was the best way."

Flatt, 80, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017, his wife Judy told The Tennessean. He is currently recovering from a fall last spring that fractured his femur.

The Flatt family was raised in Bordeaux across the street from old Cumberland High School where each of the cousins including Carlton, a quarterback, were football stars. Even before they reached high school Howell Flatt said the members in the family could sense something different about Carlton.

"He would play real well if we were just playing pickup in the backyard or if he was playing in high school game and everyone would be high-fiving him, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else," said Howell Flatt, who was the Mt. Juliet coach from 1976-87. "He was so smart. Smarter than the rest of us and it seemed like he was already thinking even right after a game about how he could play better the next time."

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It's difficult to imagine Carlton Flatt doing things any better than he did as a coach. He became the Brentwood Academy coach in 1969 with a roster that only included 13 players who practiced in a cow pasture next to the school. Brentwood Academy went on to win 10 state championships and have 10 runner-up finishes under Flatt, whose career record was 355-68-3. He is third on the state's all-time wins list.

Flatt was the coach on The Tennessean's All-Decade (1980-89) team named in the spring. Five of his state championships came in the 1980s ('80, '81, '82, '87 and '88). His record was 124-11 and the Eagles posted three undefeated seasons in that decade.

Just how simple were the plays Flatt ran? His best receiver of all time, Jimmy Hockaday, said the offense had only three pass plays when he and quarterback Kent Austin were one of the state's most lethal tandems in the early 1980s.

"We had three pass plays but we really only ran two of them − it was a 5-yard sideline or flanker fly," said Hockaday, who was on The Tennessean All-Decade (1980-89) team along with Austin. "Kent would take the snap and get it out of his hands as fast as he could on the sideline and it was always amazing the offensive line did such a great job on flanker fly that Kent could hold if for 10 minutes and then throw it. Coach knew that was all we needed to do. There was no reason to complicate matters."

Hockaday also said Flatt was smart enough to surround himself with a knowledgeable staff. Along with Bowers some of Flatt's assistants included former Franklin and Battle Ground Academy head coach Jimmy Gentry, Bobby Gentry, Ray Dalton, Jim Webb, Mickey Jacobs, Wendell Harris, Arnold Husky, Dan Coley and David Pack. Even legendary MBA coach Tommy Owen was on Flatt's staff for one year.

"He had the best people around him and Carlton would also outwork everybody," Hockaday said. "That man watched more film from Friday night til Monday morning before we even started practicing to get us prepared for the next week. We always felt like we were ahead because of how well he had his staff prepared as soon as we hit the practice field."

But what about when Flatt didn't have film to study? Howell Flatt said Mt. Juliet would often scrimmage Brentwood Academy in the offseason and it was always interesting to see how Carlton Flatt would operate without the luxury of a scouting report.

"We'd be on the field before we would scrimmage and (Carlton) would ask which player was our best defensive lineman," Howell Flatt said. "I would point out a player and on their first play Brentwood Academy would run right at him. I would ask Carlton later why he did that and he said because he knew that was the last place we thought they'd run."

ALL-DECADE TEAMS: Crowning the best Nashville high school football players through the decades

The field at Brentwood Academy field is named in Flatt's honor. He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Austin Peay Athletics Hall of Fame.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @Mike OrganWriter.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Carlton Flatt named top Nashville high school football coach since 1960