CORNERSVILLE — The Cornersville Bulldogs didn’t have to look very far for a new head coach when the position opened up at the end of the 2022 season. 
In fact, it was a short search down the sideline as defensive coordinator, Eliot Cook, has been named head coach of the Cornersville football program. 
“This is a huge honor,” Cook said.
“All the people that I looked up to in my life to this point were coaches, so I’m honored to be in this position. The kids know what to expect out of me. I’ve had a relationship with them, people in the community, and the administration here, so it was an easy transition. We’ve had some success since I’ve been here, so hopefully we can get back to that.”
Cook, a Marshall County native, has been with the Bulldogs since joining former coach Gerard Randolph’s staff as defensive coordinator for the 2017 season. 
The Bulldogs went 13-2 that year with their season ending in a 42-21 loss to Greenback in the 1-A state championship game.
In the following season, the Bulldogs returned the majority of their team, and found themselves with a perfect, 13-0 record heading into the 1-A State Championship, but fell one point short to Whitwell in a 7-6 loss. 
Before arriving at Cornersville in 2017, Cook spent time coaching at many Marshall County area schools including Forrest Middle School, Marshall County High School, and Lewisburg Middle School. 
Having coached with Randolph at Marshall County, Cook was an easy choice to join the staff and help the program after his time at Lewisburg Middle came to an end, but it took some time and persuasion from Randolph to get him there. 
“I thought I would be at Lewisburg forever, but then I ended up here at Cornersville,” Cook said.
“Coach Randolph kept trying to persuade me to come over here to coach Cornersville with him because we had coached at MCHS together. I was hesitant, but I ended up going to watch spring practice, and I was in after that.”
At the top of Cook’s list of priorities when he was hired was having the team’s support, and it was evident he had that when the administration shared the news with the Bulldogs. 
“The day they announced me to the boys, I hid in a closet next to coach Crabtree’s room and coach Adcock told the boys that they were about to introduce the new coach to them,” Cook said. 
“I came out of that side room, and all the boys got up and cheered. Things don’t always go great and people talk, but having the support of the kids is the biggest thing for me.”
A lot of times when a new head coach is hired, there’s an adjustment period for the team and staff to get used to new ideas, principles, and schemes. 
For Cook, there weren’t many changes to be made as he wants to replicate what the 2017 and 2018 teams did. 
“There aren’t a lot of adjustments that we had to make when I came in. We had a little bump in the road last year, but we’re going to get back to the way we were doing things,” Cook said. 
“Being able to coach under coach Randolph helps me to not have to change a whole lot. He had us going in the right direction, and he and I were really aligned defensively and how we think a program should be run. Out in the weight room it says D.A.W.G.S, and we have an acronym that goes with that. Discipline, Aggression, We not me, Grit, and Swagger. We kind of made that work because it’s everywhere here, but I believe in those words. That’s a big deal here in Cornersville.”