Steve Matthews discusses building Concord Christian's football program

Former

quarterback Steve Matthews enters his first season as head coach at Concord Christian School in Farragut, Tennessee. Concord is fielding a varsity team in 2024 for the first time in seven seasons.

Matthews discussed becoming Concord’s head coach with Vols Wire.

“We have 37 (players) right now and we have 50 players in our middle school program,” Matthews said. “These kids are all working hard. We have most of our kids who haven’t even gone to high school yet, but we have some talented young guys and they all work hard.

“I’m excited. You have good days and bad days, and sometimes, it’s three steps up and one step back.”

The Lions have never won a varsity game and will compete in five contests in 2024.

“We have a full 10-game schedule,” Matthews said. “We’ll play five varsity games and five JV games.”

Concord Christian, a K-12 school with an enrollment of 200 students, is playing in 7-on-7 competition during the offseason.

“We’ve played well and we’ve played some bigger schools in 7-on-7,” Matthews said. “We beat Heritage and we tied Morristown East.”

Matthews is a native of Tullahoma, Tennessee and played quarterback for the Vols from 1990-91 before transferring to Memphis.

He was selected in the seventh-round of the 1994 NFL draft by Kansas City (No. 199 overall). Matthews also played for Jacksonville and Tennessee in the NFL.

Matthews served as Catholic’s head coach in Knoxville from 2013-2021. He guided the Fighting Irish to two state championships in 2015 and 2017.