Palmer takes over for interim head coach Steve Fifita after the Eagles went 5-7 this season. Five of those losses were to teams ranked in the MaxPreps Top 25, including No. 1
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and No. 7
St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.).
The veteran of the Bengals, Raiders and Cardinals now has a chance to coach his son
Fletch Palmer, who just completed his freshman season at the school.
Palmer is a Santa Margarita alum who led the program to section championships in 1996 and 1997.
In the 1997 title game, he threw for 419 yards and five touchdowns. He finished his Santa Margarita career with 4,692 passing yards and 55 touchdowns. Tom Lemming ranked Palmer as the No. 4 pro-style quarterback in the Class of 1998, two spots behind MLB legend Matt Holliday.
Palmer also won a 1998 state title on a basketball team that went 32-2.
He won the 2002 Heisman Trophy at USC and was the first selection of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he played until 2010. He spent two years in Oakland before closing out his career with Arizona from 2013-17.
Palmer, who threw 294 career NFL touchdowns, became a volunteer freshman quarterback coach at Santa Margarita prior to this season in order to mentor his son and the other Eagles freshman signal-callers.
Fletch was called up to varsity at the end of the 2024 and credited with one tackle. The 6-foot, 170-pounder threw for 2,426 yards and 40 touchdowns this season for the Eagles' freshman squad.
