Rush Propst, one of the most successful and controversial high school football coaches, is back.
According to media reports, the oft-traveled Propst was named as the interim head coach at
Coosa Christian (Gadsden, Ala.), replacing Mark O'Bryant who was suspended by the school earlier this month.
Coosa Christian starts its season Aug. 22 at
Pierce County (Blackshear, Ga.) before returning home to play
Pell City (Pell City, Ala.) on Sept. 5.
Propst, often a lightning rod, was actually an assistant coach and athletic director at Coosa Christian in 2023 before leaving for the head coaching job at Pell City. He spent one season at Pell City, going 1-10.
Rush Propst, who first gained notoriety as the football coach in MTV's reality show "Two-A-Days," will be back on the sidelines this season after being named as the interim coach at Coosa Christian. (FILE PHOTO: Gary McCullough)
Prior to that, Propst had been out of football and battled a near-deadly bout of COVID after being fired from
Valdosta (Ga.) in 2021 amid allegations of illegally recruiting five players, including University of Michigan quarterback Jake Garcia. The coach was the subject of a lengthy deposition that alleged he was involved in recruiting, mishandling funds and even interfering in the hiring process that brought him to the program to begin with.
His lone season at Valdosta was chronicled in the Netflix series "Title Town." It wasn't the first time Propst was featured on television or embroiled in controversy. He garnered national attention while at
Hoover (Ala.), which was featured on MTV's popular "Two-A-Days" reality show. He resigned there in 2007 and was dismissed at
Colquitt County (Norman Park, Ga.) in 2019 after being charged with lack of compliance, improper conduct with students, dishonesty and misuse of public funds and property.
Propst has 296 career wins. He reached 300 career wins at Valdosta but was forced to forfeit seven of those victories.
O'Bryant was at the heart of penalties for the Conquerors program after it was placed on probation from the postseason for allegedly misrepresenting how many games an ineligible player actually played. Coosa Christian went 9-1 last season, but the ineligible player was found to play in five games as opposed to the school-reported one game.
His suspension paved the way for the AHSAA to remove the restrictive probation that would've kept the school from the 2025 playoffs. The non-restrictive probation remains intact, meaning further violations will incur similar sanctions.
