The Moody High School football team has a new head coach who they nabbed from the college ranks.

Former UAB Blazers defensive line coach Kyle Tatum will take over the reigning 5A state champion Moody after former coach Jake Ganus resigned and took over the job at Pell City.

The school introduced Tatum to the community over the weekend where he got to make his first introductions and lay out his plan for how to keep the Blue Devils at the top.

“Nobody’s gonna outwork us,” he said during the school ceremony. “We’re gonna put a product on the field that Moody’s gonna be proud of. I can promise you that.”

Ganus’ team was cited by the AHSAA after pictures surfaced on social media of cigars being smoked by underage players, a story that made statewide news and led to several players receiving game suspensions that will carry into the start of next season.

“Anything that happens with Moody Football the past four years, and anything that happens with Pell City Football from this point on, it’s on me,” Ganus said. “Regardless if I’m there, I’m not there. It doesn’t matter, I’m the head coach. Leadership is important to me. Everything reflects me, and so what happens, we did something we’ve never done.”

“We did something they said we couldn’t, and made a stupid, ya know, made a stupid mistake … and had a lack of judgement … and obviously we are paying the consequences, but it wasn’t the kids’ fault, it wasn’t the coaches fault, it was my fault.”

As for Tatum, he now gets to take over a job which has the expectations of championship success after bringing home the trophy this past season, and he’s bringing a college pedigree with him in order to do just that.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.