Caleb Aland picked to lead Flathead football

It’s an understatement to say Flathead’s new hire, pending school board approval, has a unique background. The 27-year-old grew up on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida, was homeschooled and played baseball before jumping into coaching high school football while attending Gulf Coast State College.

Two years there led him to Troy University. He left the Alabama school with a Masters in business administration and seven years as either a student assistant, grad assistant or offensive analyst for the FBS Trojans.

Then came the job in Glacier Park where, as many have before him, Aland fell in love with the Montana scenery. Last fall he landed a job at the Flathead Special Educational Co-Op as its business manager, and joined Alex Cummings’ staff at Flathead as quarterbacks coach.

Cummings stepped down in March to accept the position as athletic director at Kalispell Middle School. And now here we are.

“I kind of walked away from it, and thought I was done with football,” Aland said Wednesday. “I moved out here and — the Lord had other plans.”

“Caleb is dedicated to our football players and program,” Flathead athletic director Bryce Wilson said in a short release. “He will retain a talented and complete coaching staff that has exemplary people coaching all positions. We are thankful he will lead them forward.”

Following its surge to the 2018 State AA title game, the Flathead program has hit rough times: A 2-8 season in 2019 before going 0-7 and 0-9 the last two falls. Cummings, who took over for Matt Upham, coached one season.

“The big thing is building a culture,” Aland said. “That’s an area that we’ve lacked, and I understand that’s hard with all the coaching changes. I’ll be the fourth coach in four seasons, and my vision is to build that culture.

“Coach Cummings did a great job of really starting over and building on that, and I’m taking the reins from him. The good thing is we have a lot of the same coaches, and we have a lot of really good chemistry as a staff, and I think that’s going to transfer over to the players.”

Aland has seen plenty of winning football. A fellow high school assistant helped him land a student assistant position at Troy. Three years later, then-head Neal Brown made him a graduate assistant.

When Brown left to coach West Virginia — after going 35-16 at Troy — incoming coach Chip Lindsay made Aland an offensive analyst. That lasted two years.

In that time he saw the Trojans go 31-8 and win three straight bowl games, not to mention a 24-21 win at LSU in 2017 and a 24-19 win at Nebraska in 2018. In 2016 Troy lost 30-24 to eventual national champion Clemson.

“Troy University was very good to me,” Aland said. “I wouldn’t be where I’m at without those coaches, and that experience.

“One of the key people in this is Cornelius Williams. He was receivers coach at Troy, and is now at Alabama. I worked for him for six years. He taught me about loving the players and loving the game. There’s more to this than just Xs and Os.”

Wilson noted that Aland will join Flathead’s faculty as well.

“Caleb and I will work well together and we will see the program continue to improve,” Wilson wrote.

Aland said the motto is, “Trust the Climb.”

“Nowhere to go but up,” he added. “You start at the bottom and keep climbing up, and it starts with a strong foundation and culture.”