Coordinator Winkler helping put the ‘D’ in Draughn

Draughn sixth-year football head coach Chris Powell believes that defensive coordinator Jonathan Winkler is ready to be a head coach.

That doesn’t mean that he wants to lose him to another program just yet, though.

Winkler, an East Burke High School 2000 graduate, came to Draughn just prior to the 2022 season after having spent his first two seasons coaching football at Hibriten and each of the 17 years after that at Alexander Central.

“Since Coach Winkler came here two years ago, I’ve really seen a difference in our defensive play,” Powell said. “And not just defensive play, but our kids as a whole. He’s been doing this for a long time and brings a lot of knowledge. 

“He brings energy. One of his sayings is, ‘Run around like a bunch of wild banshees.’ The kids pick up on that, and that shows you that you’re making a difference. … And our defensive numbers speak for themselves over the last two years.”

Draughn has held the opposition to one touchdown or fewer four times in both of the last two years, including a shutout this past season, and also limited four other foes to two touchdowns (16 total points) or fewer in 2022.

Draughn has scored eight defensive TDs over the last two years, and after this past year, saw 12 different defensive players make the all-county team, including four first-team selections.

In both of Winkler’s two seasons guiding the Wildcats’ defense, the unit has produced identical numbers with 19 interceptions and 16 fumble recoveries for 70 total takeaways.

“Some of that comes from the drills he has brought,” Powell said. “Every Tuesday we do ‘Tackling Tuesday.’ We split them up into three or four groups, and they’re spending time working on different aspects of tackling. One of those is somebody secure the tackle, next guy come in and punch the ball out. That transitions over to the game field. That 16 fumble recoveries, that’s not counting the ones we punched out but didn’t recover. 

“We’re constantly working on tip drills, catching the ball out of the air. That played out on the field (in the 2022 season) in the playoffs against Andrews when our nose guard, 300-pound Will Seagle, catches an interception off a tipped pass. The turnovers we’ve created, not only are we taking points off the board, a lot of times we’re scoring as a result too. I would say (in 2022) we scored after probably 80 percent of the turnovers we forced.” 

Winkler only had two weeks with the team before the official first day of practice in 2022, and in part, credits the team’s defensive success to “the buy-in we’ve got from the players when we switched defenses.”

His arrival couldn’t have been timed better, Powell said.

“(When Coach Winkler came here) I had just lost Coach (Bruce) Clark, my mentor, the previous December,” Powell said. “He was my go-to guy for defensive thoughts. So Wink getting here when he did was a godsend. To see what they were able to do on that side of the ball last year was pretty impressive.”

Winkler said another thing that has paid dividends is having leaders at all three levels of the defense both seasons. He and Powell mentioned players like Luke Rector, Donnell Wilkins, Thomas Lambert, Hampton Blackwell, Will Price, and Connor Pinkerton having filled those roles, and both coaches agree that names like Marshall Brinkley, Alex Wright, and Sterling Radabaugh can be those leaders next season.

“We’re blessed to have the kind of leaders in particular at linebacker that we have the last couple years,” Powell said. “Guys who really study the game, study what Coach Winkler gives them.” 

Winkler added: “That makes the defensive coordinator’s job a whole lot easier when players know what to do and can put people in places. Hampton this past year was that guy for us. He called out the defenses, made sure we were lined up right.” 

Winkler says he preaches the three T’s of defense: Turnovers, tackling, and third downs.

In teaching tackling technique, Winkler wants his players to have their heads up, start low, and hit on the rise, “kind of like a power clean, being explosive going up.”

“Fundamentals are huge, and on defense, that starts with tackling,” Winkler said. “We try to do it as safely as possible. We usually have three or four circuits (at practice), and one of them is going to be full contact, and the others will be more technique involved. I want you to hit hard, but I’d rather you be a good fundamental tackler than to just be able to hit hard. You can hit someone hard but wrong and they’ll bounce off of you and keep going. 

“We like to establish early in the week in practice that we’re going to be the most physical team on the field.”

Winkler said on third downs, his players knowing what to expect in advance goes a long way.

“We want to get off the field on third downs,” he said. “We call that ‘money’ down. The players will know based on down, distance, and who we’re playing, we call ‘money down pass’ or ‘money down run,’ well OK, we do this. It’s automatic. They pin their ears back and get ready to go.” 

Powell loves that kind of aggression, the “banshee” mentality, when he sees it from his defense, and he tries to use it to benefit the entire team.

“Our coaches know, (if) we win the coin toss, the defense is going out there first,” Powell said. “Number one, I have the trust in our defense. Number two, I want the defense to go out and set the tone, and they usually do that. … The tenacity he’s instilled in them, they have a chip on their shoulder. It’s OK for you to have a bad boy attitude when you play defense. You want to hit people hard. 

“He’s brought in a swagger to the defensive side of the ball. I always tell our kids it takes a special person to play defense. You’ve got to have a relentless pursuit to the ball. You can’t care about your body, you’ve got to lay it on the line. Defensive players are a different breed.”

Still, sometimes tackles are broken. But by getting a number of players to the ball, the risk of a big play from the offense due to one defensive miscue shrinks dramatically.

“More than open-field tackling, we talk about getting a bunch of hats to the ball,” Winkler added. “I want as many people at the ball as we can. When we do film, we’ll pause and get a feel for how many we’ve got corralling to the ball.”

Winkler also encourages aggression on defense by not harshly punishing mistakes, which he acknowledges are “part of it, and that’s how we grow is figuring out where our mistakes are and correcting them.”

“I tell them all the time, we don’t want to be outworked,” Winkler said. “We try to keep it as simple as possible because in doing that, we can play fast. 

“So many times kids are afraid to make mistakes so they’re timid. I try to get that fear out of them. I tell them it’s OK if you mess up. I don’t punish jumping offsides unless they do it three times in a row or something like that. I tell them, I’ll give you one or two because I want them to be relentless and aggressive.” 

Ironically, Powell (who calls the offense) grew up as a defensive player at Freedom and Western Carolina, and Winkler was an offensive guard at EB before he threw the discus and hammer on the track team at Appalachian State prior to his time coaching.

Winkler has also coached every offensive position group except for quarterbacks.

“His real love is the offensive side of the ball, but I think that’s one of the things that makes coordinators better is understanding both sides of the ball,” Powell said. “He understands a spread offense, what they’re trying to do. He understands a wing-T offense and what they’re trying to attack, and it’s because he’s been a part of those. 

“We work well together because we bounce ideas off each other. We’ll sit there and watch film and he’ll come up with a good concept our offense can use, and I’ll go to him when I get confused about a coverage someone is using that maybe I haven’t seen before. We’ll break it down and talk about what they’re trying to attack or what that mindset is, and that makes us both better coaches. I feel like we do a good job sharing ideas.”

Just as important, Winkler said he believes that his and Powell’s coaching styles and tendencies mesh well.

“I just think the way he runs the offense and what I like for us to do on defense complements each other,” Winkler said. “And that’s very important because you can get into an offense that tries to score so fast that it hurts the defensive side of the ball, particularly where we are at a 1A school where you are going to have some guys playing both ways. Our philosophies work well together.” 

At the end of the day, Powell said what Winkler has brought to the coaching staff is peace of mind.

“It’s so much easier on me as a head coach if I don’t have to worry about making sure things are solid on both sides of the football,” Powell said. “I’ve got full faith and trust in him, and he and his defensive staff come up with a great gameplan every week.” 

Paul Schenkel can be reached at 828-445-8595 or paul@thepaper.media.