Preston Judah isn’t shy when he talks about what being the head football coach at Grissom High means to him.

“It means everything,” he said at Huntsville Area High School Football Media Day on Monday. “To be able to contribute and give back to the community that has invested so much in me and my family … it doesn’t get any better. Extra pressure obviously because, on Saturday mornings, if we don’t perform, I’ll see plenty of people who will have something say, but it’s a challenge that I’m excited to take up.”

Judah played football at Grissom from 2002-2006 for head coach Ronny Massey. He also spent time as the offensive coordinator on Chip English’s staff from 2017-2020.

“I’ve pushed all my chips in on orange and brown,” he said. “I’ve been around the program at times when it’s been successful. I was there in 2004 as a player when we made the playoffs and I was there as an assistant coach in 2020 when we made the playoffs, so to me it’s not an insurmountable hill. To me, my job is to get Grissom back to where it belongs. The wins and losses will come. I’ll be able to sleep at night when the teams we have replicate that saltiness and the blue-collar mentality we had in the early 2000s.”

Judah was named the Tigers’ new head coach in February. He replaces Rich Dutton, who went 10-30 in four years at the school, including consecutive 2-8 marks in each of the last two seasons. The Tigers haven’t been to the playoffs since English – now the Hoover head coach – was there in 2020 and haven’t won a playoff game in 25 years.

What’s the key to turning it around?

“Belief. Legitimately,” Judah said. “I think that’s it. We talk a lot about the fact that we plan on Grissom being the premier program in north Alabama, the fact that there is not any difference in the James Clemens’ and the Austins other than the color of their jerseys.

“We did a lot of scheduling of elite talent over the summer. We had an OTA with Hartselle on Wednesday. I think you could make the argument they have been the premier program in north Alabama. Just to see on their faces knowing that we can compete with those guys, we are just as good as they are, has been really important for our development this summer.”

Judah said his players’ attitude, energy and effort all have been top notch. He is now ready to see the physicality turn up as the calendar turns to August. He also has another question on his mind.

“Can we moderate our mentality?” he said. “When things get bad, do we fight through it or do we just have the mindset that it’s the same old Grissom? We’ve done a lot of that culturally to try to shore that up, so we are ready in August.”

Judah described his defense as “salty” and believes it will keep his team in most games.

“Between the 7-on-7s that we’ve had and OTAs with Hartselle and Arab, we may have given up three or four touchdowns in the air in seven or eight games,” he said. “I think we will be really good there. We should be really solid at offensive line and running back. Hopefully, we can stay in drives, stay in games, make sure every drive ends in a kick – hopefully an extra point – but a punt is fine because we know that defense will keep us in games.”

Grissom opens the season at Lee-Huntsville on Aug. 22.