Mortimer Jordan football coach Dusty Goode is stepping down, telling the team of his decision on Wednesday.

“It’s time for me to step down and let someone else take over,” Goode said. “You know, 30 years in public education is a long time and I have been blessed everywhere I’ve been.”

Goode led the Blue Devils to an 8-3 record in Class 6A last season, losing in the first round of playoffs. Goode coached the Blue Devils for 10 seasons with a 80-41 record — most wins in school history — and eight playoff appearances. Mortimer Jordan won four region championships under Goode and fell in the Class 5A 2015 championship game to St. Paul’s as well as earning semifinal appearances in 2018 and 2019.

“I sure do love what I’ve done, which we’ve done it pretty good, but I sure wish that I could have done it better,” Goode said. “I believe they can get somebody that’s going to be smarter and better than me, but I don’t know if they can get somebody that’s going to love the kids more than me.”

After graduating from West Alabama (then called Livingston), Goode took an assistant coaching job at Cordova under Brian Maner in 1994 and the Blue Devils won the Class 3A title in 1995.

“In 1994 we went 10-2 and 1995 we went 13-2 and won the state championship, so that was my first two years in coaching,” Goode said. “That’s a good start and I remember thinking that ‘hey, I must be pretty good at it’ and on down the road you get those hard years and looking back, that’s some of the best coaching jobs people do is during the hard times.”

Goode followed Maner to Buckhorn in 1996 and back to Cordova in 1997 and was an assistant for one year at Greenville.

He took a job in Newnan, Ga., in 1998 under high school Hall of Fame former Oxford coach Robert Herring, who led Oxford to three state championships.

Goode spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator at McAdory and was an assistant coach at Thompson — again under Maner — before earning his first head coaching job at Dora in 2011. The Bulldogs last winning season had been 2006 with a 7-34 record before Goode. He guided Dora to a 9-3 record and second round of playoffs.

He was an assistant coach at Mortimer Jordan in 2012 under Greg Watts and took over as head coach in 2013.

“We went to state championship game in 2015 and got beat by St. Paul’s,” Goode said. “It took three years to build it and I knew we could because we have a great supporting cast, great assistant coaches.

“I really never had an opportunity to publicly say this, but in 2015, I believe I got the AL.com Coach of the Year award and I got the ASWA sportswriter Coach of the Year award and I got a lot of awards. But really what that meant to me was instead of being a coach of the year, we had administrators of the year, we had players of the year, we had faculty of the year, we had students of the year, cheerleaders of the year. It takes janitors or custodians, lunchroom ladies, all of them. I have a special relationship with each and every one of them and I love them and I’m making the right decision because it’s time.”

Goode said he has some opportunities and his time in coaching isn’t done.

“I’m planning on coaching,” Goode said. “It’s in my blood and I don’t think I can get out of it. I think I will coach until the good Lord says I can’t or it if my health goes bad and we’re not guaranteed tomorrow by any means.”