Bryan Moore has built a perennial playoff contender at Hartselle.

Opelika is hoping he can do the same thing with the Bulldogs.

Moore was officially announced Tuesday morning as Opelika’s next head football coach. He replaces Erik Speakman, who was fired last month.

“OCS welcomes coach Bryan Moore as our new head football coach,” superintendent Farrell Seymore said in a news release. “He was an outstanding teacher and coach during his previous tenure in Opelika and he has only grown in his capacity as a strong leader. We look forward to the positive impact he will have on the students in our community.”

In four years at Hartselle, Moore went 38-9 and made the playoffs each season. His 2023 team went 9-3 and lost to Gadsden City 22-15 in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs.

Moore, a Valley native and graduate of Springwood School and Auburn University, is a former Opelika assistant. He originally joined the Bulldog staff in 2007 and spent eight years there, the last four as offensive coordinator.

In 2015, he took his first head coaching job at Eufaula. He led the Tigers to a 26-9 record in three seasons and went to the playoffs each season. He spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons at Jasper and led that team to a 22-3 record before heading to Hartselle.

His overall head coaching record in nine years is 86-21. Moore has made the playoffs in each of his years as a head coach.

“I am so honored to be the new head football coach at Opelika High School,” Moore said in the release. “It’s surreal to have the opportunity to come back and lead a program that I began coaching many years ago. Opelika has always been a special place to me and my family. It’s where I got my start in teaching and coaching and where my kids were born. My desire for this program is for it to be the best football program in Alabama.”

He takes over an Opelika team that is just 9-11 in the last two years after moving up from Class 6A to Class 7A. The Bulldogs will remain in Class 7A, Region 2 for the next two seasons after the AHSAA’s reclassification announcement on Monday.

He will start his new job on Jan. 3.