Johnny Plummer, who has coached football in Mississippi for more than four decades, will work this season as a defensive assistant on the staff of J.J. Plummer, his son, who is in his first season at North Pontotoc.

“We’re hoping he can come in and help out on defense, and maybe come up with some old-school schemes on defense,” said J.J. Plummer, whose squad opened fall practice on Aug. 3.

North Pontotoc will be playing its first season in Class 4A after being promoted by the MHSAA from 3A where it had competed since 1999. The Vikings have not played a 4A school in football since 2006.

Johnny Plummer’s extensive background and approach to the game could potentially shorten the learning curve.

“I’m just coming up there to help them and to enjoy this season,” Plummer said during a phone interview last Friday.

“I’m excited for J.J., and I’m excited to come up there and be a part of the program on a part-time basis. I hope some of the experiences I have had and the coaches I’ve coached against will help them enjoy their football playing time.”

The Plummer resume

The elder Plummer’s head coaching experience stretches back to 1967, when he started at Leakesville. He has coach-ed in various capacities at more than a half dozen high schools, all in Mississippi, and at four colleges: as head football coach at Delta State and Northeast Mississippi Community College, and as an assistant at Delta State, Mississippi State and Mississippi College. He was also the head coach of the Mississippi Pride, of the now- defunct Regional Football League, which is the most recent time the Plummers have worked together.

And the competition Johnny Plummer has faced as a coach is impressive, including Bear Bryant, Chan Gailey before he was head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Pat Dye, and Mac Brown.

“I’ve coached against some of the best coaches and been on the winning side,” Plummer said, “and I’ve coached against high school coaches who have whipped my tail pretty good.”

The Pontotoc connection

His work as a coach has led to numerous Pontotoc County connections.

George Duff played quarterback for him while he was at Delta State.

He also coached Steve Brown, whom he joins as one of North Pontotoc’s assistants, when he was a lineman for the Statesmen.

Charlie Dampeer, Pon-totoc’s head football coach, played on an American Legion baseball team coached by Plummer while he was at Corinth in the 1970s.

“Charlie was one of my favorites when I was coaching baseball,” he said of Dampeer.

And his Corinth squads went head-to-head against Tommy Morton's Pontotoc teams.

"Tommy Morton was an excellent high school coach I enjoyed competing with at Corinth," Plummer said. "He is an excellent football coach and an excellent person."

Just what North needs

While the breadth of Plummer’s experience is notable, it would be better to focus on the traits that enabled him to enjoy success.

These are precisely the qualities the Vikings, the smallest school in Region 1-4A, must emulate in order to compete.

Plummer helped Corinth, where he was head coach from 1970 to 1977, contend against much larger schools like Tupelo, Starkville, and Columbus – and win – when it was part of the Big 8 and Little 10 conferences.

“We were the smallest school, and were very competitive in the years I was in it,” Plummer said.

Those who played for him during that time attribute a large portion of their success to his ability to create customized schemes on offense and defense.

“He was ahead of his time as far as doing things with the ball,” said Wayne Henry, who is presently Assistant Superintendent of Alcorn County Schools, and played for Plummer at Corinth and Delta State in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s before going on to coach at Corinth, Kossuth, and in Georgia and Tennessee.

“Coach Plummer did some things to help us compete with those big guys, being innovative, and we didn’t know any better at the time.”

From the coach’s standpoint, he was using his best alternative.

“All I can say is, we didn’t have the talent, so we did a lot of innovative things on offense and defense to compete,” Plummer explained.

“We did some little things to help us out, and hopefully we can do some things with North Pontotoc to help us to compete in 4A.”

Plummer the polisher

When Plummer took over as head coach at Northeast Mississippi Community College in the mid-1980’s, he honed the talent of his players and turned around a program that had struggled through the first part of that decade.

“The thing about him is he could polish,” said Mike Mattox, an assistant coach at Booneville who played under Plummer at Northeast.

“He could take someone who was a step too slow, or undersized, and make him a winner.

“He always concentrated on the positive, and pushed you to be the best you could be.”

Plummer’s take

And being the best by learning from the best has been Plummer’s goal as a player and coach.

“As long as I’ve been coaching, I’ve never felt I couldn't learn something from somebody else or a player,” said Plummer, who was the last three-sport letterman in football, basketball and baseball at Mississippi College.

“That has helped me with my entire coaching career and playing days.

“I’ve always felt I could learn a little bit more and absorb more.

“I feel like when you get to the point where you think you can’t learn any more, you need to get out of it.”