In the south, football rules all. Everyone looks forward to football season every year - people keep countdowns to kick-off, throw tailgate parties and immediately start a "countdown to next year" when the season ends. Because of this obsession and everyone's desire to win, being a football coach at one school for an extended period of time is an unusual feat - one that Furman Assistant Head Coach Tim Sorrells has accomplished. Sorrells has remained on the staff at Furman for 26 years, the longest tenure of any assistant in the SoCon.
The son of a Greeneville, Tenn., high school athletic director and coach, football is all Sorrells has known from the beginning. He was an All-State player at Jefferson County High school in Tennessee and decided to continue his playing career at Furman, close enough to home that his parents could come to most of his games.
Sorrells quarterbacked the Paladins for four years, two as a starter, and led Furman to its first two outright SoCon titles in school history (1980, '81). Sorrells was a two-time All-SoCon honoree and was named captain of the '81 team. It was during his time at Furman that Sorrells met Tracy Ballew, a cheerleader, who would eventually become his wife and biggest supporter. He also was roommates and teammates with current Furman Head Coach Bruce Fowler and the two have remained close friends ever since.
After receiving his undergraduate degree, Sorrells stayed at Furman as a graduate assistant and helped the Paladins win their third-consecutive league title. He then took his first full-time coaching job as an assistant coach at Rhea County (Tenn.) High School. This is where Sorrells thought he was supposed to be - following in his dad's footsteps.
In 1986, Sorrells was presented with an unexpected opportunity - an assistant coaching job at his alma mater under his former position coach Jimmy Satterfield, who became the head coach of the Paladins in 1986. He jumped at the chance and he and his family have been at Furman ever since. From '86-'88, Sorrells was the quarterbacks/running backs coach and played a key role in the development of all-conference quarterback Frankie DeBusk, who led the Paladins to a 13-2 record and their first NCAA I-AA national title.
From 1989-2009, Sorrells coached the teams' running backs and developed some names that will forever be synonymous with Furman football, like Carl Tremble (1989-1992), Louis Ivory (1998-2001) and Jerome Felton (2004-2007). Ivory, who played on Furman's 2001 national runner-up team, finished his career as Furman's all-time leading rusher (5,353 yards), and received the 2000 Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in NCAA I-AA. Felton earned All-America honors in 2007 and finished his career as the Paladins' all-time leading scorer (414 points) and the top rushing fullback in Furman history (2,652 yards). Felton was taken by the Detroit Lions in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft and currently plays for the Minnesota Vikings.
Sorrells also served as the Paladins' offensive coordinator from 1994-2010, leading a high-powered offense that finished at the top of the SoCon in an offensive statistical category 10 times under his direction. In 2005, Sorrells' offense finished first in the conference in total offense (470.0 ypg) and led the Paladins' to an 11-3 record, NCAA I-AA semifinal playoff appearance and No.3 final ranking.
Along with coaching All-Americans and all-conference standouts, Sorrells is also a family man. He and his wife, Tracy, have three children, Caleb, Jordan and Emma, who all followed in their father's footsteps and played collegiate athletics. Caleb (27) was a walk-on at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee, Emma (23) played basketball there and Jordan (26) played football at Furman, under his dad.
From 2005-2009, Tim and Jordan were more than just father and son, they were coach and player. Following a redshirt season in 2005, Jordan made an immediate impact in his first collegiate appearance. In the 2006 season opener, Sorrells came off the bench in the second half for injured starting quarterback Renaldo Gray and completed a game-winning 19-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds remaining to defeat Jacksonville State, 17-13. Later that season, in only his second career start, he threw for a career-high 335 yards against Chattanooga, including a 25-yard touchdown pass to defeat the Mocs in overtime.
Over the next three seasons, Jordan compiled impressive numbers, including tying a school record by throwing five touchdowns in a 48-21 win over Wofford in his final game in a Paladin uniform. He finished his career as Furman's career passing yards (6,278) and passing touchdowns (42) leader, and still holds over a half-dozen school records.
Although Tim tried to discourage it, Caleb and Jordan both continued to follow in their dad's football footsteps and now hold coaching positions of their own. Caleb is a Spanish teacher and quarterbacks coach at Gaffney (S.C.) High School, while Jordan returned to his alma mater to be the director of football operations at Furman.
Football is in the Sorrells' blood. It's everywhere in their family and it's something they just can't shake. Even though every Friday night and Saturday in the fall is spent at a football field, Tim has preached to his family that football doesn't define their lives. His motto, that has been instilled in his children and passed on to their families, is and will always be "football is what we do, not who we are."