The Coach They Refused to Follow

In 2016, the small town of Tuscumbia, Alabama, hired Hal Lamb as head football coach at Deshler High School. Lamb had grown up on those same fields, run those same routes, sat in those same bleachers. The town celebrated — one of their own was coming home. But when Lamb began changing the playbook, demanding new conditioning standards, and benching players whose families had held starting positions for generations, the celebration curdled.…