Very, very familiar name taking over at Washington County: Robert Edwards III
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The unofficial favorite when the Washington County head football coach position became open in December became the choice, the county board of education approving a blast from the Golden Hawks’ past.
Robert Edwards III helped start a great run at Washington County in the early 1990s, and now he’s back as the Golden Hawks’ head coach, bringing a career record of 76-55, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association website, in 12 seasons back to Sandersville.
Edwards replaces Joel Ingram, who was reassigned in December to a position that didn’t exist. Ingram succeeded Rick Tomberlin, Edwards’ high school coach, at Washington County in 2006 and went 131-58-1 before being removed from his position.
He started work this week as assistant head coach and interior offensive line coach at Dublin.
Edwards started his coaching career in GISA at Arlington Christian, going 15-7 in 2010-11.
He moved to Greene County, a program with so-so success and a lack of stability, and had one winning season in six. Included was a trip to the Class A public quarterfinals in 2016 when the Tigers went 9-4, their highest win total since 2006 and last winning season since 2008.
Edwards started at Greene County in 2012 as the program’s fifth head coach since 2000, and finished 29-37..
He made a big jump in 2018, taking over at Class 5A Riverwood, becoming the Raiders’ ninth head coach since 2000. In four seasons, he became the Raiders’ second-winningest coach with 32 wins, and captured the program’s only two region championships.
The Golden Hawks went 14-1 in his senior season, 1992, losing 27-10 to Mitchell-Baker in the AA championship. He was the state defensive player of the year, but didn’t get a lot of recruiting attention until the postseason, in part because of a late SAT score.
He almost went to Florida, but didn’t have a good visit. Georgia entered the picture, and Edwards committed, content that the Bulldogs would move him to DB, although he also had experience on offense.
He moved to offense at Georgia as a sophomore and rushed for 2,033 yards and 27 touchdowns in three seasons, catching 455 yards worth of passes with three touchdowns.
He played with the likes of Mike Bobo, Hines Ward, Champ Bailey, and one Kirby Smart.
Edwards played under Ray Goff and Jim Donnan, the Bulldogs going 6-4-1, 6-6, 5-6, and 10-2 in his four seasons. He forced Steve Spurrier to bite his lip in 1997 when he ran for 127 yards and four touchdowns in Georgia’s 37-17 win over Florida in The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
He was the 18th pick in the first round of the 1998 draft, by New England. He rushed 291 times for 1,115 yards and nine touchdowns as a rookie.
But the potential of a stellar NFL career died after the season when he blew out his knee playing in a rookie flag football game on the beach during Pro Bowl week.
Edwards nearly lost his leg, so severe was the injury.
But he went to Athens and rehabbed his knee, returned to football in 2002, running 20 times for 107 yards for a score with Miami. He then gave Canada a try, and it worked. Edwards played with Montreal and Toronto in a four-year career, racking up 3,022 yards on 576 carries with 25 touchdowns, retiring after the 2007 season.
Despite no coaching experience, Arlington Christian hired him as its third head coach, after starting football in 2007. The Eagles went 15-7 with two GISA Region 2-AA titles.
It dropped football after the 2013 season, and returned to independent 8-man football in 2017 for two seasons.
The 47-year-old is the older brother of former Washington County and Georgia standout Terrence Edwards, who runs a tight ends/wide receiver academy and is the offensive coordinator at Pace in north Atlanta.