Olten Downs, the football coach who led Creekside to a Class AAAAA championship in 2013, has been hired as a quality control assistant on the University of Georgia's football support staff.
Downs is a 2002 graduate of Shaw High in Columbus and played on Shaw's 2000 state-championship team.
Downs has been regarded as one of Georgia's best young coaches since leaving Tennessee Tech. He was on the staff at Carver-Columbus for its 2007 state title team.
He came to Creekside in 2013 and went 15-0 during his first season. It was Creekside's first-ever state title and the first for a south Fulton County team since 1983. Downs is one of fewer than 10 men to win GHSA football championships as player and head coach.
At Carver, Downs worked under Dell McGee, who in 2013 left Carver and joined Auburn's football staff. McGee is now running backs coach at Georgia Southern.
Downs is the younger brother of former NFL player Gary Downs, who also took a college job this year at East Tennessee State. Gary Downs was the head coach at Riverside Military in Gainesville.
''We all just want to have aspirations to be a college coach,'' Olten Downs told the Athens Banner-Herald, the first to report Downs' hiring. "To get on this level, you have to be able to do this internship type job to learn how the process works.''
Downs got to know Georgia coach Mark Richt through Downs' work as president of the Georgia Minority Coaches Association and through the recruitment of Creekside players. Georgia has a commitment from Creekside junior lineman Aaron Dowdell. Creeside senior wide receiver Jayson Stanley signed with Georgia in February.
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