Gainesville aiming to upset Milton, take next step to ‘national brand’

Gainesville is back in the familiar place of trying to reach unfamiliar success this week.

Niblett and the Red Elephants can change that Friday night when they visit national No. 13-ranked Milton. Beating the Eagles could be the next step in Niblett’s plan to make Gainesville a national brand.

“We need to get to a point where we’re winning these games,” Niblett said. “I think when we start winning these games, it’s going to allow us an opportunity to gain the respect that we want to be able to have in our program, not only just from a state brand but also a national brand.”

That Gainesville is a statewide brand is impressive enough, considering where the program was when Niblett took over four years ago. The Red Elephants had gone 27-38 in the six years before athletic director Adam Lindsey hired Niblett away from Hoover in Alabama, where Niblett won six state championships at the state’s highest classification.

Lindsey said the hire immediately revived a Gainesville fan base that had grown accustomed to winning football teams. Gainesville had 30 region championships and a 2012 state title under its belt when Niblett was introduced.

“On that day that we introduced him, he had a police escort from his hotel room pulling up to our cafeteria that was absolutely jam-packed with the community ready to greet him,” Lindsey said. “Band, cheerleaders, I mean, the community was already going nuts, just excited about knowing what he’s done and what he can do for our program.”

Niblett didn’t hesitate to deliver results. Even Lindsey was surprised by how quickly Niblett seemed to turn Gainesville around with a roster that, according to Lindsey, had only three transfers.

Niblett’s first game at Gainesville was at Marist, and Lindsey remembered watching the Red Elephants score three touchdowns in the first quarter.

“I was like, ‘Oh, what are we doing?’” Lindsey recalled. “I wasn’t expecting this, and it kind of just steamrolled from there.”

Niblett credits his early success to managing “reasonable expectations,” defining specific standards based on what he expects from his team and individual players.

Reasonable expectations can focus on big-picture goals like championships, but they’re also focused on day-to-day operations.

“Reasonable expectation is to get to bed early at night. Reasonable expectation is to make sure I’m eating the right foods, putting the right things in my body,” Niblett said. “Reasonable expectation is making sure that I’m early every day, I’m consistent in what I’m doing.

“So for us, reasonable expectation may be different than just for an ordinary person because we don’t want to finish ordinary.”

The same Gainesville program that finished 5-5 and missed the playoffs in 2021 won its first 14 games under Niblett. Then the Red Elephants ran into one of those nationally ranked Georgia teams when they faced Langston Hughes in the state championship.

The Red Elephants fell just short of a 15-0 season in Niblett’s first season, losing 35-28 in Atlanta.

Gainesville’s second season under Niblett ended in the third round of the playoffs.

Last season, region realignment ultimately added two Georgia powerhouses to Gainesville’s schedule in Milton and Carrollton. The Eagles and Trojans both beat the Red Elephants by 20-plus points.

Niblett acknowledged that Gainesville’s 45-16 loss to eventual state runner-up Carrollton — the first regular-season loss of the Niblett era — broke the team’s connectivity before region play even began.

“I think when the third year came around, I think a lot of those guys that needed to lead, I think they led at certain times, but I think they felt like it was just going to happen,” Niblett said. “When adversity hit, we didn’t handle it well. And I think that’s a big part of what happened.”

Gainesville finished 2024 below the standard it set in Niblett’s first two seasons. The Red Elephants were 7-4, with a first-round elimination loss to Sequoyah.

Gainesville is 6-1 this season, but the one loss was to an elite Georgia team. The Red Elephants lost to Carrollton again, 43-21.

The score didn’t change much from last season, but Niblett said his team’s response gave him hope for a better finish to 2025. Gainesville recovered from a 22-8 halftime deficit and trailed only 22-21 halfway through the fourth quarter.

“Last year when it was halftime and we played those guys the year before, it was just trying to corral everybody because everybody was struggling,” Niblett said. “Because you got to remember now, that group last year had only lost two games up to that point. They were still not just learning how to win but learning how to handle adversity because they hadn’t faced a whole lot.

“I think that was the key for us, is this year, just watching these guys in that locker room at Carrollton. Then we come out, and we score (13 consecutive points).”

That connectivity has been a staple in Gainesville’s program since Niblett took over. Lindsey said he sees it on a daily basis off the field.

“If you stood inside his office in the afternoon, in season, out of season, doesn’t matter, you watch the kids walk past his office in the afternoon,” Lindsey said. “And as they’re leaving, they walk by him and say, ‘Coach, I love you,’ and he responds, ‘I love you, too,’ as they walk out the door. I mean, it’s 100 of them almost every day.”

That same connectivity will be key if Niblett wants to beat his first national-caliber opponent at Gainesville. Milton, a reigning two-time state champion, enters Friday night with a 42-game win streak in region play.

Milton coach Ben Reaves believes Gainesville will be a tougher out than it was in the 42-24 win last season.

“Every region game we treat as a region championship-type game due to those streaks and those records and things that we take pride in,” Reaves said. “Of the 42 we’ve won in a row, this will arguably be the toughest one to get, hands down.”

Niblett has cemented himself as one of the better coaches in Gainesville history. He’s one of two coaches in school history to take Gainesville to a state championship game.

But beating the state’s nationally ranked teams — especially on the road — shows another level of development and fortitude that only elite programs possess.