Jon Richt aiming for bounce-back season at Prince Avenue

Prince Avenue Christian’s Jon Richt learned a lot during his first season leading the Wolverines.

The second-year coach hopes to apply those lessons learned — both good and bad — forward into the 2026 season, where he anticipates a Year 2 jump after Prince Avenue’s worst season (8-4) since 2010.

Prince’s mantra this season is “worrying about direction, and not worried about distance,” Richt said, emphasizing movement toward the end goal.

“We got to keep moving,” Richt said. “It might not feel good, but let’s not turn around and run the other way. Let’s put our foot in the ground and go one inch forward.”

Richt, previously the team’s offensive coordinator, took over for Greg Vandagriff, who stepped down after the 2024-25 season after leading the team to three state titles and six region championships.

Richt has served in multiple offensive roles at just about every level of football, starting as a graduate assistant in 2014 under his father and former UGA coach Mark Richt, to an offensive assistant with the Buffalo Bills and back in the college ranks with his father at Miami as quarterbacks coach.

But until last season, he had never been a head coach before.

It was a no-brainer to accept the new role, considering how much the program has meant to Richt, who played quarterback at Prince Avenue from 2005-08. There was definitely an adjustment period that Richt said he didn’t really grasp until he was actually handling it.

“As soon as it starts and all of a sudden you’re trying to figure out all this stuff and all those other problems start, instead of going to coach Vandagriff, they start coming to me,” Richt said. “All the different things you got to deal with, and you know it does jump on you pretty quick.”

No longer was he just dealing with Xs and Os in the playbook; Richt was having to handle all the off-field duties such as ordering team merchandise and uniforms, and making sure his middle school, junior varsity and varsity teams were all in order, along with trying to remain fully hands-on with the week-to-week schematics during the season.

It became too much for one person, and the results started to trickle into the record book. The shortcomings marked the first time Prince Avenue failed to record double-digit wins in six years.

“I feel like when the times got hard, we weren’t as prepared as we could have been,” running back Andrew Beard said. “We kind of folded instead of standing up to the occasion.”

He realized the way operations were being run off the field needed a change. So Richt switched up his approach, taking a more “manager than hands-on” coaching perspective. Richt will remain the primary offensive play-caller, but will divert other roles to his supporting staff.

“It says in the Bible a king can’t rule by himself. He needs a supporting cast of advisers, and getting good people around you is what you’re trying to do,” Richt said. “What you’re trying to create is that culture that leads to allowing your kids to perform at a high level and then go win football games.”

This includes Richt’s dad Mark, who Jon calls “whenever he needs him” for coaching advice. Jon said his father does make it out to a few practices and games, where he surveys the field from a “1,000-foot view” and lets his son know about all the good and bad things he sees.

Prince Avenue begins its 2026 season on Friday against Thomson High School, where Richt hopes his 14 seniors will lead the team to a bounce-back year and claim the class’s second state title.

Some of the notable seniors are Beard (Florida commit), linebacker Colin Durning (Marshall commit), lineman Gabe Prince and wide receiver Hudson Hill (Davidson commit).

“Those guys who have been here a long time, played a lot of football. Now all of a sudden, those guys are starting to take over the team, and they’re starting to imprint who our team is,” Richt said. ”I’m excited because they’re leading, doing a good job creating the culture that we need."

One integral piece of the puzzle is, in fact, not a senior but the expected starting quarterback, sophomore Gavin Hollum. The second-year quarterback takes over after rising senior Ben Musser transferred out. In a limited role as a freshman, Hollum appeared in nine games, completed 53 passes for 582 yards and an 8-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio.