Pelham High School head football coach Brett Burnett has named Brent Thompson as the team’s new offensive coordinator.

Thompson, who teaches at the Linda Nolen Learning Center and has served as the Panthers’ offensive line coach, replaces Jep Irwin, who left to take the head coaching position at Lassiter (Ga.) High School.

“I’m very excited,” said Thompson. “There’s a great opportunity here at Pelham to do great things.”

Burnett said Thompson will help bring a more traditional running style to the Panthers, who ran a spread system under Irwin.

“We want to be able to run the football more and Coach Thompson is going to put more of an emphasis on doing that,” Burnett said.

Pelham won’t completely shed its spread identity, but Thompson said adding a more physical running style will help create more opportunities for the Panthers to score.

“I’m going to try and build off what Jep did,” Thompson said. “I want to add a different mentality up front where we run more and we have our hands in the dirt.”

Burnett said he is thankful for the job Irwin did the last four years, and by promoting Thompson to offensive coordinator the Panthers would maintain some continuity.

“Jep did a great job, he did a lot of good things for us and we wish him nothing but the best,” Burnett said. “Coach Thompson has been with us for several years and he will bring a lot of energy and some new ideas to the table.”