Nashville Collegiate Prep has a new football program, a new playing field, and now a new head coach in Nashville native Jamie Graham.¶
Graham graduated from Whites Creek High School in 2007, where, aside from excelling at football, he scored more than 1,500 career points on the basketball team and led it to state tournament appearances in 2006 and 2007. He went on to play football at Vanderbilt University as a wide receiver and defensive back, as well as basketball. He also played football at UCLA after graduating from Vanderbilt.¶
Graham’s Coaching Career
His coaching career began shortly after his playing career ended. He began as the head basketball coach at Hillsboro High School, where he stayed for more than 10 years. Towards the end of his tenure, he began coaching football for the Burros.¶
From there, he left and became the assistant wide receivers coach at Lipscomb Academy before eventually moving up to offensive coordinator. After winning state championships in 2021 and 2022, Graham became an offensive quality control coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) before returning to Nashville once more to take the head coach position at Lipscomb Academy, where he has been for the past two seasons.¶
The Start of Something New
Now, Graham’s journey has led him to Nashville Collegiate Prep, where he will attempt to bring the Lions’ new football program to life during the inaugural 2025-26 season. Graham will join former Antioch High School head football coach Devin Arnold, who will be serving as the school’s athletics director.¶
“When you roll up on campus, you get a different feel, like it's sitting at the top of Antioch,” Graham said. “It's on a hill. You can overlook the city of Antioch.”¶
He cherishes the opportunity to start with a blank slate. The opportunities, he said, “are limitless.”¶
“I felt that it was an opportunity for me to build something from the ground up (and) take a program that's literally not played a game yet and really set the standard and set an expectation over here,” Graham said.¶
Charter School Football
Graham has coached in the public school and private school systems in Nashville, but he called coaching at a public charter school “a good blend” of both worlds.¶
“I think you have so many opportunities to do things that private schools do, but it's free,” Graham said. “So, you get kids to come to this school and enjoy this school knowing that you get a private school education, but you get it for free.”¶
The facilities aren’t too bad, either. One of the perks of coaching for the Lions is the new artificial turf playing field. Last year, Toadvine Enterprises, a company specializing in selling, installing, and servicing spectator seating, scoreboards, and more, installed brand new grandstands on the home team side of the field as well.¶
“(The school is) sitting on 82 acres,” Graham said. “They have a football field. They have everything they need to really get this thing going, but they also understand that it has to grow, and so how do we make this an elite school, but also making an elite football program and sports program in general?”¶
Graham also noted he feels it’s important for charter school students to have the same athletic opportunities as other public and private school students.¶
“I think it's a really great opportunity right now, right here in a perfect location, right in the middle of Antioch,” Graham said. “This area is growing. I think NCP has a really good opportunity to really kind of benefit off of everyone moving to this area (and) this area growing the way that it's growing, and most people don't even know this place is back here.”¶
When asked about what offense he was going to run, Graham gave a simple answer:¶
“Get the ball to the dude.”¶
