It's been 22 years since Scott Mitchell quarterbacked the Springville football team to the state title.

"I've lived in several places, but I've always been from here," Mitchell said in a press conference introducing him as the new head football coach. "I have had a lot of great teachers, great coaches and great friends from here that made a big impact in my life. There are a lot of great people in this community."

Many of those people are thrilled to have one of the most well-known former Red Devil athletes return to take over a program that has won just nine games in the past three years, but Mitchell was quick to point out that he shouldn't be expected to fix everything immediately.

"I don't look at it like I'm going to be a savior," he said. "When I meet with the parents on Friday, I'm going to talk about a journey. The fact that I played in the pros isn't going win any games today. That's all in the past.

"From this day forward, we're moving forward. We're also not going to focus on the future. Our focus will be on now, today."

Mitchell's success on the field -- including a record-setting career as a Utah Ute in the 1980s and a pro career in Miami, Detroit, Baltimore and Cincinnati -- won't be overlooked by other coaches and teams, but the new head coach said he isn't concerned about that right now.

"I'm not afraid of having a bulls-eye on me because I've been chased by some of the biggest, meanest guys in the world that were trying to rip my head off," Mitchell explained. "But I want my teams to win the right way and lose the right way. You have to have respect for your opponent."

That is part of the attitude Mitchell wants to bring to his program.

"I used to say that my philosophy was one word: Finish," he said. "But that's changed. I want to have a program that's known for starting and finishing."

He used the analogy of his final professional game, when a pair of 2-13 teams met in freezing conditions with very few people in the stands. He recalled scoring the winning touchdown in the final minute and said he was proud of the fact that he saw it through to the end.

Mitchell plans to translate that onto the field by increasing the intensity.

"We're not going to walk in practice," he said. "We're going to run from drill to drill and run to the ball. We're going to play to win and attack people. That will go a long way."

Though this is his first experience in the high school coaching ranks, Mitchell believes his quarterbacking duties gave him significant preparation.

"I didn't have the title, but as a quarterback you have to coach and spend a lot of time with coaches," he said. "I sat next to (legendary Miami coach) Don Shula in a lot of meetings. I had to have a knowledge of what the offense did and what the defense did. The only area I may be lacking is in special teams."

Even with his experience, Mitchell and the Springville administration are working to get the best possible staff around him.

The new head coach joked that he didn't expect his new assistant coaches to follow in his footsteps by moving 2,400 miles. Mitchell had been a real estate developer in Orlando, Florida before the job opened up and he admitted the move doesn't make a lot of logical sense.

"It feels like the right thing to do," he said. "I lived 10 minutes from Disney World and it was 84 degrees when I left, so it sounds crazy."

He likened to his decision to go to Utah instead of BYU, saying it didn't make sense but it felt like the right thing to do, so he did it.

Now that he's here, Mitchell has a specific legacy he'd like to leave on the program.

"I envision being a coach that made a difference," he said. "I have great expectations. I'm extremely competitive and I hate to lose. I expect us to play, act and prepare a certain way. I also expect to prepare these boys to be successful in life."

Mitchell plans to move his excavation company to Utah and continue to work in that business as well as coach the football team.

• Jared Lloyd can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it