Rison hires Magnet Cove's Caleb Carmikle as head football coach

By Kyle Sutherland 

For the first time in nearly a quarter century, Rison will have a new leader roaming the sidelines at Wildcat Stadium. 

Magnet Cove head coach Caleb Carmikle was unanimously approved by the Cleveland County School District as the program’s next head football coach, replacing Clay Totty, who led the Wildcats since 1998. 

“To be in the same conversation as some of the men that have gone before me - Clay Totty and Coach (Jimmy “Red”) Parker, all those guys, is humbling,” Carmikle said. “I know there is a lot of pressure and expectations that come with this job, but that is why I applied for it.”

Carmikle, 29, understands the pride and tradition that come with being in the position, as well as the challenge of filling the shoes of Totty, who is Rison’s all-time winningest football coach. Totty is also the second-winningest active coach in Arkansas with 242 victories, behind only David Carpenter’s (Junction City) 246.

“Whenever you get a new job as a head coach, there is culture that you have to change and the way kids work, but there is none of that,” Carmikle said. “I am not coming in here to reinvent the wheel; I am coming to continue what Coach Totty and the men before him have done.

“Rison has been winning football games for a long time and the recipe for success is no secret. Coming in and filling those shoes is enticing to me, and we are going to embrace the challenge.”

Under Totty, Rison became famous for the split-back veer offense. Magnet Cove has mostly run variations of the spread in the past couple of seasons, but Carmikle is no stranger to pounding the rock if that best suits his personnel.

“In my first year at Magnet Cove, we won a conference championship and a playoff game running the Slot-T without throwing a touchdown pass,” Carmikle said. “We are going to do whatever fits our kids. In a perfect world, we will be able to have some balance and may be in the shotgun some, but we’re still going to run the football and have a physical identity on both sides.”

Carmikle compiled a 39-30 record in six seasons at Magnet Cove and won three 2A-5 conference titles (2017, 2019 and 2021). The Panthers went 5-6 last season and fell in the first round of the playoffs to Newport after moving up to Class 3A.

While acknowledging it was a tough decision to leave his previous job, Carmikle reiterated the privilege it is to be a part of a place like Rison for both he and his family.

“It was a decision that we did not take lightly,” Carmikle said. “Magnet Cove is a great place. They took a chance on me as a young kid and gave me the keys to the football program and the athletic department, so my wife and I were going to be selective in the place we chose to be and raise our newborn son.

“We chose Rison because of the history and tradition of their football program, and we are coming in there to build off of that. I am very excited to have this opportunity, and I am not going to let them down.”