For Chipola College head coach Donnie Tyndall, the foundation of the program starts at the defensive end.
Through his first six seasons at Chipola, Tyndall says the Indians have won the Panhandle Conference and reached Hutchinson every year — continuing the tradition of a program with a long history of success.
“We’ve been very fortunate, had a lot of good players, good assistant coaches that have moved on to become head coaches or Division I assistants.”
But one constant has defined Tyndall’s teams throughout that run: defense.
“My first three years we were number one in the country in defense, year four we were number two, year five we were number three, and last year we dropped all the way to number six.”
That consistency has made the defensive end a defining piece of Chipola’s identity.
“We’ve been in the top six in the country in defense all six years. That’s kind of our staple, if you will, of how we go about things.”
And entering year seven, the standard remains clear.
“We’re going to defend and rebound, and hopefully we can score a little bit better this year than we did last year, though, at the other end.”