‘Excited to be back home.’ UK great Craig Yeast returns to Harrodsburg to coach Mercer.
Because they were “raised like brothers,” Mercer County Athletic Director Donald Smith talks with cousin Craig Yeast about once a week.
Yeast needs no introduction, but, yes, he’s the University of Kentucky football great and a Harrodsburg favorite son who played for the old Harrodsburg High School Pioneers in the mid-1990s. For the last three seasons, he’s been the head coach of Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro.
Their conversations cover family and football, but when Mercer County’s head football coach job opened up, Smith had an idea. What if Yeast came back home to lead the Mercer County Titans?
“When I first told him, he was like, ‘Nah, man, I’m good.’” Smith said. “And I just started thinking one night, ‘Man, this could really be good.’ I just called him and said, ‘Let’s just meet and talk about it.’”
It wasn’t long before his cousin’s idea began to feel like something special to Yeast, too.
“I’m excited to be back at home. It’s a blessing,” Yeast told the Herald-Leader a day after he was introduced at the school. “I think it’s a great fit for myself and for my family. And I’m just really happy to be back home to be honest with you.”
Yeast takes over a team that has been successful over the last several years under David Buchanan. Buchanan decided to step away from the program after his son, quarterback Trosper Buchanan, completed his senior season. Buchanan’s record over seven seasons was 50-32, including 9-3 last fall.
“Our community is really excited to get Craig and I wish him and the program the very best,” Buchanan told the Herald-Leader.
The Titans advanced to the third round of the high school playoffs twice during Buchanan’s tenure and have had winning records each of the last three years despite being districted with Louisville Class 3A powerhouses Christian Academy-Louisville and DeSales.
“I definitely appreciate everything that Coach Buchanan has done for the program,” Yeast said. “He’s also someone who grew up and went to school here, … so we have that similar background of wanting to continue and grow the program into a championship-caliber program.”
At his introduction Tuesday, Yeast offered his vision for his new team.
“We’re going to be tough. We’re going to be disciplined. We’re going to have great attitudes and we’re going to outwork everybody,” he said. “I’m here to win football games, but I’m here to win the hearts and minds of young men. I want to win championships and I want to do it right here in Mercer County.”
Yeast’s wife, Tori, works from home and their children are grown. Craig “Russ” Yeast II, who played football at Louisville and Kansas State is out of college and 19-year-old Kiyah is a sophomore track athlete at Louisville.
“Our kids were extremely happy that this was going to happen,” Yeast said. “And it’s just an opportunity to be back in a community that I grew up in and, hopefully, have an opportunity to do a few things to make a difference here.”
The Titans play their games on the same field where Yeast made his mark as a quarterback and state champion track athlete for the Pioneers. That field is named for Coach Alvis Johnson, who led the Pioneers to state finals in 1988, 1996 and 1997. The schools merged in 2006, well after Yeast graduated. One of the results of that merger was the community’s only state football championship in Class 2A under Marty Jaggers, the first season of the merged schools.
“That is going to be really special, the first opportunity that I get to actually run out there as the football coach and not the football player,” Yeast said. “It’s been a long time, and I’m really excited about the opportunity to coach on the field that I played on but more importantly, the field that is named after Alvis Johnson, who is one of the greatest coaches ever.”
Yeast, 45, played for Johnson before embarking on his college career at Kentucky (1995-1998) where he became the school’s all-time leading receiver in both career receptions (208) and yards (2,899). His UK single-season marks weren’t eclipsed until this year by Wan’Dale Robinson. Yeast went on to play pro football for the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him, the New York Jets and the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL in Canada.
Yeast’s head coaching career began in high school. He led Bryan Station to a 7-5 record in 2011 after taking over a program that went 1-10 the year before. But an opportunity to be an assistant coach at the college level at Division II Tiffin University after that one season proved hard to pass up.
He later coached in high school again for three seasons for Fremont Ross High School outside of Toledo, Ohio, before returning to the college ranks as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Division III Franklin College in Indiana. He became head coach at Division III Kentucky Wesleyan in 2018 and had a record of 5-22 over three seasons, one delayed and shortened by the pandemic.
There are, of course, differences in coaching at the high school and college levels, Yeast said.
“Because I’m in the school building with the young men on a daily basis, that will allow me to make more of an impact on all the students at the school as well as the community,” Yeast said. His school role has not yet been finalized. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sports management from Midway College in 2011 and a master’s degree in education from Tiffin in 2013.
Kentucky high school football, especially in Class 3A, has a wide variety of styles of play. This year’s thrilling Class 3A state title game was narrowly won by a run-only, smash-mouth Belfry team over a dynamic Paducah Tilghman passing attack. Yeast said his offense will be a balanced mix of run and pass.
“We’re gonna do what’s best to put our players best positioned to be successful, and go out and play as fast as they possibly can without thinking about making plays,” he said. “It’s just reading and reacting and going and having fun and playing the game. …
“In our district, with CAL, DeSales, Western Hills and Henry County, we’re going to have the opportunity to play good football. … I’m excited about it. And I think the young men that are going to be in our program are going to be excited about the opportunity as well.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 1:34 PM.
