Ex-NHS Star Coutras Poised for High-Profile Season at Tennessee Tech

Former Nolensville star Tim Coutras is hoping for a better outcome at Tennessee Tech this season.

The Golden Eagles free safety was named a preseason All-American in July for the second straight year.

“I had the same preseason honor last year and I didn’t get the postseason All-American award, so that kind of ate me up,” Coutras tells the Williamson Scene. “So hopefully this year I can follow my season with All-American afterward rather than it just be a preseason award.”

Coutras is the quarterback of the defense as he gets his teammates lined up in the right spots.

“This will be the second year that he’s a captain, and he’s very deserving of the preseason recognition that he is receiving right now,” Tennessee Tech football head coach Bobby Wilder says.

Coutras was voted the preseason defensive player of the year in the Ohio Valley/Big South Conference and was one of 30 players named to the preseason watchlist for the Buck Buchanan Award, given annually to the top defender at the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) level. 

“Well, number one, he’s one of the top players in the country at the safety position,” Wilder says. “He’s fast both mentally and physically. He’s got elite talent and a great knowledge of our defensive scheme.”

Tech ranked first in the conference on defense last season. The Golden Eagles’ 4-2-5 defense was first in fewest points allowed (21.8 points per game), total yards per game (330.4) and rushing yards per game (82.9).

“I think we’ll take major steps from last year,” Coutras says. “I think our goals as a team are to beat our in-state rivals, UT-Martin and Tennessee State, to win our conference championship and then go to the national championship.”

Vanderbilt's FirstBank Stadium will host the FCS Championship, which takes place in early January, for the next two seasons.

Tech was named the preseason favorite to win a conference title, finishing one point ahead of UT-Martin in a poll of the league coaches.

“Our goal is to be better on defense than we were last year,” Wilder says. “Keep people out of the end zone, create a lot of havoc plays, a lot of negative yardage runs, a lot of sacks, turnovers.”

Tech returns seven starters on defense and brought in some talent from the transfer portal. The Eagles’ mindset on defense is to be the hunter and not the hunted.

“We were almost like a junkyard dog,” Coutras says. “Just somebody that’s gonna go through the dirt and mud and get the job done and not complain about it. That was the type of defense that we were.”

The Golden Eagles (7-5) won their final five games last season after a slow start to earn a share of the conference title with Southeast Missouri (9-4), TSU (9-4) and UT-Martin (9-5), as each team finished with a 6-2 league record.

SEMO, TSU and UT-Martin all made the FCS playoffs, but Tech was left out.

“Very frustrating and it still is,” Coutras says. “I think it’s one of our big focal points coming into this year. There’s a lot of disrespect around Tennessee Tech and the past couple years of our football program, and it showed there in that selection process with us not being picked.”

Coutras vividly remembers watching the playoff selection show on ESPNU in November, waiting for Tech’s name to be called, but it never happened.

SEMO won the automatic bid based on crossover games, and TSU and UT-Martin earned at-large bids thanks, in part, to better overall records than Tech.

Still, it was a successful season for the Eagles, considering they were projected to finish seventh in the conference in the preseason poll.

Coutras had 59 tackles and three interceptions in 2024. He forced two fumbles and broke up eight passes.

He tries to play “fast, physical and fearless. Those are the words I tell myself before every game,” Coutras says. “...Just play 100 miles an hour.”

Football is a family tradition for the Coutrases. The Tech graduate’s grandfather, Nick, is a TSSAA Hall of Fame coach that led Overton to the 1981 Class AAA state title.

Coutras’ father, Chris, played cornerback at Overton and Cincinnati. His cousin, Nick Madonia, broke a school record at Tech with a 57-yard field goal against TSU in 2016.

“Football has been part of my life since I was born,” Coutras says. “Obviously, my grandfather was a legendary coach in Metro Nashville. Weekends were all football [at our house].”

Coutras started his college career at Liberty, where he was redshirted during his first season in 2021.

He transferred to Tech in 2023 after his redshirt freshman season at Liberty.

“I really wanted to come back home and play in the state of Tennessee,” Coutras says. “One of my best friends played at Tennessee Tech. His name is Dan Rickert. He just transferred to Virginia. I played at Nolensville with Dan.”

Coutras was concerned about getting more playing time and didn’t believe the Liberty coaches thought he could play at the Division I level.

“I had to really look in the mirror and say, ‘Is this transfer portal thing the right thing to do for me and my career,’ ” Coutras says. “And it turns out, it was the right move for me.”

He suffered an ACL injury late in his senior year at Nolensville, forcing him to miss the 2020 college season.

Coutras hopes to go into coaching and work in an NFL front office once his playing days are over.

“We had a scout here today from the Denver Broncos that was watching him practice, so he’s certainly somebody that the NFL and the other leagues will take a good look at based on his performance this year,” Wilder says. “He’s as talented as anybody that I’ve coached in the back end throughout my time, and what makes him an exceptional player is the fact that he’s a very smart football player, so he processes information quickly.”

Tech opens its season Aug. 30 against Cumberland in Cookeville

Coutras also played point guard and power forward in basketball and outfield in baseball while at Nolensville.

“Basketball was my first love,” Coutras says. “I wanted to go pro at basketball. Well, I realized being 6-1 wasn’t going to get me very far in the basketball world, and I started getting a lot better at football once I started growing into my body.”

Coutras won the Class 4A Mr. Football award during his senior year at Nolensville in 2019.

“He was just a very dynamic player on both sides of the ball,” says Paul Derrick, who coached Coutras at Nolensville. “His junior year, I believe he had eight interceptions at corner, and then we moved him to safety his senior year and he ended up having eight interceptions that year as well. He was a phenomenal player.”

A four-year starter at Nolensville, Coutras recorded 20 career interceptions, five of which he returned for touchdowns. He had 175 tackles, and, on offense, he tallied more than 2,000 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns.

Coutras led the Knights to the Class 4A semifinals in his senior year.

“I remember against Lincoln County one year off of his film study, he knew the set that they were in and what they liked to do to his side, and he jumped a slant route and returned it for a touchdown,” Derrick says.

“That Lincoln County play stands out because when he came off the field, he told me, ‘I saw it on film.’ He works at it, and that, combined with his instincts and high football IQ, has put him in a position where he can be the preseason (defensive) player of the year.”