Cornelius Ingram Talks Gators and Hawthorne Football

Hawthorne football head coach and former Gators tight end Cornelius Ingram joined Steve Russell on SportScene to discuss his time at Florida and Hawthorne.

Time at Florida

With fond memories of his time in the program from 2005, to his injured senior season in 2008. Ingram spoke about legendary head coach Urban Meyer. Winning a pair of national titles in 2006 and 2008, he was 5-1 in bowl games and also coached quarterback Tim Tebow to a Heisman Trophy in 2007.

Ingram had only good things to say about the former head ball coach. Despite his change of position from quarterback to tight end his sophomore year, he said that Meyer was very supportive.

Meyer’s practices during his tenure at Florida have been known to be grueling. They were given the name, “Bloody Tuesday.” But many players, including Ingram, remember them as a foundational way that Meyer shaped that generation of Gators. Ingram recalled these exhausting efforts as well as the other principals to Meyer’s success.

Untold: Swamp Kings

When approached about the new releasing Netflix documentary, “Untold: Swamp Kings”, Ingram turned down the offer. He did not want to promote any negativity on someone whom he still looks up to.

Success at Hawthorne

When transitioning from the NFL to coaching, Ingram landed at Hawthorne. Out of everything he could remember, Ingram said after a few years of no contact, Meyer might have been the first to reach out to him on his success.

After his talk with Meyer, he had many takeaways going into his first coaching season for high school football. One piece of advice being, just be the head coach. Let your other coaches run the offense, run the defense.

Additionally, Ingram provided updates on the pre-season at Hawthorne.  After two consecutive losses in the state championship, the Hawthorne Hornets won the state championship in their 2023 season. This summer when summer workouts began, Ingram wanted to make sure his team knew what a championship from last season would mean going forward.

He said his team probably thought he was crazy with the amount of yelling he was doing in the weight room. He was trying to tell his team that it doesn’t matter what happed last season, they cannot think it will be a repeat.

Looking to the start of this next season, Ingram had one last thing to say about his Hornets. A repeat is hard, he said, a lot of process goes into a season. He stressed the importance of remaining humble and working hard.