Miami Northwestern fires coach Max Edwards after eight years and three state titles
Max Edwards led Northwestern back to national prominence with three state championships in eight seasons, but now the Bulls are moving on and searching for a replacement.
Northwestern fired Edwards on Tuesday, he told the Miami Herald. The decision comes just three years after Edwards led the Bulls to a third straight state title and on the heels of a seventh straight postseason appearance.
Northwestern, however, has eternally high expectations and the Bulls haven’t been to a state championship since they won the Class 5A title in 2019, losing to an eventual state champion in each of the last three years: Plantation American Heritage in the Region 4-5A quarterfinals in 2020, Tampa Jesuit in the 5A semifinals in 2021 and Miami Central in the Region 4-Class 2M semifinals last year.
“We thanked him for his services and his commitment to the Miami Northwestern football program,” athletic director Andre Williams said. “The school just decided to go in a different direction. I don’t want to get into details about that. The principal decided to go in a different direction.”
The job has already been posted and the school is “looking to see what candidates put their name in the hat,” Williams said.
The Bulls and Edwards have had an uneasy relationship in the past, in spite of his success in Miami.
In 2017, Edwards led Nortwestern to a Class 6A championship, ending a 10-year state-title drought, and yet it only bought him so much of a leash.
A year later, the Bulls had a losing record with two games left in the regular season and, with Northwestern playoff hopes in jeopardy, rumors swirled about Northwestern’s intentions to fire Edwards at the end of the season. While Edwards and the administration both denied a decision was ever made about the coach’s future then, the specter of finality sparked a turnaround and the Bulls finished the year with seven straight wins to repeat as state champions.
The Bulls completed their three-peat in 2019 with star quarterback Taron Dickens as a freshman, but were never able to again replicate their success. In the same time period, neighborhood-rival Central has blossomed into one of the best programs in the nation, winning its fourth straight state championship last season and its first national title, according to NationalHSFB.com.
A few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic began and school briefly suspended Edwards as part of an investigation into unauthorized practices occurring when schools were shut down. He was reinstated about a month later and coached the entire season, although without matching the extraordinary success he had at the end of the 2010s.
Before he was Bulls’ coach, Edwards spent five years as the Rockets’ defensive coordinator as was Northwestern’s defensive coordinator for seven years before that. He also has coached at Booker T. Washington and Jackson, his alma mater.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 6:05 PM.
