PORT GIBSON — Having been involved in one of the most notorious recruiting scandals of the decade, Lynn Lang was hoping for a second chance.

Port Gibson has given one to Lang, the former football coach at Trezevant High School in Memphis, and he wants to make the most of it.

“How grateful am I to get this second chance? More grateful than you can imagine,” Lang said Thursday from his office at Port Gibson High School.

Lang had already served one year at the high school as principal. But what he really wanted was another shot at coaching high school football.

In 2001, Lang was accused of selling Albert Means, then rated one of the nation’s top defensive tackles, to the highest bidder during the 2000 season. A major recruiting battle broke out between several Southeastern Conference schools with Alabama and Tennessee taking center stage.

“I got caught up in that Alabama-Tennessee war. It was that intense. I mean, Phillip Fulmer wouldn’t even attend the SEC media day because he was afraid they would serve him papers,” Lang said about the former Vols coach, who was forced out last year.

The aftermath left Lang with a tattered reputation in Memphis after he pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge for accepting $150,000 for steering Means to Alabama. He was sentenced to two years’ supervised probation and 500 hours of community service and was also fined $2,500.

In 2002, Alabama was placed on probation for five years and had its football scholarships reduced by 21 over three years.

For his actions, Lang was banned from coaching in Tennessee. Mississippi, however, proved to be another story and Lang took the chance, meeting face-to-face with Mississippi High School Activities Association Executive Director Ennis Proctor, who issued this statement regarding Lang’s approval to coach again.

“The Claiborne County superintendent talked to me before she hired Coach Lang. He has been working in their district in an administrative role, and they have been very pleased with his job performance. The hiring of personnel is a decision for local school administrators and the local school boards, but they seem to feel that Coach Lang learned from his previous experience,” Proctor said in his statement. “Certainly I accept that we are all human and make mistakes. I wish Coach Lang and Port Gibson High School a successful school year.”

Lang explained to Proctor that he was a different coach and a different man from his Memphis days.

“I think he understood that I was a young head coach, only 23, 24 when I started at Trezevant,” Lang said. “Back then, I was all about me. The Lynn Lang of 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 is not the Lynn Lang of today. I really think my experience can help kids. And that’s what I’m about now, helping kids and providing a father figure in their life.

“I can show them the experience I had and I believe they will listen to what I have to say — how to avoid those pitfalls. I can really tell them all about that,” Lang said.

While being a principal for a year had its rewards, Lang got the break he wanted in May when last year’s Blue Waves coach, Willie Brown, resigned to take the athletic director position at South Pike.

“I’m back in my element,” Lang said. “I really think we can turn things around and can do it this year.”

That may prove to be a tough chore. Port Gibson has won just one game over the past two seasons, making it arguably the weakest football program in Mississippi at the Class 4A level and above.

The school has good facilities. The Blue Waves play in a 4,000-seat stadium with a hybrid Bermuda-sodded playing field.

“It starts with building a foundation,” Lang said. “We want to get the kids excited about football. We want to fill up that stadium. The school district spent well over $25,000 getting our field in shape.”

While Trezevant, one of the Memphis inner city schools, may not have had great facilities, they had a lot of football talent.

“I was at Trezevant for seven years and I can say, rightly so, we have as much talent here at Port Gibson,” Lang said. “It’s my job to motivate them, give them a positive attitude and get them to care about themselves and their teammates.

“And then we can take it a step farther. I want to run with the big dogs.”

At Trezevant, he did just that. In seven years overall and four as the head coach, he went 36-16.

His 1998 team, which included Means as the nation’s top defensive lineman, opened the door for Lang to rub elbows with some of college football’s elite coaches.

“I had some talented teams and the big time college coaches were coming to Trezevant. Several times I was in Nick Saban’s house. The same thing with Lloyd Carr at Michigan, Mack Brown at Texas and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma,” Lang said.

“The best thing about meeting those coaches was to see how they ran their programs. The drills I have run this summer and again this coming fall are the drills Nick Saban uses,” Lang said.

While Lang has kept many of the drills and X’s and O’s from his high-profile days at Trezevant, his days as a middle man in the recruiting wars are behind him.

“I really haven’t kept up with what has gone on in the SEC these days,” Lang said.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com