Bumper got bumped up on St. Aloysius’ depth chart.

Michael “Bumper” Brogdon, who spent last season as St. Al’s defensive coordinator, has been promoted to head football coach, the school announced Friday. He’ll succeed Walker Mosby, who announced in March that he is leaving the school after one season to be closer to his family in East Mississippi.

“To be honest, I am real excited. But it’s not been a lifelong ambition to be a head coach,” Brogdon said. “Everywhere I ever worked it’s been as an assistant. I was always content in that, but when the opportunity came (to be a head coach) I was excited about it.”

Brogdon is a Warren County native who graduated from Warren Central in 1993, and he later spent a decade on Warren Central’s football coaching staff as an assistant from 2000 to 2009. He left coaching for nine years for a job at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant, then returned in 2018 as an assistant with Germantown High School.

A second stint at Warren Central followed from 2019 to 2021, followed by a return to Grand Gulf, one year with Central Hinds Academy, and then on to St. Al in 2024. He now teaches health and physical education at St. Al and his son Beau is a junior tight end on the football team.

Altogether, Bumper Brogdon has coached football at the junior high and high school levels for 15 of the last 25 years.

“Coaching is like a calling. It’s like being a preacher. Something just keeps pulling you back,” he said.

St. Al principal Dawn Meeks said she was happy to have Brogdon on the staff and in his new role.

“This is a tremendous moment for our football program,” Meeks said. “We are excited to elevate Coach Brogdon to the head coach position. His leadership, dedication, and extensive knowledge of our team make him the perfect fit for continuing the success of the program. He has shown us in his time here that he is committed to not only developing great athletes but also building outstanding young men of character.”

With Brogdon running the defense, St. Al allowed 10 fewer points per game in 2024 than in 2023 and achieved several milestones. It snapped a school-record 23-game losing streak with a 19-6 win over Clinton Christian, reached the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and earned its first playoff victory since 2015 as it finished 3-9.

The Flashes beat Winston Academy 33-27 in five overtimes in the first round of the MAIS Class 5A playoffs. The game was scoreless through the end of regulation.

St. Al will have nearly a dozen starters returning in 2025, including many who have been with the varsity team for two or three seasons.

“I know we’re going to have a senior bunch that’s about a dozen, and those kids have played a lot of football,” Brogdon said.

Down the road, Brogdon added, are some larger classes who should percolate up to the varsity level over the next year or two. He said that indicates a brighter future for a program that has struggled for the first part of this decade. St. Al’s last winning season was in 2018.

“When you get to the eighth- and ninth-grade they have a lot of players that will be really good, and there are good numbers there,” Brogdon said. “The fact our larger numbers are in the lower levels is good for the program.”

Mosby is staying at St. Al through the end of the school year, but Brogdon’s promotion is effective immediately. Brogdon wasn’t sure if there would be a spring practice period because so many players are still busy with other  sports. There will not be a spring game even if he’s able to pull them over to football once baseball and track season are over.

Brogdon said his primary focus will instead shift straight to the summer program in June and July. St. Al’s 2025 season opener is Aug. 22 against Discovery Christian.

“We’ve just got to focus on us,” Brogdon said. “For the next few months we’ve got to get ready to play in that game that’s going to count.”