By Bill Vilona
GoArgos.com senior writer 
 
Kaleb Nobles admits his anxiety for this moment has become the biggest emotional challenge. 

"I hate waiting around," he said. "Ask my wife (Katy). She knows. I'm very anxious. I do not like waiting."

The time is now. The wait is over. 

Nearly seven years to the day that Nobles took the first snap at quarterback in UWF's first-ever game, then delivered a historic first win, he begins the Argos' new era Friday as a first-year head coach with a program that he helped build into a renown brand in NCAA Division II football.

Even fairytales don't have this good of an opening script.

The Argos, ranked No. 7 in the American Football Coaches Association poll, will kick off the 2023 season at 6 p.m. against Kentucky Wesleyan at refurbished Pen Air Field with its new Astroturf playing surface. It's the second Friday-night game in team history and part of five days of games across college football on Labor Day weekend. There are just 20 games across all three NCAA divisions on Friday.

Nobles, 29, believed to be the second-youngest NCAA level head coach, has gone from playmaker to play-caller at UWF and team decision-maker.

He was hired in mid-December, after Pete Shinnick accepted an offer to be head coach at Towson, which opens its season this weekend against neighboring rival Maryland. Nobles spent the past two years at Clemson as the team's offensive player development specialist.

Prior to that, Nobles had a variety of roles in a fast-rising coaching apprenticeship at UWF under Shinnick.

"I love what he has done with his staff and I'm excited about what (coaches) are going to be able to do to put their mark on this era of UWF football," Shinnick said. "I am excited for Kaleb, excited to watch and pulling for him to have great success. 

"I think Kaleb understands the area, understands Florida high school football, understands the Gulf South Conference. He's been in the GSC as a player, then as a coach, so he has a great handle on what this job requires."

Helping smooth the transition are a mass of returning players, led by quarterback Peewee Jarrett, a Des Moines, Iowa native, who threw for 2,719 yards across 14 games in 2022 with 33 touchdown. Jarrett arrived at UWF after being a first-team National Junior College All-American in 2021 at Iowa Central.

There was an instant connection between Nobles and Jarrett. Nobles transferred to UWF from Valdosta State, after gaining an extra year of college eligibility. He then passed for more than 3,058 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2016 for UWF -- his final college season.

Jarrett has seen Nobles' personality come through in strategy.

"He is aggressive," said Jarrett, who dual-threat skills as a runner and his arm strength have attracted NFL scouts. "We practice hard. We practice ones versus ones every day (during preseason). He wants us to be better. He knows our performance can always be better. 

"And that is just something that I love being coached by him, because nothing is ever good enough for him. It just makes us to be a better player every day."
In turn, Nobles has been pleased by how the towering 6-foot-4 Jarrett has taken a vocal leadership role on the team, just as Nobles did in that inaugural 2016 season. 

"Last year it sounds like he really wanted to earn his role as a leader which he did," Nobles said. "This year, he's already earned it. He has already taken a team to the national semifinals. Your voice carries weight now. 

"He knows it's important to be a leader, not just with his play, but also with his voice. He has stepped up to take that role and I challenge him a lot."

The path into coaching is something Nobles began to set during that special 2016 season at UWF. His father, Buddy Nobles, was an ultra-successful high school coach in south Georgia where Nobles grew up, and formerly in Jacksonville, where he won a combined six state titles at Jacksonville-University Christian and Union County High in Lake Butler, near Jacksonville.

The elder Nobles passed away in 2020 at age 53 from cancer.

Kaleb was coached by his father. He learned his father's coaching traits and desired to follow him into coaching. 

"It became very apparent that his dad had done an amazing job educating him and he had done a great job learning what the coaching process is all about," said Shinnick, whose father, Don Shinnick, a former star NFL linebacker, worked as assistant coach under NFL coaching legends Don Shula with the Baltimore Colts and later with John Madden with the Oakland Raiders. 

"Kaleb goes from starting quarterback to GA (graduate assistant) to position coach, to offensive coordinator and now to be a head coach," Pete Shinnick said. "Credit him for taking advantage of every opportunity put in front of him. "

"You have to be yourself. You have to do things the way you feel comfortable and I think he will do that extremely well. I think Kaleb has an advantage over so many other young coaches in that he saw his dad do it for so long. 

"Part of being a head coach is there are things you don't know until you know. So you have go through it and you have to experience it."

UWF athletic director Dave Scott moved quickly after Shinnick first let him know in early December of a potential opportunity to take over at Towson. When it became official, the Argos announced within days that Nobles would be the next coach.

The youngest NCAA head football coach is Kris McCullough, 27, at the University of Texas-Permian Basin, a member of the D-2 Lone Star Conference. McCullough turns 28 in October. 

Nobles has distinction of helping lead UWF as a player into its first season, then being part of the coaching staff when UWF made historic runs to the 2017 national title game and became the fastest startup program in 2019 to win a national title.

This preseason, he's navigated the team through record hot temperatures the entire month of August. In Division II, there's only a three-week period from first practice to first game. Nobles is ready for the season to start. 

"The worst time for me is Thursday to Saturday, because the hay is in the barn (preparation complete) and I can't do anything else," he said. "I have to be there for walk-throughs and all that, and that is kind of where I am right now. I know we have done a lot of good prep for this game. 

"These guys (UWF players) don't really know what they are going to see in the first couple games. But I am very anxious. I am ready to go. I know our team is ready to play someone else and I think every team in the country can say the same thing. 

"It has been a long time since December, so I am ready to get on the field and be able to showcase to the city of Pensacola what we have and the kind of team it is."

Following the final scrimmage on Fan Day at Pen Air Field, Nobles surprised the players by having a ring ceremony for the 2022 GSC championship – the first time UWF won the conference trophy. 

He had tables arranged for each position group. He had everyone eligible for a ring wait until all the groups were in place before opening the boxes. 

"It gives those guys a chance to be recognized in the public for what they earned," Nobles said. "To get the Gulf South Conference championship is awesome. And I'm just excited they get to be recognized in public for it."

He told the players: "There are a lot of memories that go along with this. So, guys, you earned this. Be proud of this. This is something that no one can take away from you.

"Now, we all know what the next goal is, right? The big one. I want a big ring. Not this one."

Nobles is eager to start that trek.